The ASEA Advancing Life Foundation continues to help alleviate food insecurity and economic hardship during COVID-19. The foundation has pledged to donate $60,000 over the next six months to its newest partner, The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN), to support food banks in Central America and Southeast Asia. GFN helps to establish food supplies for areas all around the world, training volunteers and employees to manage important operational functions.
Help For Those Who Need It Most
In areas where the food bank’s assistance is needed most, the non-profit is empowering leaders to accelerate access to proper nutrition. Supply chains that were already in precarious positions were further jeopardized by COVID-19 and need assistance more than ever to provide nutritious food to the hungry and malnourished. GFN is shoring up inventory and securing donations of key food staples to meet increasing demand through contingency planning for specific at-risk groups: households in quarantine, individuals isolated or working remotely, families whose children are usually fed at school.
Resource-scarce countries facing extraordinary hunger where existing infrastructure has a rapid impact are getting immediate help through nutritious food, increased distribution and logistics capacity, and more agricultural opportunities with training on food-waste recovery.
Training and Employment For Better Futures
GFN seeks to serve hard-to-reach areas like rural communities and indigenous populations to advocate for more relief services for those in need. Working with non-profit and non-governmental organizations allows them to assist with essential health and employment services wherever needed in building new food banks in low-income countries facing severe hunger challenges. This peer-to-peer network trains entrepreneurs by equipping them with food, expertise, and the capacity to financially invest and maintain a basic infrastructure through skill-building and best practice solutions.
Through coaching and training, GFN aids new food banks to grow in their capabilities, acquire food through donation and purchase, hire essential staff, and invest in the proper equipment for continued success. Part of this program helps develop local relationships between food banks and smallholder farmers to provide fresh, locally sourced produce, dairy, and proteins to support rural communities.
The Work Continues
The Advancing Life Foundation recognizes that all regions of the world have increased food insecurities due to COVID-19 shutdowns and feels that it is important to provide aid to some of the most impoverished countries that are already dealing with extreme hunger.
If you would like to aid the efforts of the ASEA Advancing Life Foundation and help those in need, please make a contribution at advancinglife.org. Your gift goes further in 2020 and throughout 2021 when you make it a monthly pledge! The foundation’s corporate partner, ASEA, is matching all donations throughout 2021 given as part of a monthly pledge—so select the Monthly option when you give, and every contribution will have double the impact on worthy causes worldwide!