Fresh Alliance
Fresh Alliance Program Overview
Who are Fresh Alliance donors?
Fresh Alliance donors are grocery stores in Oregon and SW Washington that provide regularly scheduled donations to members of the Oregon Food Bank Network. Typically these are retail locations, though they may be distribution center locations as well. There are two broad categories of Fresh Alliance donors:
- National donors: Also sometimes called Feeding America or Blue Receipt donors, these grocery chains have locations across multiple states and have an agreement to prioritize Feeding America network members when distributing donations (including all RFBs & PAs in the OFB Network).
- Local donors: May be a stand-alone store or a smaller grocery chain with locations somewhere within the OFB Network's service area. These donors have an agreement (written or verbal) with OFB, an RFB, or a PA in our Network to provide regularly scheduled donations.
(see full list of donors here)
What is Fresh Alliance localization?
Fresh Alliance has transitioned to a fully localized model, in which 100% of Fresh Alliance food is picked up by Partner Agencies. Sometimes this is referred to as “retail agency direct (RAD)” or “agency-enabled”. This is a significant change from our previous approach, which centered around OFB picking this food up and bringing it back to our warehouse for sorting and distribution.
Why are we changing Fresh Alliance from a centralized model to a local model?
This transition lifts up our 10-year vision of A New Local Focus, by facilitating the kind of local relationships between Partner Agencies and donors that will strengthen community solutions to hunger. This also makes permanent some of the positive things we’ve seen as a result of our suspension of Fresh Alliance during the COVID-19 crisis, particularly the expansion of delivery to Partner Agencies. This allows us to serve communities more effectively and efficiently, by increasing Partner Agency capacity and moving more food to those who need it (especially produce!). We also believe this change increases quality of services to clients, by reducing the amount of time it takes to get a Fresh Alliance donation from the store to the pantry.
Interested in participating? Since our transition to direct partner agency pickups, we have been able to match partner agencies with nearly all of our 160+ partner stores. Periodically, stores become available, and we are working on engaging with more local grocers. All new applicants will join our waitlist - please complete this survey to get started!
Questions? Please reach out to freshalliance@oregonfoodbank.org, or 503.419.4165
x1126.
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