Our Programs
Meeting the people we serve where they are.
Food Bank for the Heartland works with 544 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 2022, we distributed more than 26.6 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.
BackPack Program
1 in 7 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 school year, 8,381 packs—equaling 33,524 meals—of easy-to-prepare or ready-to-eat nutritious food are distributed to children in 253 schools in 112 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 Lea Franck.
View a list of schools participating in the BackPack program.
Interested in supporting our BackPack Program? Contact our Development Team.
Right now, thanks to the generosity of the Woodhouse Auto Family, your gift will be matched—dollar for dollar—up to $250,000 providing TWICE as many BackPack meals! Click here to make 2X the impact.
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 2022, the Food Bank hosted 376 mobile pantries in 48 counties, distributing more than 3.2 million meals and helping 64,435 Heartland households.
If you are a network partner or community organization wishing to host a mobile pantry, please contact Lea Franck.
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 at-risk children and serves evening meals to children in partnership with organizations that offer a safe environment after school and during the summer months. The Food Bank provided a total of 29,464 meals during the FY 2022 program year. We provided an average of 1,580 meals each week to 13 sites around the Omaha metro area as part of the Kids Café After School Program, and an additional 2,546 meals each week to 7 sites during the Kids Café Summer Feeding Program.
The Food Bank works with the following organizations to provide Kids Café locations:
- All Saint Catholic Church/Completely Kids
- Boys and Girls Club Council Bluffs
- Completely Kids St Mary’s
- Hope Center for Kids
- Lydia House
- North Star
- Salvation Army North Corps.
- St Luke’s Teen Center
- Girls Inc. – Emma Lozier Center
- Girls Inc. – Katherine Fletcher Center
- Upward Bound City light
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 8,645 applications in Nebraska and 12,149 applications in Iowa in FY 2022. The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) estimates that $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.79 in economic activity at local retailers.
Interested in supporting our SNAP Outreach Program? Contact our Development Team.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider. View the full USDA Nondiscrimination Statement here.
