An Ayers Foundation Hunger Relief and Food Recovery Initiative
Since 2022
Since 2022
The Ayers Foundation, in collaboration with the Farmers’ Community Food Hub, is excited to provide the Birds and Bellies Program. This important hunger relief program has a triple bottom line:
The Farmers' Community Food Hub (Hub), a project of the Ayers Foundation, has agreed with its partner farm to purchase and account for several hundred birds per week, whole and cut-up, by reselling and distributing organic chicken to its commercial, institutional, and retail customer base. Based on an analysis of current and projected supply and demand of the full range of chicken products (e.g. whole, breast, thighs, bones, etc.), a surplus of drumsticks, whole legs, wings, and bones is anticipated for the foreseeable future, especially as the slaughter quota is adjusted upward and downward during the course of 2022 and beyond. It is this aforementioned surplus that our project team is targeting for hunger relief work. Through our existing partner network, Ayers Foundation, the Farmers' Community Food Hub, and its collaborators/customers have the capacity to aggregate and deliver weekly rations of an assortment of chicken products to soup kitchens, food pantries, warm shelters, and other facilities that provide food for the food insecure.
The Birds & Bellies program will help to preserve and even grow an organic chicken supply chain that heralded chefs and other consumers have enjoyed for years. There is a real dearth of organic chicken farms in the northeast that produce at scale and continually throughout the year; by preserving this line, this project bolsters food sovereignty and resiliency of the region's food economy. This initiative furthers the Ayers mission to play our part in both the humane treatment of animals throughout their life cycle and the larger grain economy by reducing the amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs used to raise poultry (none of which are permissible under an organic program). There is enough literature and peer-reviewed science on the use and impact of synthetic pesticides and herbicides on wildlife and human populations to justify calls to action like what we are now proposing. Finally, this project serves to provide healthy food to the food insecure in RI and CT. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, 35 million people suffered from some form of hunger (incl. malnutrition) in 2021. According to FeedingAmerica.org, in RI alone, over 100,000 (more than 10%) of its residents are food insecure, and 28,000 are children.
- Hunger relief
- Preserving an organic chicken line and all of its environmental benefits
- Supporting food sovereignty and resiliency in Southern New England
The Farmers' Community Food Hub (Hub), a project of the Ayers Foundation, has agreed with its partner farm to purchase and account for several hundred birds per week, whole and cut-up, by reselling and distributing organic chicken to its commercial, institutional, and retail customer base. Based on an analysis of current and projected supply and demand of the full range of chicken products (e.g. whole, breast, thighs, bones, etc.), a surplus of drumsticks, whole legs, wings, and bones is anticipated for the foreseeable future, especially as the slaughter quota is adjusted upward and downward during the course of 2022 and beyond. It is this aforementioned surplus that our project team is targeting for hunger relief work. Through our existing partner network, Ayers Foundation, the Farmers' Community Food Hub, and its collaborators/customers have the capacity to aggregate and deliver weekly rations of an assortment of chicken products to soup kitchens, food pantries, warm shelters, and other facilities that provide food for the food insecure.
The Birds & Bellies program will help to preserve and even grow an organic chicken supply chain that heralded chefs and other consumers have enjoyed for years. There is a real dearth of organic chicken farms in the northeast that produce at scale and continually throughout the year; by preserving this line, this project bolsters food sovereignty and resiliency of the region's food economy. This initiative furthers the Ayers mission to play our part in both the humane treatment of animals throughout their life cycle and the larger grain economy by reducing the amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs used to raise poultry (none of which are permissible under an organic program). There is enough literature and peer-reviewed science on the use and impact of synthetic pesticides and herbicides on wildlife and human populations to justify calls to action like what we are now proposing. Finally, this project serves to provide healthy food to the food insecure in RI and CT. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, 35 million people suffered from some form of hunger (incl. malnutrition) in 2021. According to FeedingAmerica.org, in RI alone, over 100,000 (more than 10%) of its residents are food insecure, and 28,000 are children.
Helping to ensure the success of these programs and those to follow
cannot be achieved without your participation!
cannot be achieved without your participation!
The wealth of a nation rests on the health of its children!