Our Programs
Meeting the people we serve where they are.
Food Bank for the Heartland works with nearly 500 Network Partners, including pantries, schools, churches, emergency shelters, and other non-profit organizations to supply emergency and supplemental food to children, families, seniors, and veterans in need. In FY 2026, we distributed 23.2 million meals across our service area. Our Network Partners play an integral role in our communities to assist those struggling with food insecurity throughout the Heartland.
School Pantry Program
The Food Bank is launching a new School Pantry Pilot Program, with a handful of schools in FY 2027 to help support the 1 in 5 children facing hunger across our service area.
This program allows the Food Bank to provide children with nutritious food throughout their school day. The pantries will also be available to school families, further expanding nutrition efforts to help our communities thrive. By making food available where families already gather, this program will help reduce transportation barriers and eliminate stigma, thereby improving the well-being, stability, and future of Heartland families.
The Food Bank will supply schools with nutritious food, training, and support. School staff, volunteers, and students will operate the school pantries, providing a familiar and accessible environment, while offering students and families emergency food assistance.
Interested in supporting our School Pantry Program? Contact our Development Team.
BackPack Program
1 in 5 children in the Food Bank’s 93-county service area is at-risk for hunger. The BackPack Program, a partnership with area schools, offers packs of weekend breakfasts and lunches to children. Each week during the ’25–’26 school year, 7,494 packs—equaling 29,976 meals—of easy-to-prepare or ready-to-eat nutritious food were distributed to children in 236 schools in 102 school districts in Nebraska and western Iowa. Each BackPack is assembled by Food Bank volunteers.
To learn more about becoming a participating school in the BackPack Program, please contact Spencer Cohorst.
Interested in supporting our BackPack Program? Contact our Development Team.
Mobile Pantry Program
The Mobile Pantry Program delivers fresh and shelf-stable food directly to communities with a high need but limited food resources. These one-day, drive-through distributions are free to attend. Community packs include various shelf-stable items. Along with community packs, other items distributed can include assorted produce, bread, and dairy products.
In FY 2026, the Food Bank hosted 386 mobile pantry events in 39 counties, distributing 67,138 household food kits equalling 1.7 million meals.
If you are a Network Partner or community organization wishing to host a mobile pantry, please contact Spencer Cohorst.
Interested in supporting our Mobile Pantry Program? Contact our Development Team.
Kids Café
Kids Café is one of the nation’s largest free-meal service programs for children—serving meals to kids in partnership with organizations that offer a safe environment after school and during the summer months. The Food Bank distributed a total of 97,927 meals during the FY 2026 program year. We provided an average of 1,950 meals each week to 11 sites around the Omaha metro area as part of the Kids Café After School Program, and an additional 2,707 meals each week to 7 sites during the Kids Café Summer Feeding Program.
For information on starting a Kids Café, please contact Allison Oberg.
Interested in supporting Kids Café? Contact our Development Team.
SNAP Outreach
Food Bank for the Heartland’s SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Outreach team helps families and individuals navigate the application process, understand program benefits, and access additional community resources. As an equal-opportunity provider, our team helped submit 3,692 applications in Nebraska and 12,004 applications in Iowa in FY 2026. The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) estimates that $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.80 in economic activity at local retailers.
Interested in supporting our SNAP Outreach Program? Contact our Development Team.
Program Reports
Links to our program reports can be found below. For additional reports and resources, click here.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider. View the full USDA Nondiscrimination Statement here.