Азық-түлік банкі және мұқтаждарға көмек көрсету

Non profit, charitable organization that gives out food

A food bank is a non profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food directly with their food pantries. St. Mary's Food Bank was the world's first food bank, established in the US in 1967. Since then, many thousands have been set up all over the world. In Europe, their numbers grew rapidly after the global increase in the price of food which began in late 2006, and especially after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 began to worsen economic conditions for those on low incomes. Likewise, the inflation and economic crisis of the 2020s has exponentially driven low and even some middle income class consumers to at least partially get their food

The growth of food banks has been welcomed by commentators who see them as examples of active, caring citizenship. Other academics and commentators have expressed concern that the rise of food banks may erode political support for welfare provision. Researchers have reported that in some cases food banks can be inefficient compared with state run welfare.

With thousands of food banks operating around the world, there are many different models. In the US, Australia and to an extent in Canada, the standard model is for food banks to act as warehouses rather than as suppliers to the end user, though there are exceptions. In other countries, food banks usually hand out food parcels direct to hungry people, providing the service that in the US is offered by food pantries. Another distinction is between the charity model and the labor union model. At least in Canada and the US, food banks run by charities often place relatively more weight on the salvaging of food that would otherwise go to waste, and on encouraging voluntarism, whereas those run by unions can place greater emphasis on feeding the hungry by any means available, on providing work for the unemployed, and on education, especially on explaining to users their civil rights. In the US, cities will often have a single food bank that acts as a centralized warehouse and will serve several hundred front line agencies. Like a blood bank, that warehouse serves as a single collection and distribution point for food donations. A food bank operates a lot like a for profit food distributor, but in this case, it distributes food to charities, not to food retailers. There is often no charge to the charities, but some food banks do charge a small "shared maintenance" fee to help defray the cost of storage and distribution. For many US food banks, most of their donated food comes from food left over from the normal processes of for profit companies. It can come from any part of the food chain, e. g. from growers who have produced too much or whose food is not sufficiently visually appealing; from manufacturers who overproduced; or from retailers who over ordered. Often the product is approaching or past its "sell by" date. In such cases, the food bank liaises with the food industry and with regulators to make sure the food is safe and legal to distribute and eat. Other sources of food include the general public, sometimes in the form of "food drives", and government programs that buy and distribute excess farm products mostly to help support higher commodity prices. Food banks can also buy food either at market prices or from wholesalers and retailers at discounted prices, often at a cost. Sometimes farmers will allow food banks to send gleaners to salvage leftover crops for free once their primary harvest is complete. A few food banks have even taken over their farms, though such initiatives have not always been successful. Many food banks do not accept fresh produce, preferring canned or packaged food due to health and safety concerns, though some have tried to change this as part of a growing worldwide awareness of the importance of nutrition. As an example, in 2012, London Food Bank (Canada) started accepting perishable food, reporting that as well as the obvious health benefits, there were noticeable emotional benefits to recipients when they were given fresh food. Summer can be a challenging time for food banks, particularly in regions where school children are usually given regular free meals during term time. Spikes in demand can coincide with periods where donations fall due to folk being on holiday.

The world's first food bank was St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, founded by John van Hengel in 1967. By the mid sixties, several states had ended the free distribution of federal food surpluses, instead providing an early form of food stamps which had the benefit of allowing recipients to choose food of their liking, rather than having to accept whatever happened to be in surplus at the time. However, there was a minimum charge and some people could not afford the stamps, leading to severe hunger. the first food bank was created with the help of St. Mary's Basilica, which became the namesake of the organization. Food banks spread across the United States, and Canada. By 1976, van Hengel had established the organization known today as Feeding America. As of the early 21st century, their network of over 200 food banks provides support for 90,000 projects. Other large networks exist such as AmpleHarvest. org, created by CNN Hero and World Food Prize nominee Gary Oppenheimer which lists nearly 9,000 food pantries (1 out of every 4 in America) across all 50 states that are eager to receive surplus locally grown garden produce from any of America's 62 million home or community gardeners. In the 1980s, U. S. food banks began to grow rapidly. A second response to the "rediscovery" of hunger in the mid sixties had been extensive lobbying of politicians to improve welfare. Until the 1980s, this approach had a greater impact. Poppendieck says that for the first few years after the change, there was vigorous opposition from the left, who argued that state welfare was much more suitable for meeting recipients needs. But in the decades that followed, food banks have become an accepted part of America's response to hunger. In Canada, foodbanks underwent a period of rapid growth after the cutbacks in welfare that took place in the mid 1990s.

