Activists explore new ways to feed hungry

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Advocates for the poor say turning school cafeterias into food pantries could be one step in overhauling the way the United States feeds hungry people.

Food pantries and soup kitchens, which feed more than 35 million people a year, need to provide food where people live and work, said Robert Egger, president of D.C. Central Kitchen in Washington.

"The first generation of soup kitchens are getting to the point of outgrowing their kitchens and thinking they have to build new multimillion-dollar facilities," said Egger. "And we're saying, 'We need to be adapting to future needs, not building the same things but bigger.' "

Campus Kitchens, which has its headquarters in Washington, operates on high school and college campuses across the country, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. People pick up food on campus and students also take food to the homes of poor families, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

At Capital Area Food Bank of Texas, based in Austin, a refrigerated mobile pantry travels the region, giving people groceries and visiting migrant workers who have no access to traditional pantries.

"We need to go where the people are," said David Davenport, who initiated the mobile pantry program.