Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Across the Food Bank of Central Louisiana's 11-parish service area, 20% of the population is food insecure - 30,000 of them are children. The Food Bank of Central Louisiana, through all of its programs, serves more than 62,000 people each month, but we know there is more work to be done. The vast majority served by the Food Bank earn at or below the federal poverty line which is income per year of $16,588 per individual.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Partner Agency Program
The Food Bank distributes more than 9 million pounds of donated food and grocery products annually through a network of 161 partner agencies in eleven parishes. This serves more than 42,500 food insecure people each month.
BackPack Program
The BackPack Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations. The backpacks are filled with food that children take home from school on Friday afternoons to provide food for the weekend. The food is child-friendly, nonperishable, and easily consumed. .
Senior Program
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana’s Adopt-A-Senior program provides impoverished senior citizens with 50 pounds of food every month for 12 months. The Food Bank’s Senior program currently serves more than 1,200 seniors in the Central Louisiana area.
Good Food Project
The Good Food Project teaches sustainable gardening practices in the demonstration garden at the Food Bank. All of the fresh, organic produce grown here is distributed to Food Bank clients. Additionally, the Good Food Project supports more than 75 satellite, youth, and community gardens in the parishes served by the Food Bank of Central Louisiana.
Mobile Food Pantry Program
The Mobile Pantry Program sends food and groceries into communities where other services are few or do not exist. In many rural, underserved communities, the Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry Program is the only option for residents to access charitable food assistance on a regular and dependable schedule.
School Food Pantry Program
The School Pantry Program will play a crucial role in providing children and their families with access to food for preparation at home when other resources such as free and reduced price school meals are not available.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Feeding America
External reviews

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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of meals served or provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We distributed 9,500,000 pounds which is enough food for about 8,000,000 meals.
Total pounds of food rescued
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of weekend meals served to low income students
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
BackPack Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn 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 of Central Louisiana's mission is to alleviate hunger in central Louisiana. In order to fulfill our mission, the organization is working to meet these strategic goals: Distribute more food, build member agency capacity, expand funding, strengthen food bank operations, and develop a strong team.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Distribute more food - increase cold storage capacity, increase mobile pantry distribution, expand retail donation program, establish food drive with faith-based community, expand school food pantry program. Build member agency capacity - evaluate member agency strengths and capacity and assess annually, create plan of action for agency growth and succession, and determine agencies storage capacity and seek funding to support agency capacity building. Engage the community - develop marketing and communications plan, access and adjust plan annually, develop key messages to tell the Food Bank story, successfully conclude the capital campaign, expand grant funds to expand programming and food distribution, can increase the number of volunteers and donors. Strengthen operations - conduct assessment of equipment, determine technology recourses and operational/administrative processes, secure an expert resource to assist in streamlining workflow, and maintain policies, processes and training required to meet all food safety certification standards. Develop a strong team - evaluate staffing structure and update as needed to support our growth, continue to implement best practices for board engagement and development, and identify volunteer roles needed in new facility and recruit volunteers to fill those needs.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana has a 30 year track record of operation. During the past 30 years, the Food Bank has created and modified programs in order to meet the needs of the clients and the organization. The Food Bank staff works to accept, process, warehouse, and distribute food throughout our 11-parish service on a daily basis. This is done so through many different programs and procedures, using staff members with a wide range of expertise and experience. The Food Bank of Central Louisiana is able to distribute more than 11 million pounds of food annually with the coordinated efforts of the 14 full-time and 11 part-time staff.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana recently completed our 3 year strategic plan, so many of our goals and objectives were just established. Our organization recently completed our $3.5 million capital campaign to increase our capacity to store and distribute more food throughout our service area.
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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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
The US Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as lacking “consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living.” According to the USDA’s most recent estimates, 10.5% of people experience food insecurity. In Louisiana, that rate is 14.8%. The Central Louisiana region exceeds the state average, with 15.4% – about one in six – of our neighbors living in food-insecure households. Poverty and hunger are not new to Central Louisiana. While the current historically high inflation has made matters worse, chronic poverty and food insecurity have existed across the region for decades. With food grocery costs up more than ten percent over the last year, there is increased pressure on areas of high need and low access where consistent services typically do not exist.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person),
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client 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,
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
Our staff, Our board, Our funders,
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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,
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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,
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
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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.
The Food Bank of Central Louisiana
Board of directorsas of 12/29/2022
Kent Lachney
Louisiana State University - Alexandria
Term: 2019 - 2024
Connie Sutton
Retired Schoolteacher
Term: 2019 - 2024
Kent Lachney
LSUA
Joe Gardner
Lottie Bash
Cornelia Sutton
Gary Brown
Brian Couvillon
Marie Simpson
Robert Willett
Ronny Briley
Christina Hathorn
Tim Holloway
Krystal Rachal
Mandy Scoggin
Todd St.Romain
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
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: