No longer simply the domain of canned corn and peanut butter, food banks are preparing ready-to-eat meals, opening their own farms and partnering with institutions as varied as local supermarkets and state prisons to help gather and process food.
Sharing meals opens this kind of dialogue.
Just scan the barcode on your prepared meal, open up the oven and pop it in then hit a few buttons as per the instructions to heat it up and keep track of it on your cellphone.
Each meal opens with a fluffy rosemary flatbread, wafting heat.
Whichever way you go, it's more feast than famine, as the meal opens with a table-covering Lebanese spread of puffy, freshly baked flatbreads, pickles and raw vegetables, presented in a manageable miniature form, including cherry tomatoes, baby gems and small Lebanese cucumbers.
The next it was Tropik Bistrot, a French restaurant on a hill where the meal opened with vegetable spears in a thick, tasty dipping sauce, followed by fresh baguettes sawed into pieces in front of us, lumps of coconut crabmeat and a superb prawn dish with garlic, herb and lemon-grass cream sauce.
Meals $4 to $10; open late.
Seating for meals is open, which allows several chances to talk to everyone on board.
