Nourishing our Neighbors: Feds Feed Families with Marie Bucko

Our latest episode is with Marie Bucko, National Chair of the 2024 Feds Feed Families Campaign, which collected over 12 million pounds of food donations in order to tackle food insecurity and nourish our neighbors. Feds Feed Families helps food pantries and food banks stay stocked during the summer months when they traditionally see a decrease in donations and an increase in need. By promoting volunteerism and collaboration among US Government employees, Feds Feed Families aims to raise awareness of hunger and combat food insecurity. Together, Marie and Nika, who served as the Deputy National Chair, reflect on the success of the 2024 campaign and share how to get involved in opportunities to glean excess food to reduce food loss and waste while increasing access to safe, nutritious food.

If you have an idea for an episode topic you’d like to see featured or if you would like to participate in an episode of USAID’s Kitchen Sink, please reach out to Nika Larian (nlarian@usaid.gov).

There’s no time to waste!

Transcript

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Nika Larian) Welcome to USAID's Kitchen Sink a food loss and waste podcast. I'm your producer, Nika Lian. 30 to 40% of the food that is produced is either lost or wasted, contributing to a global food crisis with over 800 million going to bed hungry. Listen on as USAID experts speak with researchers and development professionals to explore solutions to this critical issue that demands a kitchen sink approach. When it comes to climate food security and food system sustainability, we have no time to waste. thanks for tuning in to USAID's kitchen sink a food loss and waste podcast my name is Nika Larian a senior food safety adviser and producer of the kitchen sink today I will be speaking with Marie Bucko the national chair of the 2024 feds feed families Campaign which collected over 12 million pounds of food donations in order to tackle food and security and nourish our neighbors I've had the privilege of serving alongside Marie as the Deputy National chair and I'm so proud of what we've been able to accomplish under her leadership so Marie thank you for joining us today and can you give an overview of feds feed families oh it's so great to be here with you na thanks for having me um yeah so the the FED feed family campaign is as you know an annual campaign and now it's in its 15th year which is really exciting um essentially it encourages employees from all federal departments and agencies to give what we know as in kind contributions so food service time to any local food banks and pantries which is really exciting um in a quick nutshells the campaign began in response to the 2009 United We Serve act which called all Americans to contribute to the nation's economic recovery by serving in their communities and so since its launched in 2009 um this food drive has collected over 120 million pounds of food donations to support our communities um throughout the United States which is amazing um and as we know uh during the summer months uh the demand for food really increases significantly and unfortunately we know donations also deine so we have that inverse relationship and so when it comes to the campaign um The Campaign is really to serve in a response to this um cyclical happening occurrence that traditionally takes place between uh June and August of each summer that we have this summer campaign and as you know we can donate year round um but we really highight the efforts of the the summer campaign and so structurally we have our national leadership team which uh included uh you and myself as chair and Deputy chair respectively and then we have a Communications leader a gleaning leader technology leader and a special events coordinator and then each of our federal departments and agencies have their respective chairs to facilitate and communicate really the vision of the national leadership team and so as you know um all of these great folks are all volunteers for these efforts and it's really really inspiring 120 million pounds wow that's that's a huge huge impact um and you mentioned the national leadership team and I was really excited when I joined to see the gleaning co-chairs on the campaign so can you tell us more about what gleaning is how we use it in the campaign and how it can reduce food loss and waste yes of course so typically there's only one gleaning chair on the national team each summer but this year we had the great opportunity to leverage having two so we had co- gleaning coordinators um and there are two types of gleaning and one we know very you know we're very familiar with with it with is field gleaning and then Warehouse gleaning um so field gleaning is really the harvesting of any unused or unharvested produce and then Warehouse gleaning which is really a great opportunity for anyone uh in an urban setting is the opportunity to be able to sort food at a food bank or Pantry for example for food distribution ultimately so in fact if you're interested or if anyone's interested you can go to our campaign website known as what we call our Hub and that's at feds feed families. o. usda.gov and hopefully you can put that link in the show notes because it's a it's a mouthful and but we have a whole section dedicated to finding champions for the campaign and they will be able to connect you with opportunities to glean in your neck of the woods um throughout the United States so you can also reach out to your local food banks which we also encourage very much um to see what their greatest