The Foodbank gifts box truck to Wesley Community Center

Published by Caitlyn McIntosh  ~   1

The Foodbank gifts box truck to Wesley Community Center

How we are continuing to grow our agency capacity work to better serve the Miami Valley

By: Emily Gallion, Grant & Metrics Manager/Advocacy Manager, and Caitlyn McIntosh, Outreach/SNAP Lead

While The Foodbank’s direct service programs, such as the Drive Thru food pantry and our Mobile Farmers Markets, receive a lot of attention, the heart of our mission is still the daily acquisition and distribution of food.

In September, our Drive Thru and mobiles served a total of 5,158 households, while our partner agency food pantries alone served 14,295 families. By acquiring and distributing food for these food pantries as well as soup kitchens, emergency shelters, and other hunger relief organizations, we magnify our impact across the Miami Valley.

Additionally, while our primary mission is to provide food to people experiencing food insecurity, our partner agencies work directly in their respective communities. Many of them provide services far beyond food assistance, such as financial assistance, which makes them better positioned to address the root causes of poverty.

But our partner agencies face challenges of their own. Many of them are staffed by older individuals who are at a higher risk of becoming seriously ill due to COVID-19. At the height of the pandemic, only 75 of our 120 partner agencies were still open and serving people. 

So how do we support the work our partner agencies do? With capacity building support such as helping our partner agencies apply for grant funding, re-granting funding to them, and donating used equipment. At the height of COVID-19-related closures, we re-granted over $190,000 to the partner agencies that remained open to support their work.

Most recently, The Foodbank was able to donate a refrigerated box truck to the Wesley Community Center, one of our partner agencies. The Wesley Center operates a food pantry and Kids Cafe meal site. We selected the winner of the truck with a raffle.

 

 

Wesley Center staff received their truck at an October 14 key turnover event.

The mission of the Wesley Community Center is to meet the spiritual and basic needs of families of all ages offering assistance in education and training, employment, and human assistance in transitioning families toward self-sufficiency. 

The Wesley Center was established in 1966 as a response to the Civil Rights movement to bring the Miami Valley together in a time of unrest. They were founded under what is now known as the Miami Valley District of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church and continue to be a safe haven for Dayton area families in times of need. 

Cheryl Cole of the Wesley Center said the box truck will enable the center to host off site food distributions for families that have difficulty getting to a pantry. It will also allow the center to provide food for seniors living in senior apartments and villages.

“Having this truck opens a whole new door for Wesley to serve the surrounding communities,” Cheryl Cole of the Wesley Center said. 

The Foodbank acquires and distributes food to 116 other agencies just like the Wesley Center. As part of our commitment to shortening our line, we also want to make sure our agencies have everything they need to make that possible as well.

The heart of the work we do is centered around our agencies and the incredible staff and volunteers that help make it happen. We will continue to say time and time again that hunger does not work in silos. It stems from many issues such as mental illness, domestic violence, homelessness — the list goes on. With the help of our agencies, we know that if we combat hunger, we can then begin the fight to address the other social determinants that lead to a healthy life.

Given the volume of agencies we work with, we can always find a pantry or other program that fits your schedule. You can locate a pantry near you by calling 937-238-5132. A full list of agencies is available on our website. 

To learn more about the Wesley Center and its mission, visit their website.

Foodbanking facts and myths

Published by Caitlyn McIntosh  ~   0

Foodbanking facts and myths

Debunking some of the most common misconceptions about visiting pantries and easing the stigma around food assistance

By: Emily Gallion, Grants & Advocacy Manager and Caitlyn McIntosh, Development Manager

It can be intimidating to seek food assistance for the first time — but the experience doesn’t have to be scary. Last year, 935,404 total people received food through a Foodbank program. While we are aware of the stigma associated with visiting a pantry, our team is here to make the process as comfortable as possible.

Today, we will debunk some of the most common myths about hunger and visiting food pantries.

