Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Regional Food Bank cannot achieve its vision of ?an Oklahoma where no one goes hungry? without eliminating or reducing the underlying root causes of hunger and affecting systems change. Some examples of root cause are un- and under-employment, limited education and training, lack of health care, aging and abuse and neglect. Poor health, mental health and health care costs can create a vicious cycle that increases the likelihood of the individual or family continuing to live in poverty and be food insecure. The Regional Food Bank wants to address documented root causes by supporting or establishing effective place-based partners and relationships. Partnerships will include individuals with lived experience, local government, universities, schools, community organizations and businesses (e.g., providing food to incentivize participation in job training or helping a health clinic find sustainable funding or helping organize a parenting group to prevent abuse and neglect, etc.) This effort will include: ? Creating a research and knowledge base to support and evaluate data-driven outcomes in each community. ? Create commitment and capacity to address prioritized root causes in the communities ? Provide targeted grants to organizations successfully addressing root cause ? Help communities with promotional efforts to reduce root cause particularly in the private sector

EVIDENCE

Data from the National Institutes of Health show household experiences of Very Low Food Security occurred at the intersection of unmet medical needs, poor health, disability, limitation, depressive symptoms, and low income, and food assistance program participation. These issues are intrinsically tied to people?s need for jobs that provide a living wage, access to transportation, high-quality education and affordable health care. A study released this year by the Duke World Food Policy Center showed that 80 percent of hunger advocacy organizations believe they should focus more effort on tackling the root causes of food insecurity.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Our focus will be disadvantaged neighborhoods especially in rural communities within the Regional Food Bank service area where the pandemic revealed long-standing disparities in their food systems and the aforementioned underlying root causes.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The Regional Food Bank will start this project with detailed data collection and aggregation, mapping and local surveys. Data collected regarding specific root causes by community will be compared before and after to assess success of interventions (e.g., unemployment rate, average salaries, reduction in negative social determinants of health, reduction in incidents of child abuse and neglect, etc.) with emphasis on rural. Results will be determined by comparing baseline data collected with focus groups, surveys, intake and/or resource referral information and targeted demographics at the beginning of the process with the same data collected as the project proceeds.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma