What is a “FORK Pantry”?

The FORK Pantry is a standalone child-centered food pantry, designed to support two nutritional challenges faced by children from food insecure homes. Firstly, the program furnishes local educators and educational staff with an easily accessible food bank that provides them a 'free food for kids' resource. This allows aware educators a helping hand in their efforts to care for hungry children during their long days at school. Secondly, the FORK Pantry provides the parents or guardians of those hungry kids a year-round, Monday through Friday, emergency food cupboard. This type of self-serve access to free food for kids is made available locally, from a convenient FORK pantry location, allowing food insecure households to better support the hungry children in their care. 

The FORK Pantry program, created and supported by Feed Our Rural Kids (FORK), is designed to make getting free food for children easier. We do this by focusing on three specific elements that can positively affect the impact of any free food program.

1. Timeliness: By providing hungry kids immediate support, through simple Grab-n-Go food items, those kids will not need to suffer the distraction and discomfort of mid-day hunger stressors.
2. Proximity: By having a FORK Pantry in multiple communities, the program positions emergency free food access closer to the children whose families need extra help to feed their kids.
3. Availability: By placing FORK Pantries in community buildings, which are open a greater number of hours a day/week, we make food support accessible locally at more convenient times of the day. 

Individuals with questions may also email FORK at FORKPantry@FeedOurRuralKids.org