Lisa McNeece Shares Incredible Accomplishments With Season of Giving Back Campaign
WASHINGTON, DC - The United Fresh Start Foundation has been pretty busy this season, as it recently announced that it raised over $90,000 to increase access to fresh produce for families in need as part of its Season of Giving Back campaign.
“This pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges of getting fresh, healthy food to children and families in underserved communities,” said Lisa McNeece, Chair of the United Fresh Start Foundation Board of Trustees and Vice President of Foodservice and Industrial Sales at Grimmway Enterprises, in a release. “It also has created a new segment of society that’s now reliant on the tireless work of food banks and other organizations to help their neighbors in-need.”
For the past nine months, The United Fresh Start Foundation has focused its efforts on offering technical assistance and guidance for new school feeding options and helping community and industry partners navigate the unexpected changes in the food system caused by the pandemic, the press release noted.
Highlights of the foundation’s numerous efforts to keep the supply chain moving include:
- Collaborating with the USDA on nutrition programs to get fresh produce into the hands of children
- Disseminating $25,000 in Rapid Response FRESH Grants in order to increase children and families’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables and create more opportunities for foodservice distributors
- Working with USDA to develop a Farmers to Families Food Box Program, which has facilitated over 132 million food boxes, helping families and growers
- Hosting over 25 webinars, virtual networking sessions, and video interviews to help connect school nutrition operators with United Fresh’s produce supplier members
But the work doesn’t stop there, according to McNeece. The foundation has more plans to increase access to fresh produce and prioritize nutrition. Some of these plans include making the Farmers to Families boxes a permanent program, ensuring that schools have the necessary resources to serve fresh, healthy foods to students within their feeding programs, and driving federal feeding programs to follow Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
“I have never been more proud to be Chair of the Foundation than I am today,” said McNeece. “We are optimistic that your continued engagement will help us bring these issues to the forefront in the year ahead.”
If we’re looking to make the world a better place, getting fruits and vegetables into more hands is the perfect place to start.
Keep an eye out for ANUK as we report on the latest in the fresh industry.
