By Blake Jackson
Tom Nardacci, CEO of New York State’s Regional Food Bank, believes farms will play a much larger role in fighting hunger as traditional food donation sources become more limited. While donated, rescued, and government-provided food remain important, Nardacci sees local agriculture as a long-term solution for expanding food access across the region.
The Albany-based food bank is now increasing its focus on sourcing products directly from farms. According to Nardacci, the organization is shifting its strategy to rely more heavily on agricultural partnerships to meet rising food distribution needs.
“It’s a whole shift in our focus to say, ‘Okay, we need to increase these pounds. Let’s do it through working with farms,’” Nardacci said.
In April, the food bank announced plans to raise the amount of farm-grown food it distributes from 19 million pounds annually to 30 million pounds within the next three to five years. That total would represent more than half of the 53 million pounds of food the organization distributed in each of the past two years.
Regional Food Bank serves 23 counties stretching from north of New York City to the Canadian border. A recent survey identified nearly 10,000 farms in the service area, with about 98% classified as family-owned operations. “Fundamentally, there’s a lot of opportunity for a food bank like ours,” Nardacci said.
To support the initiative, the food bank plans to invest between $25 million and $30 million over five years in transportation, infrastructure, and agency improvements.
A new Agriculture Hub initiative will strengthen local sourcing, storage, packaging, and distribution systems for fresh farm products.
The organization recently opened a 50,000-square-foot distribution facility in the southern region of its service territory after completing a $25 million capital campaign.
“There are 5,000 farms that we weren’t sourcing from because we didn’t have a facility to handle it,” Nardacci said. “We would get apples, ship them to Albany, repack them, and send them back.”
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Categories: New York, General, Government & Policy