Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Inc.
Nourish people. Build solutions. Empower communities.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina works every day to provide food to people in need while building solutions to end hunger in our communities. Since 1980, the Food Bank has worked across the food system to provide access to nutritious food that nourishes families, children, seniors, and individuals. Through partnerships, education, and programs, the Food Bank empowers communities to overcome hunger, creating an environment where all North Carolinians thrive. Although the Food Bank is located in one of the United States’ “best places to live,” our data and experience show hunger remains a serious problem in central and eastern North Carolina. In our 34-county service area, nearly 600,000 individuals, working families, children and seniors struggle to access nutritious and adequate amounts of food necessary for an active and healthy life.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Nourishing Families of All Sizes
The Food Bank is working to provide more access to the healthiest food possible to the families we serve, distributing more meals every year to continue reducing the increasing meal gap.
Goals for Nourishing Families
• Safely and efficiently distribute 90 million meals to our 34 counties based on the equitable food distribution model and looking at accessibility and gaps in service
• Increase local agriculture partnerships to increase efficiencies, reduce waste, and support the local food system
• Maintain collaboration with and support of Partner Agencies, including visits to ensure food safety, distribution, increased engagement, and capacity to support their efforts in nourishing families
• Maintain organization volunteer hours in the range of 250,000 hours, which equates to an additional 116 full-time employees
Nourishing Seniors, Children & Teens
Our dedicated staff goes into communities to meet folks where they already are: providing boxes of food right to their doors, operating grab n’ go meal sites, pantries at their schools and health centers, meals to take home on weekends and school breaks, hot foods at after-school care, and breakfast and lunch at summer camps.
Every year, the Food Bank provides healthy food to children and seniors so they can build the skills to be healthy, connected, and whatever they want to be in life, and the Food Bank also advocates for the policies that ensure programs like these remain in reach.
Goals for Nourishing Seniors, Children, & Teens
• Safely and efficiently distribute 90 million meals including
29 million meals dedicated to nourishing children and
teens in our 34 counties.
• Provide 4 million meals through child nutrition and
senior program sites
Nourishing Historically Resilient Communities
Over the Food Bank’s more than 40 years of operation, we’ve learned that systemic issues and lack of access to resources and programs lead to inequities in the communities we serve.
Many people can experience hunger because of a lost job, injury or illness, divorce, unexpected expense, or some other episode. Communities that have been marginalized, such as the American Indian, Black, Hispanic, and rural communities face systems and policies that block their paths to a livable wage and a sustainable life.
Goals for Nourishing Historically Resilient Communities
• Safely and efficiently distribute 90 million meals
— Increasing partnerships with organizations already
serving communities that have been marginalized.
— Sourcing food with an equity lens and dietary needs.
— Implementing more ‘llast mile’ services to increase
access to food for communities that have fewer
options due to location or work schedules.
Empowering Health & Communities
Through partnerships with local farmers and growers and investments in transporting and distributing fresh food, produce has become a staple at the Food Bank, and represented about 40% of the food that went into communities in 2022.
We utilize our on-site teaching kitchen and video recipe hub to offer cooking demonstrations and nutrition education, and work directly with our Partner Agencies to implement choice and their own nutrition information.
Goals for Empowering Health & Communities
• Produce distribution of 41 million lbs.
• Collaborate with community partners to support the creation of regional food councils and local food systems.
• Ensure over 70% of food distributed is classified as Foods to Encourage—the most nutritious foods possible to contribute to good health.
• Supporting and retaining 50 Healthy Pantries and 9
Healthcare-site Pantries (Food as Medicine focus),
and continuing to onboard new sites.
Building Solutions to End Hunger
We work to support & empower the people we serve by increasing access to food & services, such as healthcare, employment skills, and nutrition education. The Food Bank’s Benefits Outreach Coordinators provide information and application assistance to seniors, working families, individuals living with disabilities, people without permanent addresses, and military families to bridge this gap & bring more federal dollars to our communities.
The Food Bank was founded to address the community health issue of hunger. We understand that ensuring no one goes hungry must not only include access to food, but advocating for policies that benefit people in our communities and lift people out of the cycle of hunger.
Goals for Building
• Continue advocating alongside the people we serve utilizing the Public Policy Platform
• Expanding our reach with new outreach strategies & workforce development opportunities.
• Develop a Standardized Quality of Care procedure
Building Innovation
In order to improve our capacity to distribute food safely and efficiently to people in need, the Food Bank works with our partner agencies to provide opportunities and support such as nutrition education materials, equipment (refrigerators, freezers, etc.), and training on fundraising, efficient operations, and food safety.
The majority of our partners obtain most, if not all, of the food they distribute from the Food Bank, directly or through retail and agriculture partnerships. Particularly in the throes of the pandemic, this would not have been possible without our secure infrastructure of food resources and education.
Goals for Building Innovation
• 3 trucks to improve efficiency and the ability to distribute more food
• Cultivate and grow efficiencies of the Retail Donation Program
• Infrastructure investments in volunteer capacity, warehouse repairs, and equipment cost increases
Building Sustainable Solutions
The Food Bank’s vision is “No one goes hungry,” and while we work to distribute more healthy and nutrient-rich food every year, offer education tools and workforce development, and benefits outreach for partner agencies and individuals, we know that hunger will not end tomorrow.
For this reason the Food Bank established an endowment fund to generate sustainable revenue for our community’s future. The Food Bank has worked since 1980 to serve our friends and neighbors in need, and thanks to the tremendous generosity and support of those committed to solving hunger, we will be a part of central and eastern North Carolina for as long as needed.
Funding Needs
• Our endowment provides certain, steady support permanently for tomorrow. Legacy gifts through your estate or planned gift will make a lasting impact on the future of our communities by funding the Food Bank's Endowment Fund.
