Making each dollar work

It struck me this Thanksgiving while enjoying family, food, and football, that it’s been a minute since we wrote about our finances. As a federally recognized 501(c)(3) (not-for-profit), reporting to the government is required every year. Reporting to neighbors who contribute to the Feeding Team – all of you – is overdue. With that in mind, here are some important data points.

We have no paid employees so that makes this easier. Our primary corporate sponsor, TalentLogistiX (tlxcorp.com), covers the salaries of two part-time staff and the cost of our facility, truck, and insurance. If you need staffing services, doing business with them helps us. Apart from that benefactor, we operate on less than $50,000 in donations annually.

Funding sources include corporations, grants, foundations, fundraisers, estates, individual donors, and civic organizations like the Noblesville Elks lodge. Large food donations come from individuals, families, food raisers at companies, churches, and other not-for-profits like Hamilton County Harvest. Interestingly, because of the Feeding Team’s no-questions-asked model, we don’t qualify for the larger brand-name food charities’ free food programs. We are completing a new agreement with a large food charity that will allow us to purchase food at a discount over grocery store prices. Our plan is to purchase $1,000 worth of food per month to fill in any gaps in our supplies of vegetables and proteins.

Presently, through a volunteer army of amazing caring people, we stock over 13,000 meals each month in over 40 pantries. Pantry hosts stock and manage over thirty pantries independently of those where we supply food. Each pantry can hold hundreds of meals. If they run short on food supply, we back them up. We have no way to track what collectively these remarkable pantry hosts supply to hungry neighbors. Nor do we have any way to track what you and others place directly in pantries; we are just grateful for so many people’s participation in providing meals for those in need.

Most of the food we supply is purchased from national wholesalers at about $800 for each pallet of food. The balance of food distributed is donated to us or directly into pantries. When we run short of something specific, off to the local grocery we go, and like everyone else, we pay retail.

Grocery deliveries are exciting around the Feeding Team office as we can get as many as eight pallets in a delivery. It’s incredible to see the skill of semi drivers navigating a very narrow driveway to set up for delivery at our offices. I mention this because it costs us between $500 and $800 for each delivery. We don’t have a forklift, so we pay extra for a liftgate truck to be able to drop the pallets off in the parking lot.

Each pantry costs about $1,000 to build when you account for signs, wood, plexiglass, paint, and trimming. Many of our pantries were built by donors, corporate sponsors, civic groups, and Eagle Scouts. Over the year’s partnerships have developed where we provide the materials and volunteers will build pantries.

We are blessed to have Gaylor Electric as a corporate sponsor. Over 95 percent of Feeding Team pantries are picked up, transported to, delivered, and set up by Gaylor Electric associates using Gaylor Electric trucks. This saves hundreds of dollars for each pantry placed in service. When a pantry needs maintenance or repair, Feeding Team volunteers, Gaylor Electric staff, and frankly, kindhearted neighbors jump into action. We may incur materials costs, but people donate their time and talent to make sure each pantry is functional. We could not begin to calculate the dollar value of volunteers other than to say, if they weren’t here, we wouldn’t be able to do this.

The business model is simple: identify and secure a location, build a pantry, set up a location, get food, give food, and repeat. It’s the cycle of service and the heartbeat of what we do. It is not cheap to execute, and we’ve spent years minimizing costs and improving efficiency. Every dollar possible goes into obtaining food and building pantries. If you’d like to donate, reach out to us directly or donations may be made through the website, FeedingTeam.org.

If you find yourself in need – maybe occasionally you are like I was, a member of the working poor – then Feeding Team Pantry’s are especially for you. They are here for you, 24/7/365. They are completely anonymous, with no shame and no guilt. We take no information and have no expectations of you other than you merely take only what you need please. Leave food for others that are also in need. Some future day, we hope that you consider giving what food you can and sharing your blessings with others that could use some help.

The Feeding Team launched pantry 75 recently, with location 76 already secured, which will be deployed in the coming weeks. We are grateful for the support of our community, volunteers, sponsors, and donors. Thank you.

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With over 40,000 food-challenged neighbors in Hamilton County, FeedingTeam.org is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that provides outdoor 24/7/365 no-questions-asked free food pantries throughout the county.

The pantries exist to meet the food insecurity needs of gap families, neighbors who may not qualify for public assistance and could use a few meals before payday. The pantries serve as many food-challenged neighbors as possible, and our hearts are with those who, like my family, could not always make ends meet.

Thank you for supporting the pantries. We love serving with so many neighbors across Hamilton County. In future columns, we will share more stories about how your generosity served neighbors in times of need. The face of hunger in Hamilton County is not what you may think.

In practical terms, this straightforward way to help neighbors is having real impact on lives, families, and our communities. Thank you. A few meals can change the course of a person’s life. A can of green beans means so much more when you have nothing to feed your kids.

Would you like to get involved? Volunteer opportunities are available. We are evaluating new pantry locations. If you think you have a potential location, please contact us.

Mark and Lisa Hall are the Founders of Feeding Team. They may be reached at lisa@feedingteam.org and mark@feedingteam.org or by calling (317) 832-1123.