MYTH: A food bank is the same as a food pantry

FACT: Food banks serve as a central warehouse for a network of hunger relief organizations, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters. While some food banks may have an on-site food pantry, the two are not the same. Generally, a food bank is an organization responsible for acquiring and distributing food to smaller organizations, while food pantries provide groceries directly to families. The Foodbank acquires and distributes food to a network of 116 of these hunger relief agencies. Visit www.thefoodbankdayton.org/needfood to find one nearest you.

 

MYTH: You have to apply to receive food from The Foodbank

FACT: While some Foodbank programs, such as the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), require an application, you do not need to submit an application to attend our Drive Thru Food Pantry. The only requirement to receive food at our Drive Thru or off site food distributions is a driver’s license (if available) and a verbal acknowledgement that your income is within the guidelines for receiving food. Typically, anyone living at or below 200% of the federal poverty limit is eligible to receive food from The Foodbank. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this threshold was lifted to 230%. To see if you meet the guidelines, click here.

 

MYTH: The Foodbank is primarily funded by tax dollars

FACT: Like most nonprofit organizations, the bulk of our funding comes from generous donations from the general public. While we receive agricultural surplus food from the USDA’s The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), this product generally accounts for under 20% of the food we distribute.

 

MYTH: Everyone who visits a food pantry is unemployed

FACT: According to Feeding America’s most recent Hunger in America study, over half of households that visited a pantry or hot meal site had one or more members who were employed in the past 12 months. You do not need to be receiving unemployment or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to receive food from The Foodbank.

 

MYTH: We are the only place for you to get food in Dayton

FACT: The Foodbank provides food for a network of 116 partner agencies in Montgomery, Greene, and Preble counties. The Foodbank’s Drive Thru and Mobile Pantries are designed to supplement the hard work of these organizations. For that reason, the food you receive through these distributions may not be “complete” groceries, but will be bonus food to complement the food you receive from your local pantry. We encourage all of our clients to find their local pantry, which may have a greater variety of food on hand, at www.thefoodbankdayton.org/needfood.

 

MYTH: You can only visit The Foodbank once a month

FACT: The only service limit at The Foodbank is once per day. The Foodbank operates a Drive Thru pantry three days a week as well as 16 different mobile pantries each month. While each Foodbank agency has its own service limit, we invite our clients to use our services as often as needed, up to once per day. For a full list of drive thru hours and mobile pantry locations, click here.

 

MYTH: Food banks and food pantries really only provide canned goods — not fresh foods such as vegetables

FACT: All hunger relief organizations aim to provide nutritious foods to sustain a healthy life. A large majority of our food comes from retail donors, which means we receive a wide variety of items such as bakery, frozen meat, seafood, and lots of fresh produce. At The Foodbank we are also lucky enough to have a 75 raised bed urban garden that allows us to grow our own fresh produce and distribute it directly to the community. 

 

MYTH: Families that receive the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — aka food stamps — don’t need more help with groceries

FACT: The average monthly SNAP benefit for a one-person household was $131 in fiscal year 2020. SNAP provides supplemental assistance, but does not typically cover the cost of a family’s entire grocery budget. Many households need additional support to make ends meet.

 

MYTH: Fraud is widespread among SNAP recipients

FACT: According to the USDA, over 99% of people who receive SNAP benefits are eligible for the program. SNAP has low rates of abuse and provides critical support to our work. For every meal distributed by a Feeding America food bank, SNAP provides 12.

 

We are always working towards breaking the stigmas of seeking food assistance and ensuring that it is a comfortable, approachable process. 

While we try to stay consistent, our service hours are subject to change, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. For up-to-date information, double-check at www.thefoodbankdayton.org/needfood or follow us @thefoodbankinc on Facebook!

