Regional Distributors and our customers continue our partnership with Elara Foodservice Disposables to fight hunger through Elara’s One Case/One Meal hunger relief program. The signature program provides meals in partnership with a local food bank to community members struggling with hunger. For each case of Elara products purchased, Elara provides a meal to an individual at risk of going hungry.

Based on the number of Elara cases Regional Distributors purchased in 2022, Elara made a financial contribution to FoodlinkNY on our behalf that helped provide 46,957 meals to local community members. Coupled with contributions from previous years, Regional and our customers have helped provide a total of 216,690 meals to local community members and families struggling with hunger and are actively helping our community with hunger relief efforts. 

In 2022, food prices increased by almost 10% compared to the previous year, leaving millions of our neighbors reaching out to local food banks to help put food on their tables. By joining Elara in their mission to fight hunger in America, Regional, our customers, and numerous other businesses across the country are making a difference in people’s lives by helping to change these statistics. “Regional has a long standing partnership and friendship with the entire Elara team. Elara President Dan Grinberg combined his love for building great companies with his passion for fighting hunger. We’re proud to help support Elara’s social mission and our local community members with this important endeavor,” shares Tracy Scalen, President and CEO, Regional Distributors.

Food insecurity in Foodlink’s 10-county service area

By orchestrating a complex system of food recovery, storage, and distribution, Foodlink is doing something very simple: feeding our neighbors. They also employ multiple “upstream” approaches to solving hunger (e.g. Food Access, Nutrition Education and Workforce Development) that address why an individual or family may suffer from food insecurity.

Feeding America’s annual “Map the Meal Gap” study provides county-level data for food insecurity each year. Within Foodlink’s 10-county service area, the study showed a 10.9% food-insecurity rate, which affects more than 136,000 people. However, Feeding America projected that food insecurity has risen by 10% due to the pandemic.

• 10% projected rise in food insecurity due to the pandemic

• 11% of people in our region are considered food insecure

• 130,010 people living in food-insecure homes

• 43,260 children living in food-insecure homes

Food insecurity is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. Food-insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all the time. Food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.

Help fight hunger in our community one case, one meal at a time. Order online or  contact us  to place your order of Elara food service disposables.

About Elara Foodservice Disposables

Elara Foodservice Disposables is a designer and producer of high quality food contact gloves, bags, and apparel for restaurant and institutional foodservice operators. Elara is dedicated to providing high-quality, professional products to maintain the highest standard of food safety.

About Foodlink

Foodlink is a community food resource center and the Feeding America food bank serving Allegany, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties. They leverage the power of food to transform lives, end hunger and build healthier communities. Foodlink mobilizes a diverse range of programs and network of partners and stakeholders to eradicate both the symptoms and root causes of hunger. Learn more at foodlinkny.org/.