“We knew we needed to source nutritious shelf-stable items that we could prepackage, build, and ship to our mobile distributions or pantries. Then the volunteers could just hand those out, even just put them in the back of cars without people getting out,” Oliver says. “That’s why the support of partners who came to the table to help us purchase all of the shelf-stable food at once was such a game changer. It immediately met a need that we had in this unprecedented moment.”
The food banks hope to distribute 100,000 of the prepackaged food boxes — or 1.5 million meals — by the end of the year, Oliver says. Weighing about 20 pounds, each box is filled with shelf-stable foods and can provide three meals a day for five days, or 15 nutritious meals. The boxes are intended for families and individuals of all ages, from children to older adults — but when it comes to seniors, who are generally the most at-risk of having serious complications from COVID-19, the food boxes could be literal lifesavers.