Transforming the Charitable Food System for the Future

The charitable food system provides direct food assistance to people experiencing food insecurity or instability. This session aims to describe novel findings on using nutritious no prep ready-to-eat meals to improve healthy eating opportunities for individuals and families that utilize charitable feeding programs and innovations in the charitable feeding program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications will be provided for how nutrition educators working in the charitable food space can form cross-sector collaborations with food retailers and community partners to support a futuristic model of healthy, delicious food that maximizes consumer choice and nutrition security.