Closing out a historic fiscal year at The Foodbank

Published by Caitlyn McIntosh  ~   0

Closing out a historic fiscal year at The Foodbank

Amidst the ongoing recovery from the 2019 tornado outbreak and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Foodbank distributed more food than ever before

By: Emily Gallion, Grant and Advocacy Manager, and Caitlyn McIntosh, Development Manager

Despite an unusually challenging year, The Foodbank was able to distribute 17,884,642 pounds of food in our 2020 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Over one third of the food distributed by weight was fresh produce. With it, we were able to provide food to 116 partner agencies in our three-county network and serve a total of 935,404 people.

It’s hard to believe over a year has passed since the 2019 Memorial Day tornado outbreak. The storm left over $1 billion in property damage and at least 1,800 without homes. While the disaster struck a month before the beginning of the fiscal year, recovery has been slow, and the destruction is still visible in many parts of our community. Read about our tornado relief response here.

It’s even harder to believe that just one year after the storm, our community would be living through a mass shooting and a pandemic. It has been a challenging year,  but we are honored to have been able to serve our community through it.

Here are some highlights from the past year at The Foodbank:

Drive Thru fills critical gaps in COVID-19 response

A line of cars forms outside The Foodbank’s Drive Thru Food Pantry on a rainy distribution day.

Our on-site drive thru was built in 2018 as an accessible distribution site for our Senior Box Program. While we saw potential in the drive-thru to expand our distribution capabilities, we didn’t know just how critical it would be in our disaster relief efforts.

Early March was an extremely difficult time for us at The Foodbank. The spread of COVID-19 and mandatory social distancing measures forced us to rethink nearly every aspect of our operations.

We typically host Mobile Farmers Markets at 27 different sites each month, but the high attendance at these events makes social distancing difficult to enforce. Sadly, we had to suspend these distributions for nearly three months.

Additionally, we could no longer visit our 18 Senior Box distribution sites due to safety precautions at the living facilities. With all of these operations canceled, we were left with one way to get food out of the building and onto the tables of our community — our on-site Drive Thru Food Pantry.

Immediately, we saw attendance rates spike to levels we have never seen before. Before the pandemic began, our Drive Thru was averaging about 200-300 households per distribution. That number skyrocketed to 600-700 households per day, peaking at a record breaking 750 households on April 22nd.

This was an incredible year for the Drive Thru, which served a total of 37,249 households and distributed 3,467,113 pounds of food. It is an essential service that aids in our confidence that Miami Valley residents can always turn to us no matter the circumstance.

 

Mobile Farmers Markets distribute record-high number of meals despite COVID-related cancellations

Like nearly all aspects of our operations, our Mobile Farmers Market program was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We were forced to temporarily suspend our Mobile Farmers Markets March 12 to limit the spread of the virus.

After developing a plan to enforce social distancing, which included additional staffing to keep our families six feet apart, we were able to reopen on a limited basis starting in June.

After carefully evaluating each Mobile site to ensure our ability to enforce social distancing and reach all areas in our territory, we selected 11 sites to reopen first. We are continuing to evaluate the course of the pandemic as well as food insecurity projections in our area to determine our next courses of action.

While our almost three-month closure certainly affected our metrics, this has still been a very successful year for our Mobile Farmers Market program. Through this program alone, we were able to distribute a total of 1,848,453.7 pounds of food to families in our three-county service area — an increase of 73,990.5 pounds from the previous year!

We would like to thank our generous donors and volunteers for supporting our work in the past year. Last year, a total of 5,414 volunteers spent 13,600 hours with us. We couldn’t do it without your help! Follow our social media accounts @thefoodbankinc for future announcements on volunteer opportunities. While we are still not allowing volunteers on-site due to the severity of the pandemic, we hope to see you all soon.

It has been a record breaking year here at The Foodbank and we are hopeful for what the future holds. This year has challenged us in ways we never thought possible and proven our true resiliency as a team and a community. If you want to read more about our service area, hunger statistics, or our economic impact, visit our Tri-County Impact Statement on our website.