Rainbow CDC distributes thousands of pounds of recovered food, including fresh fruits, dairy products, and meats, at their weekly distributions in Silver Spring.
gaps in transportation, cold storage and overall coordination have prevented recovery efforts from reaching their full potential. These needs were emphasized during one-on-one interviews and surveys that OFSR conducted in the spring of 2025 with more than 20 partner organizations. As a result, the OFSR introduced several new funding mechanisms over the past few months aimed at improving infrastructure and boosting collaboration across the network.
One of these key initiatives is the Fiscal Year 2025 Food Recovery Network Infrastructure Grant Program. Awarded in June, this program invested $ 306,000 in four capital projects focused on securing shared-use cold storage and refrigerated vehicles for transporting food. The awarded organizations – AfriThrive, Nourish Now, Rainbow Community Development Center, and So What Else – each have successful performance histories connecting significant quantities of recovered food with residents seeking food assistance. These resources will reduce logistical hurdles that many recovery organizations face when collecting and redistributing fresh foods while complying with food safety standards.
“ This grant is a strategic investment in AfriThrive’ s cold storage and transportation infrastructure, enabling us to recover, store and deliver even more fresh, culturally appropriate food to the communities we serve. The addition of a refrigerated van significantly strengthens our logistics capacity, allowing us to meet rising demand and ensure that families have consistent, dignified access to the nutritious foods they know and trust,” said Truphena Choti, founder and CEO of AfriThrive.
Additionally, the Fiscal Year 2026 Food Recovery Network Coordination Grant, launched in July, will award a single organization to oversee data collection, resource access and trainings for food recovery operators, and streamline access to food donations among food recovery partners, ensuring that food recovery relationships maximize efficiency and consider geographical and capacity limitations experienced by organizational partners. The goal is to create a smoother process for all organizations involved, making it easier to direct recovered food to where it’ s needed the most.
As the third component of this plan, the County will modify the
AfriThrive received a grant through the FY25 Food Recovery Network Infrastructure Program to expand their fleet of refrigerated vehicles used to support the distribution of recovered food to clients. plenty I autumn harvest 2025 27