Some U. S. cities have organizations that provide dog and cat food for pets whose owners qualify for food assistance. For example, Daffy's Pet Soup Kitchen in Lawrenceville, Georgia is considered the largest pet food aid agency in Georgia, distributing over 800,000 pounds of dog and cat food in 2012. Daffy's Pet Soup Kitchen was started in 1997 by Tom Wargo, a repairman who was working in an elderly woman's home when he noticed her sharing her Meals On Wheels lunch with her pet cat because she could not afford cat food. On campus food pantries were available at 70% of State University of New York locations by 2019.

Following the financial crisis of 2007–08, and the lasting inflation in the price of food that began in late 2006, there has been a further increase in the number of individuals requesting help from American and Canadian food banks. By 2012, according to Food Banks Canada, over 850,000 Canadians needed help from a food bank each month. For the United States, Gleaners Indiana Food bank reported in 2012 that there were then 50  million Americans struggling with food insecurity (about 1 in 6 of the population), with the number of individuals seeking help from food banks having increased by 46% since 2005. According to a 2012 UCLA Center for Health Policy Research study, there has been a 40% increase in demand for Californian food banks since 2008, with married couples who both work sometimes requiring the aid of food banks. Dave Krepcho, Director of the Second Harvest Food Bank in Orlando, has said that college educated professional couples have begun to turn to food pantries. By mid 2012, US food banks had expressed concerns about the expected difficulty in feeding the hungry over the coming months. Rapidly rising demand has been coinciding with higher food prices and with a decrease in donations, partly as the food industry is becoming more efficient and so has less mislabelled and other slightly defective food to give away. Also, there has been less surplus federal food on offer. Additionally, there have been recent decreases in government funding, and Congress has been debating possible further cuts, including potentially billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamp program). In September 2012, Feeding America launched Hunger Action Month, with events planned all over the nation. Food banks and other agencies involved hoped to raise awareness that about one in six Americans are struggling with hunger and to get more Americans involved in helping out.

The COVID 19 outbreak impacted European food banks since value chains were notably disrupted and food banks lacked the support of volunteers. Compared to 2019, the amount of food distributed increased in 2020. Possibly through an increase in people in need. At the same time, the deliveries of shelf stable food decreased by 20% due to panic shopping/Hoarding, especially at the beginning of the crisis.

The first European food bank was opened in France in 1984. By October 2014, Spain had 55 food banks in total, with the number who depend on them having increased to 1.5  million. In Belgium, food banks helped about 121,000 people in 2012. That was an increase of about 4,500 compared with 2011, the biggest increase since the start of the 2008 crisis. Belgian food banks account for about 65% of all food aid given out within the country. The number of food banks has increased rapidly in Germany, a country that weathered the crisis relatively well, and did not implement severe austerity measures. In 2012, professor Sabine Pfeiffer of Munich University of Applied Sciences said there has been an "explosion" of food bank usage.

As of 2013, there were over 900 food banks in Germany, up from just 1 in 1993. In 2014, 1.5 million people a week used food banks in Germany.

In total, around 3.5  million people rely on food banks in France. One provider, the Banque Alimentaire has over 100 branches in France, serving 200  a million meals a year to 1.85  million people.

Several Asian places have begun to use food banks; these include Nepal, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

The first food bank in Hong Kong is Feeding Hong Kong, which was founded in 2009. Food Angel is also a food bank in Hong Kong as well as the Foodlink Foundation.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Japan, the number of such organizations stood at 178 in the FY2022 through March, marking a significant increase from the 120 seen two years earlier. As of 2022, there was at least one food bank organization in every prefecture in Japan. The importance of food banks has become more recognized during the Covid 19 pandemic.

