Feeding the Gulf Coast

2020 External Goals

1. Reduce food insecurity by providing 17,500,000 meals, distributing at least 21 million pounds of food. Continue using SNAP assistance hotline and benefit enrollment center to complete applications over the phone to meet the needs of clients throughout AL and MS, and target seniors throughout AL and MS to expand the benefits we offer to low-income seniors. Continue to relieve food insecurity by freeing up resources seniors have previously used on other needs. Support CSFP efforts in AL.

2. Continue to reduce transportation expenses by efficiently utilizing newer trucks in our fleet, seek funding opportunities to replace aged trucks, maintain a consistent preventative maintenance program, and seek further efficiency in routing. The goal is to have a 5% reduction in transportation expenses.

3. Identify high need areas for Afterschool Meal expansion. Distribute 800,000 snacks, 90,000 suppers, and 2,500 breakfast meals during the school year. Continue to grow the backpack program in all three states.

4. Continue to partner with the Department of Agriculture, farmers and community organizations to expand gleaning opportunities, build relationships with farmers and other sources of produce, and increase nutrition related outreach and awareness events.

5. Continue to partner with health professionals to expand education classes related to nutrition and cooking for adults and children as part of an overall focus on hunger and nutrition's impact on health and learning as well as develop and distribute healthy food boxes to clients.

6. Continue to expand brand awareness and fundraising activities to ensure continued transition to our new name, Feeding the Gulf Coast, and ensure strong community engagement to support facility expansions and utilizations, core operations, and special programs.

7. Continue to utilize advisory committees, board members, and community leaders in each state. Expand board involvement to increase awareness of our mission through fundraising events to help build long-term financial stability.

8. Through the MPIN committee, focus on transitioning our red counties to green to ensure we are meeting the need throughout our service area. Have 22 of our 24 counties green by the end of 2020. Continue to improve food quality and standardization of our mobile pantries.

Distributing food across 24 counties along the Central Gulf Coast requires efficient logistics and a reliable transportation fleet. Feeding the Gulf Coast is always reevaluating routes and methods to cut down on transportation costs, while increasing the pounds delivered to each community. By combining SNAP and Benefits Enrollment Outreach with food distribution events, the food bank can achieve two goals with one transportation route: provide emergency food access and help individuals secure assistance through SNAP and other budget-relieving benefits.

To further reduce costs and maximize consumption of valuable food, Feeding the Gulf Coast is encouraging agency partners to pick up food donations directly from nearby grocery stores for direct distribution to clients, while saving the food bank the expense of picking up retail store donations and moving the product through its warehouses in Milton, FL or Theodore, AL.

The food bank's strategy to expand and strengthen child nutrition programs is two-fold: build relationships at the community level and advocate for policy changes at the federal level. Full-time child nutrition staff have been retained to operate in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, developing partners in rural areas to host Summer Meals and Afterschool Meals sites. At the federal level, the food bank is advocating policy changes that will streamline the reporting for each federal program, eliminating redundancies and reducing expenses.

Feeding the Gulf Coast has two warehouses, which, combined, can hold 3 million pounds of food at a time. Cold storage areas can hold up to 20 tractor trailer loads and the freezers can hold 15 tractor trailer loads. The main warehouse, in Theodore, AL and the panhandle warehouse, in Milton, FL, are equipped with emergency generators to protect food from spoiling during power outages. A fleet of 11 refrigerated trucks picks up and distributes food across the 24-county service area.

In January 2016, the food bank acquired a third facility in Gulfport, MS, which will provide space for offices, a training/conference room and dry good storage. This new space will allow us to expand our programs in Mississippi.

Feeding the Gulf Coast has 72 full-time employees and 6 part-time employees. The organization could not distribute more than 34 million pounds of food annually without the support of volunteers. In 2022, over 22,000 volunteers contributed more than 210,000 service hours to the food bank.

Feeding the Gulf Coast has earned a reputation both on local and national levels and has been able to make its programs sustainable by program branding and increasing awareness of hunger in our community. Experience has shown that once adopted, finding local support for continuing programs among businesses and the faith-based community is available.

Feeding the Gulf Coast also has a board approved Development Committee, which guides our fundraising efforts and has helped implement several giving programs. The food bank has a monthly giving program and has implemented a lifetime donor recognition program. Participants of both programs receive special recognition in newsletters, the annual report and a wall mural. The food bank also has a planned giving program with local financial advisors providing materials to donors sharing the economic benefits of planned gifts as part of their estate planning. The food bank manages a robust direct mail campaign program with over 10,000 active donors.

Since establishment in 1981, Feeding the Gulf Coast has distributed more than 280 million pounds of food and has met the needs of communities during times of disaster. In 2018, after Hurricane Michael swept destruction through the southeastern United States, Feeding the Gulf Coast responded immediately with water, food and other resources to disaster areas in the Panhandle of Florida.

The Retail Store Level Pickup Program gives the food bank and its agencies access to fresh foods such as produce, dairy, meat and bread. The program, created on the national level by Feeding America, partners retail grocery chains with local food banks. In 2020, 185 stores along the Central Gulf Coast donated more than 11.5 million pounds of food to the food bank through this program.

Our SNAP and Benefits Outreach Program began in 2010 with the signing of a contract to conduct SNAP Outreach on behalf of the Alabama Department of Human Resources throughout Alabama. In 2014, the food bank expanded SNAP Outreach work into Mississippi by contracting with the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Both state programs cover 50% of the expenses needed to perform outreach. In 2020, the SNAP Outreach team helped more than 6,900 families gain access to SNAP and other benefits.

Since the first child nutrition program began in 2003, these programs have continued to expand and now include over 160 Afterschool Meals and Summer Meals Program sites, which support over 13,000 children. The food bank also supports approximately 5,400 children through a school-based Backpack Program providing at risk children with food for the weekend.

Feeding the Gulf Coast has been successful in implementing programs and meeting food distribution goals in urban parts of the service area; however, rural communities present a different challenge. Population density in rural communities is lower and more spread out, creating the challenge of finding a central location from which to distribute food and conduct programs. Serving these counties is also more expensive, requiring more staff time and more miles on delivery trucks, while also facing limited funding opportunities due to the limited presence of businesses and foundations in rural areas.