Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
An Oklahoma where no one goes hungry
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Oklahoma is one of the hungriest states in the nation. One in six Oklahomans lives with hunger, while one in four children in Oklahoma has inconsistent access to healthy food. The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma provides enough food to feed more than 136,000 Oklahomans every week, 37 percent of whom are children. Supporting the Regional Food Bank helps Oklahomans reach their potential. The majority of people served by the Regional Food Bank are chronically hungry children, seniors living on fixed incomes, and hard working families who cannot make ends meet.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Agency Distribution, Capacity and Partnership
During our first year of operation, the Regional Food Bank distributed approximately 280,000 pounds of food to 45 charities – we now do that in three days. Since its inception in 1980, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma has distributed more than 800 million pounds of food. Last year, the Food Bank distributed 50 million pounds of food. The Regional Food Bank works with a network of more than 1,300 community-based partner agencies and schools throughout central and western Oklahoma to distribute food to Oklahomans in need of food assistance.
Food for Kids Childhood Hunger Programs
These initiative programs work to ensure that hungry children in Oklahoma have access to nutritious food, allowing them to learn at the same rate as their peers, giving them hope for the future and an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. The Regional Food Bank's Food for Kids Programs include: Backpack program, School Pantry Program, Kids Cafe and Summer Feeding.
Food for Seniors
Every day, older Oklahomans are faced with not having enough money to pay rent, utilities, medical bills and prescriptions. At times, support from family and friends is just not enough, and they are unable to stretch their dollar far enough to purchase enough food to sustain their health. Through the Senior Mobile Markets Program and Commodity Supplemental Food Program, the Regional Food Bank is helping Oklahoma’s seniors in need of food assistance. Through Senior Mobile Markets, the Regional Food Bank delivers food each month to seniors living in 18 Oklahoma Housing Authority sites in Oklahoma, Pottawatomie, Seminole and Comanche counties. Each recipient receives a sack of nonperishable food items along with produce, refrigerated items, and bread when available. The Regional Food Bank assists with 18 Senior Mobile Markets and serves an average of 994 seniors a month, totaling 283,490 meals last year. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) works to improve the health of low-income seniors, age 60 or older, by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA commodity foods. More than 3,000 Oklahoma seniors are enrolled in CSFP.
Food & Resource Centers
The Regional Food Bank works with 14 collaborative Food & Resource Centers to reach targeted, underserved populations in urban and rural Oklahoma.
Where we work
Awards
Beacon Award 2021
Journal Record
Top Places to Work 2021
The Oklahoman
Oklahoma Family Positive Workplace 2021
Potts Family Foundation
2022 Community Service Award 2022
Chi Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children served through the Food for Kids Childhood Hunger Programs.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Families, Heterosexuals, LGBTQ people, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Food for Kids Childhood Hunger Programs
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of meals for children and senior citizens produced in our on-site Production Kitchen.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Families, Heterosexuals, LGBTQ people, Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Poundage of fresh foods procured and distributed to hungry Oklahomans.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Families, Heterosexuals, LGBTQ people, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Agency Distribution, Capacity and Partnership
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of community volunteers hosted annually at the Regional Food Bank.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Families, Heterosexuals, LGBTQ people, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Agency Distribution, Capacity and Partnership
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of hungry Oklahomans served through Food & Resource Centers.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Families, Heterosexuals, LGBTQ people, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Food & Resource Centers
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
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?
As part of our commitment to efficient and effective program operations, the Regional Food Bank has developed three primary areas of focus.
Goal 1: Scale the Food & Resource Center Model to a Broader Network of Public Pantry Partners.
While the FRC model has been tremendously successful during the last five years, the Regional Food Bank remains committed to efficient and effective operations. As the fifth anniversary of the opening of the first Food & Resource Center approaches and the organization reaches a natural break in its FRC implementation, the organization is undergoing a full review of the Food & Resource Center model. This review, called FRC 2.0, is designed to identify lessons learned in the first phase of the FRC initiative in order to determine best how to scale this effort throughout the Regional Food Bank's 53-county service area.
Goal 2: Expand Child and Senior Meal Programs through the Optimization of our Production Kitchen and Expanded Community Partnerships.
