Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino Counties

At FARSB, we believe that no one should be hungry and that there is enough food for all. With the reality of hundreds of thousands of our neighbors needing food assistance today, creating a hunger-free IE tomorrow is a vast challenge, but one that we believe we can overcome, together.

The guiding principles of FARSB:
 We believe that solving hunger is a collaborative approach. We can solve hunger together.
 We listen with empathy and strive to preserve the dignity of people facing hunger.
 Serving people who are facing hunger is the center of everything that we do.
 We believe that healthy food is medicine.
 We strive for excellence and continuous improvement, not perfection.
 We are dedicated to inclusivity and equity.
 We make room for mistakes and learn from them.
 We seek to be resourceful, innovative, transparent, and impactful.
 We endeavor to utilize resources responsibly and with integrity.

By 2024, FARSB, in collaboration with our partners, will feed more people, provide more nutritious food, remove barriers to food, increase access to food, increase collaborations, and develop sustainable anti‐hunger services, while preserving and expanding resources to allow for increased infrastructure and capacity building. We will accomplish these purposeful plans through four main strategies.

1) Distribute more food to people in need.
FARSB will continually explore, modify, and add strategies for sourcing and distributing nutritious food in the safest and most cost effective way. Specifically, FARSB is working to increase capacity at the Community Partner level, expand our child hunger programs, realign our Retail Recovery program, increase capacity for our USDA program, and increase focus on our CalFresh program.

2) Develop and modify programs that focus on nutrition.
FARSB will continue to research and identify solutions that target the root causes of hunger. We believe the path "from hunger to health" requires access to nutritious food, and have a strategic plan to cultivate new relationships and expand existing relationships with donors of healthy, nutritious foods.

3) Build a sustainable business model.
FARSB is actively working to progress, expand, and modify marketing and donor/volunteer strategies to grow current support and diversify funding streams. This includes building a stronger direct mail strategy, actively engaging in public relations and media efforts, utilizing a reputable text-to-give/peer to peer platform, and strategically expanding the FARSB volunteer center to serve as a platform for converting volunteers into volunteer-donors. We will continue to develop and increase strategies that support growth and sustainability while actively focusing on fundraising and donor opportunities that are cost‐effective and revenue‐generating.

4) Become a favored nonprofit organization in the Inland Empire.
We will foster a culture of excellence by: A) providing a collaborative, educational, and rewarding experience for donors, community partners, and volunteers; and B) by supporting the personal and professional development of our staff. In this way, FARSB will become a preferred nonprofit organization in the region.

5) Cultivate and expand revenue streams.
We will continue to develop and improve strategies that support growth and sustainability, focusing on fundraising and donor opportunities that have proven to be cost-effective and successful at generating revenue.

6) Strengthen Board infrastructure and involvement.
We will continue to review and improve the Board recruitment and orientation process, develop succession planning, and develop innovative means of Board engagement and participation. These processes include Board self-assessments, annual reviews of FARSB's strategic plan, developing Board-led fundraising strategies and goals, and implementing strategic recruitment to build a Board that is demographically and professionally diverse.

Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino (FARSB) has developed a purposeful plan to ending hunger in our communities. We are unyielding in our commitment to ensure that everyone throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties has access to an adequate and nutritious food supply.

Our purposeful plan for the next 2 years is ambitious and aggressive ‐ aimed at sustaining the increased pace we experienced during the COVID‐19 pandemic and in pursuit of our mission of ending hunger in the Inland Empire. We have set our sights high while continuing our endeavor to be known as a mission‐driven organization that is compassionate, impactful and keeps the people we serve at the center of everything we do.

We believe that we are in a strong position to meet our goals of sustaining our efforts. We facilitate multiple programs throughout the Inland Empire to ensure that are positioned to meet the needs of various backgrounds and situations. These include our Community Partner Program, Cal Fresh Outreach Program, Homebound Emergency Relief Outreach (HERO), Military Veteran Program (MVP), Distributions in Partnership (DIP), and more!

FARSB is a member of the California Association of Food Banks, proudly holds the 2019 Guide Star Seal of Transparency, and is rated 100/100 on Finance & Accountability through the Charity Navigator Encompass Rating System.

GRAB & GO SITES
When schools closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were no longer able to host our farmer's market-style food distributions on school campuses. Quickly, we transitioned to Grab-N-Go-style food distributions in partnership with local school districts. This ensured that we could increase our 5 school markets to over 30 Grab-N-Go sites. These efforts have made a tremendous impact in our community and have become a permanent FARSB program.

DRIVE THRU DISTRUBUTIONS
We substituted our in-person visits made by our Community Partners with a drive-thru process in consideration of health and safety procedures. Our food bank accommodated community partners by ensuring orders were packaged and ready for pick up in an efficient and convenient manner for both staff and partners.

COMMUNITY PARTNER PROGRAM
FARSB works with over 250 community partners to ensure vulnerable families receive ongoing food assistance through their local pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and community centers. These community partners pick up food directly from the FARSB warehouse and provide it at no cost to neighbors in need. Partners are vetted, site visits are performed, and partners are trained to ensure that food is being safely handled and ethically distributed.

HOMEBOUND EMERGENCY RELIEF OUTREACH (HERO)
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched the Home-bound Emergency Relief Outreach (HERO) program. Through HERO, FARSB staff and volunteers conduct food deliveries to home-bound neighbors. HERO has made deliveries to 7,511 homes in the Inland Empire since its during the FY21. FARSB responded to calls made by vulnerable recipients in remote areas as the high desert. Through the 'Where's FARSB' campaign launched in January 2021, deliveries were made to communities in need, some of which experiencing their first delivery of food assistance.

CAL FRESH OUTREACH PROGRAM
FARSB identifies and supports eligible low-income households with the complex application process for CalFresh in both English and Spanish. Application assistance helps families access EBT benefits in a friendly and safe environment. Over 1,000 CalFresh applications were successfully submitted during the FY 2020-2021.

MILITARY VETERAN PROGRAM (MVP)
FARSB annually hosts the Holidays for our Heroes program, where we provide turkeys, pies, and holiday meal essentials to thousands of local veterans before Thanksgiving. In addition to these holiday meals, FARSB provides regular year-round food assistance at veteran facilities in Beaumont, Moreno Valley, and Loma Linda. With the assistance of the state’s Food Box Program, FARSB successfully hosted 35 distributions during the year which resulted in serving 14,753 military families and/or veterans.

OTHER PROGRAMS
Summer Nutrition Markets
Healthcare Pantries
Distributions in Partnership (DIP)