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10 Food Banks You Can Easily Support When You Book Kind Hotels

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By Kate Eplboim  •  Posted on Feb 23, 2021

From overworked healthcare workers to mass unemployment, the pandemic has dealt a number of serious blows. Sadly, food insecure families are taking a direct hit. 

As the image of thousands waiting to receive free groceries from one of the many food banks around the country circulated, many were confronted with our nation’s immense hunger crisis. With an estimated 1 in 6 Americans facing hunger as a result of the coronavirus, food insecurity has become an epidemic in its own right. And for the 35 million Americans who already struggle with food insecurity, the pandemic has only made it that much harder to put food on the table.

We remain dedicated to the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with Global Goal 2 being Zero Hunger. As a result, we have partnered with a number of incredible organizations helping to end hunger. In these uncertain times, food banks have become a much-needed lifeline for millions of Americans. 

Give + Get with Kind Traveler: Travelers unlock exclusive rates and perks from Kind Hotels upon giving a $10 donation to a locally vetted charity that positively impacts the community visited, or to a charity of choice. 100% to charity. 

Travel Kindly: Read on to find 10 remarkable charities you can easily support that are working hard to end food insecurity in local communities.

 

 

1. North Coast Food Web

Local Community Impact: North Coast of Oregon 

Mission 

North Coast Food Web (NCFW) strives to cultivate healthy communities and a vibrant economy through food and agriculture.

How Do They Do It?

NCFW builds relationships within the community including ones with volunteers, schools, families, Oregon Food Bank and its local subsidiary, Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank, OSU Extension, local governments, and other non-profit groups. These collaborations have helped them educate and engage children, families, and communities by building the skills to grow food, increase access to local agriculture, develop cooking and nutrition skills and encourage citizen involvement in the development of a healthy food system. Additionally, NCFW supports new and existing farmers, provides resources for food system entrepreneurs to succeed and is actively engaged in the community and economic development in the region.

More specifically, NCFW helps with mission-driven community programs such as education and outreach, cooking classes, their small market farms day, fruit box programs for students, and their cultivation of local food and farmer resources including the publication of the farm guide.

What $10 Will Do
  • Provide organic fruit to local school students as a healthy, free snack option
  • Support weekly small farms market, 100% of proceeds go directly to local farmers

► Make a positive impact in the local Oregon and Washington coastal communities when you book Ashore Hotel, Adrift Hotel, or Inn at Discovery Coast or any Kind Hotel in coastal Oregon or Washington. 

2. Redwood Empire Food Bank

Local Community Impact: Sonoma County, California 

Mission

The Redwood Empire Food Bank hopes to end hunger in their community. They address ending hunger by having a robust, innovative and responsive emergency food system in place for anyone in need.

How Do They Do It?

Through planned giving, donations and volunteerism in an effort to effectively reach people struggling with food insecurity, the Redwood Empire Food Bank operates 11 innovative programs under three strategic hunger relief initiatives, those being Every Child-Every Day, Senior Security, and the Neighborhood Hunger Network.

Every Child Every Day ensures a healthy start in life by filling the meal gap for at-risk children with programs aimed at providing groceries and meals to families with children. Healthy food is strategically distributed at schools, public parks, after school programs, and in low-income neighborhood community gathering places so that children have access to adequate nutrition year-round.

Senior Security aids the 16,000 seniors that turn to the REFB for assistance. With monthly food boxes, weekly produce pantries, and supplemental healthy groceries, the Redwood Empire Food Bank provides aging neighbors access to the nutritious food needed to lead healthy, independent lives.

The Neighborhood Hunger Network improves the health and well-being of the local community with food and nutrition education to anyone in need of help.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide 20 nutritious meals to individuals in need

► Make a positive impact in the local Sonoma County community when you book Farmhouse Inn, Vintners Resort Sonoma County, or Hotel E, a Greystone Hotel or any Kind Hotel in Sonoma on Kind Traveler. 

3. Pike Place Market Foundation

Local Community Impact: Seattle, Washington 

Mission

Pike Place Market Foundation inspires collaboration, celebration, and support to nurture the people in the heart of Seattle. It aims to create and maintain a neighborhood model that allows a diverse community to live and thrive at Pike Place Market

How Do They Do It?

By granting a total of more than $30 million since 1982, the Market Foundation helps their most vulnerable neighbors seek housing, healthcare, healthy food, child care and community support in and around the Market. Over the past 36 years, the Foundation has partnered with up to 7 crucial community centers and services for its people. For one, Pike Market Senior Center was created as a warm, safe place for seniors to enjoy a hot meal. In 2016, it successfully moved 30 homeless seniors into permanent housing.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide 10 healthy meals to homeless and low-income seniors  
  • Provide a week of groceries for 3 families at Pike Market Food Bank
  • Provide Market Bucks to a low-income shopper for fresh, local produce while also supporting a local farmer 

► Make a positive impact in the local Seattle community when book Thompson Seattle or any Kind Hotel along the Washington Coast on Kind Traveler.

4. The Hunger Coalition

Local Community Impact: Sun Valley, Idaho 

Mission

The Hunger Coalition builds a healthy community through access to good food and addresses the root causes of food insecurity in collaboration with key partners. 

How Do They Do It?

Founded in 2003, the selfless and dedicated team of volunteers at Hunger Coalition first started by collecting and distributing food to families on a shoestring budget. Now, it has evolved into a critical community assistance organization, headquartered in Bellevue, allowing everyone who walks through their doors to have a dignified grocery experience. In 2013, they introduced Bloom Community Farm and Bloom Truck as launch pads for a stigma-free community.

By 2017, Hunger Coalition put in place Bloom Youth Project and Volunteer for Veggies with the goal to provide a more comprehensive solution to hunger inn Blaine County apart from the traditional food support programs. By the end of 2017, almost 20 percent of the local population grew, ate, and shared foods through their programs.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide healthy lunches + learning for children in the summer months
  • Provide good food + big smiles for a local family

► Make a positive impact in the local Sun Valley, Idaho, community with Hotel Ketchum.

5. SOME (So Others Might Eat) 

Local Community Impact: Washington, D.C. 

Mission

SOME (So Others Might Eat) is an interfaith community-based organization whose mission is to help the poor and homeless of our nation’s capital. SOME meets the immediate daily needs of people with food, clothing, and healthcare. SOME aims to break the cycle of homelessness by offering services, such as affordable housing, job training, addiction treatment, and counseling to the poor, the elderly, and individuals with mental illness. 

How Do They Do It?

SOME operates a continuum of services and programs that relieve suffering and allow homeless people to recover their independence categorized into three levels:

Emergency - Meals are offered twice daily, every day of the year. Showers and free clothing are offered every day of the year. Health services are offered including a medical clinic, eye care, dental care, and behavioral health services. Emergency housing is provided to abused senior citizens and to individuals in psychiatric crisis.

Rebuilding - the Center for Employment Training is a licensed, six month, industry specific job training program that prepares students to secure and retain jobs that pay a living wage. Mental Health Services includes a residential psychiatric stabilization program and socialization programs for adults. Addiction Treatment programs include a safe house, 90-day residential treatment program and transitional housing/job readiness programs.

Stability - including affordable housing for single adults, affordable housing for families, and elderly services including hot meals, transportation and socialization to an average of 25 low-income seniors each weekday.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide 6 nutritious meals for 6 people in need 
  • Provide a hungry individual or family with two bags of emergency groceries
  • Provide a student in job training a 1-week pass for transport to training + interviews

► Make a positive impact in the local Washington, D.C., community when you book Riggs Washington D.C. on Kind Traveler. 

6. DC Central Kitchen

Local Community Impact: Washington, D.C. 

Mission

DC Central Kitchen aims to develop and operate social ventures targeting the cycle of hunger and poverty.

How Do They Do It?

DC Central Kitchen fights hunger differently, by training jobless adults for culinary careers and then hiring dozens of their own graduates to prepare the 3 million meals they provide for homeless shelters, schools, and nonprofits each year. Their ventures also prevent the waste of millions of pounds of nutritious food, expand access to healthy, local options in urban food deserts, and scale their model nationally through strategic partnerships with colleges and universities.

By preparing adults with high barriers to employment for culinary careers and creating good, living-wage jobs for graduates at DC Central Kitchen, they target the root cause of hunger by offering pathways out of poverty. DCCK’s commitment to earning at least half their budget through social enterprise, purchasing directly from local farms, recovering otherwise-wasted food, and engaging the next generation of student leaders to further advance sustainability and extend their impact throughout the food system.

Each of DC Central Kitchen’s social ventures creates opportunities for meaningful careers, expands access to healthier foods and tests innovative solutions to systemic failures. Such ventures are: Culinary Job Training, providing community meals to local shelters and homeless, serving healthy school food to low income students, delivering healthy snacks and fresh produce to corner stores in DC’s food deserts, and the Campus Kitchen’s project which empowers the next generation to fight food waste and hunger on a national scale.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide 10 hot meals for those in need, prepared by formerly at-risk adults

► Make a positive impact in the local Washington, D.C., community when you book Riggs Washington D.C. on Kind Traveler. 

7. Second Harvest Food Bank

Local Community Impact: San Jose, California 

Mission

Second Harvest Food Bank’s mission is to ensure that every person who needs a meal can get one.

How Do They Do It?

One in 10 people in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties receive food from this Kind Charity. This process entails feeding one quarter of a million people every month through the distribution of nutritious foods from more than 850 sites. Such Kindness is made possible thanks to tireless volunteers working throughout its 330 partner organizations (such as soup kitchens, programs for children, senior meal sites, and more) dedicated to keeping the community happy and healthy.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide 20 nutritious meals

► Make a positive impact in the local San Jose, California, community when you book Hotel Valencia Santana Row on any Kind Hotel in the San Francisco/Bay Area on Kind Traveler. 

8. City Harvest

Local Community Impact: New York, New York

Mission

City Harvest strives to end hunger in communities throughout New York City.

How Do They Do It?

City Harvest’s fleet of 22 trucks is on the road 7 days a week rescuing food and delivering it to 500 soup kitchens, food pantries and other community food programs that hungry New Yorkers turn to.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Help feed 40 people
  • Help feed a person for over a month
  • Help City Harvest deliver 43 pounds of food

► Make a positive impact in the local community of New York, New York, when you book The Benjamin NYC or any Kind Hotel in NYC on Kind Traveler. 

9. New York Restoration Project

Local Community Impact: New York, New York 

Mission

Founded by Bette Midler, the mission of NYRP is to restore, maintain and provide programs for parks, gardens, and other open space in under-resourced New York City communities.

How Do They Do It?

With the help of volunteers, the community, and local partners, NYRP increases the value of green spaces by activating education, urban agriculture, arts and culture, and physical activity programs.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Help a garden member grow produce for one season

► Make a positive impact in the local New York, New York, community when you book any Kind Hotel in New York City on Kind Traveler. 

10. Feeding South Florida

Local Community Impact: South Florida

Mission

As a member of Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization, its mission is to end hunger in South Florida by providing immediate access to nutritious food, leading poverty and advocacy efforts, and transforming lives through innovative education.

How Do They Do It?

They distribute 44 million pounds of food annually, throughout Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties.

What $10 Will Do?
  • Provide 62 meals
  • Give a family of four full 3 meals per day for 5 days
  • Provide 75 pounds of nutritious and fresh fruits and vegetables
  • Give a person 2 meals a day for 1 month

► Make a positive impact in the local communites of South Florida when you book COMO Metropolitan Miami Beach, or any Kind Hotel in Miami on Kind Traveler. 

According to Feeding America, as much as 50 million Americans may suffer from food insecurity as a result of the pandemic. With so many struggling, now is the time to lean on each other for comfort and support. Food insecurity can be eradicated with your help. Make your next Kind getaway an opportunity to support local food banks when you book Kind Hotels on Kind Traveler. 

Kate Eplboim is a travel writer and graduate of UCLA who passionately studied Literature and the Environment. Over the last four years, she has cultivated her passion for travel, environmental journalism, and gardening. She is a native of Los Angeles.

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