The Regional Food Bank plans to expand its Summer Feeding Program to reach even more sites, especially in rural areas, which are developed with community partnerships like Boys & Girls Clubs, Salvation Army sites, and afterschool programs. The Regional Food Bank's addition of a new Production Kitchen has helped the Regional Food Bank increase its Summer Feeding Program by creating meals that are federally reimbursable through the Federal SFSP Program.
The Production Kitchen will also play a critical role in the expansion of the Senior Feeding Program. This year, the Regional Food Bank is piloting a new Senior Feeding meal program in conjunction with congregate feeding sites in the Oklahoma City metro area. The Regional Food Bank knows many seniors who attend daily feeding sites often do not have food outside of the meals they receive on-site. This new program will help close the gap that exists by preparing frozen meals in our Production Kitchen, which are given to seniors who are at risk of going hungry outside of congregate meals. These meals can be heated using a microwave or an oven.
Goal 3: Develop Health & Nutrition Partnerships.
During the next year, the Regional Food Bank will continue to leverage existing relationships with healthcare and nutrition partners, in addition to partnerships with others engaged in expanding access to healthy foods. These partnerships include relationships with Integris Health, Variety Care, RAIN, and the Oklahoma City County Health Department, which both prescribe and help distribute healthy food to chronically ill patients. The Regional Food Bank will also continue to train OU medical residents on how to screen for food insecurity in patients. Integris, the Chickasaw Nation, OSU-OKC, and the American Heart Association will continue to provide nutrition education and cooking demonstrations in FRCs. These partnerships help the Regional Food Bank advance its nutrition policy throughout the organization's programs and operations.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Regional Food Bank has developed a set of steps for each focus area.
Goal 1: Scale the Food & Resource Center Model to Broader Network of Public Pantry Partners.
1) Conduct focus groups with existing Food & Resource Centers to assess lessons learned from the initiative's start-up phase. Use this information to shape continuous improvement options and scaling of the model across the Regional Food Bank's service area.
2) Conduct a capacity building survey in partnership with Feeding America to assess the specific areas where partners need to build capacity and barriers to expanding services and food distribution.
3) Hold an agency conference to obtain additional feedback on emerging new standards for agencies as part of scaling the Food & Resource Center model.
4) Development of a final plan for scaling the Food & Resource Center model to the rest of the Food Bank's public pantry partners.
5) Obtain feedback via surveys and in-person discussions from existing partner agencies and Food & Resource Centers on this proposed plan and use that feedback to finalize the plan.
6) Implement plan to transform broader network in alignment with Food & Resource Center concepts in FY18.
Goal 2: Expand Child and Senior Meal Programs through the Optimization of Production Kitchen and Expanded Community Partnerships:
Summer Feeding
1. Serve as a core partner and one of four hosts for Summer Feeding Programs in Oklahoma on the Oklahoma Children's Food Security Council.
2. Engage in community organizing activities throughout the third and fourth quarter to organize new partnerships for Summer Feeding and support the maintenance of existing partnerships.
Production and Distribution of Children's Meals
3. Develop and distribute frozen meals produced in the Regional Food Bank's Production Kitchen to all existing Kids Café sites, including those in rural areas.
Production and Distribution of Senior Meals
4. Finalize a partnership with a local senior social services organization to distribute Production Kitchen meals to seniors attending daily congregate feeding sites.
Goal 3: Develop Health & Nutrition Partnerships.
1. Continue and expand health provider partnerships.
2. Finalize and adopt a nutrition policy to guide the Regional Food Bank's overall efforts to impact the health of the clients we serve.
3. Develop a sustainable approach for the Farm to Food Bank project, which helps local farmers' meet their soil conservation goals. Integrate this pilot project with our Urban Harvest program, which provides fresh produce to partner agencies throughout our service areas.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Regional Food Bank has 40 years of strong, successful collaborations with key partners in our state with an end goal of leveraging collaborative opportunities to help fight hunger in Oklahoma. The Regional Food Bank believes in the power of collaborative opportunities because it is only through collaboration that long-term projects can truly succeed. As a whole, these collaborative partnerships help the Regional Food Bank secure food and monetary donations, implement operational efficiencies to maximize resources and educate Oklahomans on hunger issues impacting our state.
