International Paper and The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) continues its partnership for a multi-year investment to support capacity-building efforts among food banks in Europe and Latin America.
This support enables food banks in Mexico, Canada, Spain, Poland, Italy, Chile and Guate mala to enhance their food recovery and redistribution programs to reach more people in need of assistance.
As IP invested in communities, many people were helped through the grants. In Mexico, their partners created a school breakfast program that helped 200 children. They were able to supply each child with backpacks that were filled with items every 15 days. Similarly, in Canada, students in every province and territory throughout the country were able to receive nutritious pre-packed food parcels, with special attention during the summer months when school nutrition programs are not available. In Spain, the partnership was able to serve 1.35M people through the distribution of 172M kilograms of food to nearly 7,500 community organizations.
IP’s support in Poland helped their food bank’s efforts by paying for staff, transport, and general operating costs. For IP’s partners in Chile, the grant not only helped fund for more staff, technology and logistics but it helped them distribute 1,500 metric tons of fruit and vegetables to 1,733 community organizations serving 348,674 people. In Italy, over 100,000 tons of food was collected and distributed to 7,583 partner charities which assisted more than 1,660,000 individuals throughout the country.
