Every two years, Feeding America hosts a conference for all operations, sourcing, and agency relations related staff within its network of almost 200 partner food banks across the country. This year, the Sourcing, Operations and Neighbor Access (SONA) Conference was held in Dallas, TX in late August. Yes, it was hot.
Hannah Douglas, Food Donor Relationship Manager, and Kristin Osowski, Agency Relations & Community Engagement Director, attended this conference and gain new ideas and connect with fellow food bankers. Being a part of this network allows us to share ideas and resources with other food banks (and others share with us) so we can be better together!
Some of the breakout sessions we attended include:
- From Data to Impact: Agency and Programs Capacity Building with Service Insights
- Driving Donations with Data: Store-level Solutions
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Warehouse Automation but Were Afraid to Ask
- Grand Opening! New MealConnect Marketplace Purchasing Platform
- Beyond Listening: Building Meaningful Feedback Loops with Neighbors
- Challenge Workshop: Agency Relations
- Champions of Choice: Expanding Food Access, Improving the Neighbor Experience
We are grateful for another opportunity to learn ways to be even better at fighting food insecurity and connect with the network - we're looking forward to attending SONA again in 2027!