Each year, the Regional Food Bank continues to expand its food distribution efforts in order to meet the growing need for emergency food assistance in our state. Last year, the Regional Food Bank served 52 million pounds of food, a four percent increase from the previous year. In addition to distributing food through 1,300 partner agencies and participating schools, the Regional Food Bank also continues to distribute food through 11 special, targeted programs designed to reach individuals who may not have access to the traditional emergency food network due to age, location, mobility or disability. As outlined in the progress section, each of these programs is also growing to help meet the demand for help in our state.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
• Backpack Program: During the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the program served more than 20,000 chronically hungry children attending 480 elementary schools received weekly backpacks of food throughout the school year.
• Care and Share Family Box Program: The Care and Share Family Box Program focuses on rural communities with high levels of need and limited or no access to partner agencies. More than 5,000 Oklahomans in 5 areas received food.
• Food & Resource Centers: 15 Food & Resource Centers (FRCs) are increasing the amount of food distributed to hungry Oklahomans by offering expanded hours of access and client choice pantries throughout our service area. These FRCs served more than 3,000 unique individuals, including targeted high-risk populations per month.
• Fresh Food Mobile Market Program: Seven distribution sites specifically targeted to communities with high indicators of need are serving an average of 1,500 individuals each month.
• Fresh Rx: Three sites in conjunction with low-income medical clinics include healthy-living pantry boxes and fresh food distributions, with a goal of improving health outcomes through increased access to healthier food options.
• Kids Cafe: 53 Kids Cafe sites and afterschool snack programs provide a safe haven, enrichment activities and a snack or full meal daily after school to more than 6,200 at-risk children.
• OKDHS Pantry Program: The OKDHS Pantry Program is a partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. Pre-packaged boxes of nonperishable food are provided each month to nearly 900 families in crisis situations in 51 counties.
• School Pantry Program: During the 2016-2017 academic year, the program served 6,500 secondary students struggling with hunger. These students received enough food for 460,000 meals through the 172 middle and high schools participating in the School Pantry Program.
• Senior Feeding Program: The Senior Feeding Program provides food assistance to close to 5,000 low-income seniors through senior mobile pantries, homebound delivery and a pantry box program.
• Summer Feeding Program: The Summer Feeding Program provides nutritious food to children in the summer months when school meals are not available. In Summer 2018, the Regional Food Bank hosted 120 feeding sites, serving more than 7,000 children.
• Urban Harvest: Urban Harvest is a sustainable gardening program that focuses on fresh food production for the Regional Food Bank's Fresh Rx Program and other partners.
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 collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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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, It is difficult to identify actionable 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
- 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.
Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
Board of directorsas of 01/24/2024
Phi Nguyen
Downtown OKC Partnership
Term: 2023 - 2024
Jeremy Humphers
Devon Energy
JD Baker
Cortado Ventures
Dave Lopez
Lopez Foods
Danny Barth
Oklahoma City Thunder
Michael Hart
Dillingham Insurance
Gloria Torres
Historical Capitol Hill - Calle Dos Cinco
Phi Nguyen
Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership
Scott Wright
Love's Travel Stops
Rhonda Sutton
Chickasaw Nation Industries
Demetra Bailey
B & B Catering
Apollo Woods
Black Eats, LLC
Vanessa Morrison
University of Oklahoma
Judy Goforth-Parker
Chickasaw Nation
Jose Ibarra
Supermercados Morelos
Dr. Lydia Nightengale
Variety Care
Wendi Schurr
Bank of America
Kim Tran
Toptal
Marissa Walker
American Fidelity
Shane Wharton
Love's Travel Stops
Johnny Whitfield
OG&E
Adam Rainbolt
Banc First Insurance
Edgar Medina
Tinker Federal Credit Union
Erik Salazar
Federal Aviation Administration
JC Witcher
ADG-Blatt Architects
Jessie Thompson
Community Action Agency of OKC
Lacie Richardson
BOK Financial
Lanie O'Reidy
Timberlake Construction
Miquel Soto
Blue Cross Blue Shield OK
Robert Herritt
Huntington Energy
Ryan Storer
Plains Commercial Real Estate
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:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/11/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.