Mission Statement

The St. Louis Area Foodbank is building a stronger bi-state region by nourishing people, empowering communities, and transforming systems.

Impact

Since 1975, St. Louis Area Foodbank has been working to is build a nutritionally secure stronger bi-state region by nourishing people, empowering communities, and transforming systems. With the dedicated partnership of over 600 hunger-relief programs and local agencies – including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and residential programs – the Foodbank responds to hunger in communities across 26 counties in Missouri and Illinois by distributing food to nearly 400,000 people each year.

The generosity of the Dana Brown Charitable Trust provides support for St. Louis Area Foodbank’s School Market program (FBSM.)

Children need nourishment of mind, body, and spirit in order to achieve success. The purpose of the FBSM program is to alleviate child hunger by providing food to St. Louis children and their families in a convenient, familiar, and safe location – their schools. The FBSM program combines choice and access to nutritious food with addressing the needs of the whole child from personal care and confidence to physical health and resource access. Each FBSM is developed in response to the specific barriers of poverty students face daily. If school property is not accessible during the summer break, the Foodbank’s Food on the Move mobile pantry services the community.

For fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, the Foodbank operated 19 FBSM and provided food resources to 2,262 households (including 4,655 children). FBSM are located in zip codes where the poverty level is 20% or higher and 1/3 of the children are living at or below the 200% poverty level. Additionally, the focus is on schools where more than 75% of the student population is eligible for the government-sponsored free or reduced-price meal program.

The FBSM began four years ago with two locations in St. Louis City. There are currently 35 markets. Four of the schools are located in the Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois and 26 are in the St. Louis area in the St. Louis Public School, Hancock Place, Hazelwood, Jennings, Normandy, and Parkway School Districts. Just as the Foodbank’s service area extends to 26 counties in Missouri and Illinois, it is anticipated that the FBSM will extend into these areas in the future.