needs are when it comes to gleaning as we all know we live in very different geographical areas and topography might look a little bit different from each of our neighborhoods and so um whatever we can do to give back to the local food banks and the pantries in our neighborhoods is really what's key there definitely a lot of really great resources on the hubs and one of the the tabs that I appreciated the most on the Hub is the the success story so if you're looking for inspiration for what others have done whether that's gleaning or donation drives there's a lot of really great examples under the success stories to see what our inner agency colleagues have been doing and speaking of our national team um I also want to give a shout out to our special events uh chair so we had a lot of really great um opportunities to come together uh as an interent agency this year the stuff the truck events uh the wish walk I'm wondering if you could just a quick little overview of those because I really appreciated the opportunity to get to know some of my inter agency colleagues that I otherwise would not have the opportunity to interact with yes we have a lot of inperson opportunities that as a national team we encourage all federal departments and agencies to get together in person um we know working in a hybrid or remote Workforce it sometimes those spaces can be limited but uh we had quite a few activities over the summer that we were able to either coordinate or participate in you know uh the US Department of Agriculture uh is the designated Agency for the summer uh feds feed family campaign and um it's been such a privilege to be able to work with USDA in that capacity and so we had events like stuff the truck um that happened in our um Farmers Market parking lot here in Washington DC which was amazing and then we encouraged other departments and agencies to have their own stuff the truck events or stuff the trunk uh some folks had bicycle events where they stuffed baskets and we just made do with whatever our communities needed and adapted to it which was just amazing and very inspiring and then um towards the end of the summer campaign we had what you U mentioned the feds uh wish walk which is essentially what you can imagine it to be um an opportunity for all of us to get out exercise to talk about the nutritional aspect when it comes to donating food and how important it is to have nutrition um as on the Forefront of proper produce that we can donate to our local food banks and proper nutrition and it was a time to get out and exercise and connect with our uh colleagues and employees from across the federal departments and agencies and so this year we took a bit of a unique approach we combined our closing ceremony that we typically have as an independent event to Capstone the summer campaign we actually blended it with our wish walk which worked out really well um we had one would argue extra festivities um that were had which was a lot of fun and um it gave us a chance to really reflect on all of the work that federal employees were able to put together and to really be able to give back to our communities and you you alluded a few times here already our national theme Campaign theme which was nourishing our neighbors Nationwide and um I can't see a better example than our federal employees that raised over 12 million pounds in such a short amount of time uh really speak to such a a a theme that we came up to yeah definitely and I as you said I think the combination of the closeout event and wish walk was just really serendipitous I feel like that was just last week it's been over a month um but yeah really a really fantastic uh conclusion to this year's campaign and and as you mentioned we we had this exciting news that we exceeded our goal with over 12 million pounds of food donated during the summer campaign alone so I I want to ask you as as we wrap up how can we continue this momentum and continue to engage with FEDS feed families throughout the year to maintain this momentum and excitement leading into the 2025 campaign I'm glad you asked that ni because as we know hunger is a yearr round issue and it's not something that's necessarily seasonal um and so each year as we talked about there's a theme and this year we chose nourishing our neighbors Nationwide which is such an honor to have that type of opportunity to really love on our neighbors in such a way and the intention of this year's theme is to really plant roots in our communities and build relationships with our neighbors and that can happen year round um so I encourage folks to head to our campaign website or you can Google feds speed amilies and on our Hub website you can sign up for our newsletter which is at the bottom of every page when you get there and that really gives you the latest and greatest information of what's going on during the campaign season which is typically in the summer as we talked about um throughout the year you can still donate and go on to our Hub website to record your donations and we typically share that there are five ways that you can participate in the feds feed family food drive that happens year round and the first one obviously is that you in your office can become a champion and that is essentially any Employee Federal employee that can participate as an individual or be known as a champion and so they help promote this campaign they host events like the virtual food drives or in-person gleaning opportunities that we talked about and they can coordinate efforts and activities with other Champions um either close by or further away