Where we work
Awards
Agency of Excellence 2009
Greater Triangle United Way
Agency of Excellence 2008
Triangle United Way
Agency of Excellence 2007
Triangle United Way
Excellence in Food Banking: Food Access 2013
Feeding America
Friend of School Nutrition 2016
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Sir Walter Raleigh Award Community Appearance 2017
City of Raleigh
Healthiest Employers 2019
Triangle Business Journal
Member of the Year 2020
Feeding America
Affiliations & memberships
America's Second Harvest - Affiliate 1984
Feeding America
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of meals provided annually (using Feeding America pounds to meals calculation)
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Meals provided to individuals, children, seniors and families.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Food Bank is working every day to grow and develop to meet our mission, with an all-encompassing value of incorporating Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion discussions, actions, and measurements, through the following strategies:
1. Nourish more people in our communities.
2. Build solutions that will ultimately end hunger.
3. Empower communities to overcome hunger, creating an environment where all North Carolinians thrive.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We took our mission and vision and spent time thinking about what strategic steps we
could take as an organization in the next 3 years that will truly impact reaching the
vision of no one going hungry.
This process evolved to include equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as a foundational
component of our work, as well as ensuring that the Food Bank brand can be
strengthened and helpful to our partners in this work.
Within this process, the Food Bank workgroups held listening sessions and got
feedback from our partner agencies as well as the people we serve to help ensure the
initiatives we built were collaborative and reflective of the needs of the community.
Why now?
We could not anticipate the incredible impact the COVID-19 pandemic had for the
people and communities we serve. The environment we’re operating in now is vastly
different from any time in the Food Bank’s 40 years of service.
The community, and really the whole country, has developed a greater awareness of
food insecurity, of how many families and individuals live so close to the edge in putting
food on the table.
We have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to look deeper and develop approaches to
support people on the cusp of food insecurity before they find themselves needing the
services of the hunger relief system.
Through nourishing people, building solutions, and empowering communities, we’re
being innovative: building on and strengthening tactics that will move the needle toward
food security, ultimately realizing our vision of no one going hungry.
A Phased Approach
Knowing so many members of our community are living one health crisis, one missed
paycheck, one grocery trip away from needing the Food Bank network makes it clear
that a phased approach to plan implementation is vital.
Please see our strategic plan outline on our website foodbankcenc.org/stratplan
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We are led by the Board of Directors with the support of a community of more than 21,000 donors; 249,000 volunteer hours annually; a network of 700 partner agencies who are committed to ending hunger; more than 120 staff members; and 6 facilities covering 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina, including a 108,000 square feet Hunger Solutions Center in Raleigh.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In terms of total food distributed, the Food Bank ranks in the top 15 nationally among 200 Feeding America food banks and first in North Carolina. Our food distribution programs and child nutrition programs are based on national models.
In fiscal year 2021-2022, the Food Bank distributed more than 95 million pounds of food, more than half of which was nutritious, perishable items such as meat, dairy, and fresh produce – and non-food essentials such as paper products and hygiene items. This record amount of food nourishing our community came at a time of record need.
The Food Bank and our network of partner agencies in communities are still seeing the long-lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, now alongside additional economic uncertainty and increased costs of living. The most recent Map the Meal Gap study from Feeding America shows that in our 34-county service area, 508,430 individuals are facing food insecurity. While these numbers are encouraging in that they are lower than previous measurements of food insecurity, it is imperative to state: no one should be hungry.
We know that food insecurity rates can differ from the reality on the ground in the communities we serve. At the Food Bank, our partner agencies supporting folks on the front lines are still reporting a sustained 25-30% increase in need over pre-pandemic levels.
The last year has again shed light on an issue we’ve long known was there—so many of our friends and neighbors are living one health crisis, one missed paycheck, and one grocery store trip away from needing to use the Food Bank network. While the pandemic was by no means the beginning of the issue of hunger and access to food in our country, it did shine a light on hunger’s prevalence, particularly for people made most vulnerable by systemic inequities who experience disproportionate rates of food insecurity.
In addition to daily operations building solutions to end hunger, the Food Bank provides help and support following natural disasters such as hurricanes and during times of crisis, as with the COVID-19 pandemic. In times of emergency, the Food Bank collects and distributes needed food, water, and supplies to impacted areas, providing relief and recovery aid for as long as needed.
The Food Bank operates under the mission to nourish people, build solutions, and empower communities. With the support of this incredible community and our partners, we work every day to ensure no one goes hungry
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 10/31/2023
Stephanie Miles
Genesys
Term: 2020 - 2024
Susan Yaggy
President/CEO NC Foundation for Advanced Health Programs, Retired
Greg Bromberger
Cisco
Octavio Soares
BASF Corporation
Chris Wozencroft
Credit Suisse
David Kochman
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
David L. Garris
Food Lion
Timothy Tripp
Duke Energy, Retired
Monica Barnes
ABC11
Greg Fountain
Pure Storage
Anne H. Lloyd
Retired, Martin Marietta
Jonathan Mize
Womble Bond Dickinson
Matt Rogers
Aramark
Travis Hockaday
Smith Anderson
Charles Inman
Food Lion
Randolph Keaton
Men and Women United for Youth and Families
James Kissinger
Nationwide
Christine Mazzone
Lenovo
George E Norman III
Total Direct, LLC
Reverend Charles Brooks
Poplar Springs United Church of Christ
La Verne Reid
North Carolina Central University
Drew Duncan
Biogen
Shelayne Daly Sutton
Daly Seven, Inc.
Louise Winstanly
UNC Chapel Hill
Susan Corts Hills
Public Policy Consultant
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes