Food banks are charitable nonprofit organizations that acquire and distribute donated, purchased, and government food resources to a network of nonprofit direct service agencies called food pantries.  Food banks provide the larger collection, warehousing and distribution functions, serving regions or states.  Food pantries, community-based and often volunteer-run, receive food from their regional/statewide food bank, raise some of their own food resources locally, and then assemble and distribute boxes of emergency food (for 3-5 days, usually no more than once a month) to families in need.  Food Banking began in Oregon in the late 1970s as a way to keep excess/discarded food out of the land fill.  As the hunger problem increased in the U.S., so did the food banking response.  Currently, there is a statewide food bank network (Oregon Food Bank:  http://www.oregonfoodbank.org) and a national food bank network (America's Second Harvest:  http://www.secondharvest.org). Kim Thomas