and so to become a champion for this campaign um essentially you just need your approval from your supervisor and then you just have to go to our Hub tool page and just register as a champion it's as easy as that um the second option or opportunity you can find a food pantry or a food bank and donate online or in person again we encourage folks to do what works best for their local community sometimes purchasing food online and having it delivered directly to a food bank or a pantry is a better option sometimes other options that work best for the local food bank or pantry is just simply drop off the food donations um and either way we encourage you to record the donation that you made on our website so we can track it and you can watch the numbers tick up as the year goes on the third option you have is to obviously volunteer on your own time you can you know sometime if you want to talk about gleaning opportunities we encourage folks to do what we call plant a row and that's really just to harvest and donate produce from your home Garden uh neighborhood Gardens or Community Gardens that you might have trees that grow produce as well um and then of course record the donation on the Hub you can glean at a farm or a food bank to harvest any of the produce or help food distribution and as we know going into the fall here we have lots of squash um fruits that are really great opportunities to be able to give back to our um local food banks in that capacity so um we talked about the two different types of gleaning that you can do right the field gleaning um which is the harvesting of the unused or UNH harvested produce and then we talked about the warehouse gleaning which can really involve you know sorting and packaging donated items and so all of that time that you Bend can also be recorded in the hub and we have a really handy calculator that um translates the hours into the food donated the fourth and second to last uh option that you have to get involved is to really host or attend a virtual food drive event we know that many of our federal employees can be working in a hybrid or remote capacity or maybe an international capacity in time zone changes really impact involvement um so to be able to have a virtual food drive is a really fun and unique opportunity you can join your colleagues online to learn about food insecurity in your community and how to voluntarily donate to participate in any local organizations that do accept uh virtual donations which is great too and then finally the fifth way to get involved is what we are experiencing right now is through the combined Federal Campaign which is known as the CFC you can consider donating to a food bank or a food pantry through the CFC Campaign which runs from September to January and that's their giving season and you essentially get you can hit two birds with one stone this way H and you can record your donation on the Hub the monetary value or the volunteer time like we talked about will be converted into pounds and so um those are the five core you know tangible ways that you can participate and donate year round and really love on your neighbors in that capacity and live out our campaign and of course you know always have to make a plug for the social media platforms you know we're on LinkedIn Instagram Facebook and x and it's all under the handle of feds feed families that was a mouthful but hopefully that's helpful no I appreciate all the ways to to continue to engage and and like you said keep this momentum going it does not have to only um be contained within the summer campaign we can really continue these efforts throughout the year and I'm glad that you mentioned all the feds feed family social media accounts because uh we really have to give a shout out to LinkedIn for bringing the two of us together so yes big shout out to the networking uh capacities that LinkedIn has so don't be afraid to to send messages to your to your colleagues but I I've really appreciated this conversation Marie but also just the opportunity to participate in this Summer's campaign and letting myself and and us a be involved this year was really meaningful for me I know in my work I I get to work with inter agency colleagues on technical working groups but this is really the first time that I've been able to collaborate with USDA colleagues and others on Collective action for a public good and I think that's a really nice way to our inter agency colleagues and get to interact with them in a different kind of way beyond our usual technical skill set so really appreciated the opportunity I loved um participating in the campaign this year so thank you Marie I'm glad you were a part of it na it's uh USA had not been at the table before and so um when we saw that gap or when I saw that Gap I was like this needs to change and so as you mentioned I'm grateful for LinkedIn for joining us together and I really hope us Aid uh is a partner moving forward and participating in the campaign and um with your Fearless leadership I'm sure there will not be any shortage of participation from us a definitely I mean as we've established here the connections to reducing food loss and waste are clear so argument to continue to participate is strong thanks Marie thanks Nika Thank you for tuning in to USAID's Kitchen Sink. This podcast was produced by Nika Larian and is organized by the USAID Food Loss and Waste Community of practice co-chairs Ahmed Kablan and Ann Vaughn. Additional thanks goes to Feed the Future, the US Government's Global Food Security Initiative and the USAID Center for Nutrition.(music playing)