The Egyptian Food Bank was established in Cairo in 2006, and less than ten years later, food banks run on similar principles spread to other Arab countries in North Africa and the Middle East. In Sub Saharan Africa, there are charity run food banks that operate on a semi commercial system that differs from both the more common "warehouse" and "frontline" models. In some rural LDCs such as Malawi, food is often relatively cheap and plentiful for the first few months after the harvest but then becomes more and more expensive. Food banks in those areas can buy large amounts of food shortly after the harvest, and then as food prices start to rise, they sell it back to local people throughout the year at well below market prices. Such food banks will sometimes also act as centres to provide smallholders and subsistence farmers with various forms of support. Formed in 2009, Food Bank South Africa (Food Bank SA) is South Africa's national food banking network and a member of The Global Food Banking Network. Food Bank South Africa's vision is "A South Africa without hunger and malnutrition".

Since the 1980s food banking has spread around the world. There are over 40 countries and regions with active food bank groups under the umbrella of The Global Food Banking Network. Countries and regions in the international network include Australia, Israel, Turkey, Russia, India, Taiwan, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the UK. There are also several countries with food banks which have not yet joined the network, either because they do not yet meet the required criteria or they have not applied.

Food banking and related models have been proposed as a key solution to the reduction greenhouse gas emissions. Around 8% of total emissions are due to food loss and waste. Through food rescue programs, food banks help reduce emissions by ensuring the productive use of energy involved in the production of food and by diverting food away from landfills, where it would have spoiled and generated methane and other greenhouse gasses. One estimate puts the greenhouse gas avoidance from food banks at more than 1.7 million tons in 2021.

The rise of food banks has been "broadly welcomed". For it is said that "not only do they provide a solution to the problem of hunger that does not require resources from the state", but they can be viewed "as evidence of increasing community spirit and of active, caring citizenship". In the UK for example, Patrick Butler, society editor for The Guardian, has said that:

"Many politicians and campaigners are fascinated by the possibilities of food banks. After the initial shock that "things have come to this" there is, on the left of the political spectrum, a nervous excitement about the potential for community self help. On the right, there is outright enthusiasm for what is seen as "big society" welfare in its purest form." There has also been concern expressed about food banks by some researchers and politicians. Drawing on the United States's experience after the rapid rise of food banks in the 1980s, American Sociology Professor Janet Poppendieck warned that the rise of food banks can contribute to the long term erosion of human rights and support for welfare systems. Once food banks become well established, it can be politically impossible to return responsibility for meeting the needs of hungry people to the state. Poppendieck says that the logistics of running food banks can be so demanding that they prevent kind hearted people from having time to participate in public policy advocacy; yet she also says if they can be encouraged to lobby politicians for long term changes, that would help those on a low income. They often have considerable credibility with legislators. As of 2012, senior US food bank staff members have "expressed a preference" to remain politically neutral/refused to take a stand, which political activists have suggested may relate to their sources of funding/political pressure. The emergence of "Little Free Food Pantries" and "Blessing Boxes", modelled on the "Little Free Libraries" boxes, has been criticized as feel good local philanthropy which is too small to make a significant impact on hunger, for its lack of access to fresh foods, for food safety concerns, and as a public relations effort by Tyson Foods, which seeks to cut federal SNAP food assistance in the US. Rachel Loopstra from University of Toronto has said food banks are often inefficient, unreliable and unable to supply nutritional food. She said a survey in Toronto found that only 1 in 5 families suffering from food insecurity would turn to food banks, in part because there is a stigma associated with having to do so. Other criticism expresses alarm at "transnational corporate food banking which construct[s] domestic hunger as a matter for charity, thereby allowing indifferent and austerity minded governments to ignore increasing poverty and food insecurity and their moral, legal and political obligations, under international law, to realize the right to food."