Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Bread Line, Inc. is an anti-hunger organization in Fairbanks, Alaska that directly addresses issues of food insecurity and poverty. The downtown area of Fairbanks, where we operate, is considered a "food desert," with a high incidence of homelessness and poverty. In 2016, we saw a 19% increase in the number of people utilizing our soup kitchen.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Stone Soup Cafe
The Bread Line’s Stone Soup Cafe provides free meals, every weekday, to anyone in need. Our mission is feed people and affirm lives by providing good food to hungry people without question: all are welcome, all are served.
Stone's Throw
Stone’s Throw is a culinary job training program that empowers people to pave a path to economic security in food service careers.
Students receive progressive on-the-job skills, classroom training and support group benefits. All training phases come together in the real-life setting of a busy kitchen, allowing individuals to learn and practice both technical and employability skills in a supportive environment that fosters self-sufficiency, commitment, consistency, self-awareness, productivity and growth.
Stone Soup Garden
In partnership with The Fairbanks Memorial Hospital - who generously made a garden space available to us - the Bread Line launched the Stone Soup Community Garden in 2015. Growing into more than 40 raised beds, the garden is a volunteer-run program that gives real-time instruction on urban agriculture, makes garden space available (for free) to food insecure downtown residents, provides community collaboration and grows food for use in the Bread Line's soup kitchen, the Stone Soup Cafe, as well as proving food relief to other organizations including assisted living facilities and Fairbanks' local Meals on Wheels program,.
Kid's Cafe
Kids’ Cafe is a monthly gathering of families and Stone Soup volunteers. The project collaborates with the Fairbanks Children's Museum and other local organizations to educate children what food insecurity is in our community and learn what young people can do about it. Volunteers make food for the following week in the Bread Line's soup kitchen, make decorations for holiday events and learn about being a good citizen.
Where we work
External reviews

Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Health, Social and economic status, Age groups
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We track the number of volunteers for each Bread Line program, daily.
Total number of volunteer hours contributed to the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Social and economic status, Health, Age groups
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
The Bread Line tracks the number of daily volunteers as well as the amount of hours served.
Number of meals served or provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Age groups, Health, Social and economic status
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The Bread Line serves free weekday meals to anyone in need.. During the first year of the COVID pandemic, the soup kitchen saw a 42% increase in service.
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?
ISSUE: living with hunger
Bread Line's Aim: feeding hungry people at our Stone Soup Cafe ISSUE: barriers to employment
Bread Line's Aim: culinary job training in the Stone's Throw program ISSUE: community engagement
Bread Line's Aim: Kids Cafe and the Stone Soup Garden Project ISSUE: hunger in our neighborhood
Bread Line's Aim: community collaboration to alleviate hunger
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We have four established programs to achieve our goals: our flagship project, the Stone Soup Cafe, which employs a chef and dozens of volunteers to serve hot meals daily; our Stone's Throw culinary job training program engages people experiencing employment issues and empowers them to make life changes, under the tutelage of professional chefs and life coaches; both the Kid's Cafe & the Stone's Throw Community Garden supports community collaboration and keeps our efforts in the public eye; lastly, we have a number of public outreach programs that help alleviate hunger in our community and are a source of earned income.`
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We currently have a full service, 100 seat capacity, soup kitchen facility, housed in a building we own, in downtown Fairbanks. We operate a morning meal Monday-Friday that also provides a sack lunch to go. From this same location, we run our Stone's Throw program, with three full-time chef instructors and an administrative assistant. Additionally we lease a one acre plot for our 40 bed community community garden. The food from our garden supplements the Stone Soup Cafe, our Summer Food Service Program and a number of anti-hunger community collaborations. The Bread Line is supported by a robust volunteer program of more than 150 volunteers annually. We also have had great success utilizing the AmeriCorps VISTA program for site-specific projects.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2016, we provided 37,940 hot meals to our guests at the Stone Soup Cafe and delivered another 13,938 meals to our low-income neighbors. Our Stone's Throw culinary program graduated eight students with 80% of our graduates successfully employed within 90 days of graduation. We look to increased that to 18 work-ready students graduating in 2018. Our garden has harvested approximately three tons of produce, since it started in 2015. Much of those vegetables went to augment food programs for low-income residents in downtown assisted living facilities. In the future, we look to increase our contract meals with our strategic community partners. We will also be taking on a new AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer to research and implement food-related employment programs. We will also hope to on a licensed social worker to coordinate pass-through social services for our Cafe guests and training program students.
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our 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.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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.
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.
BREAD LINE INC
Board of directorsas of 8/9/2021
Donald Crocker
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Term: 2020 - 2022
Jason Case
Street Sounds
Term: 2020 - 2022
Karen Lane
The Pen Guy
Clay Triplehorn
Tanana Valley Clinic
Jason Case
Street Sounds
Donald Crocker
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Kristina Miller
Alaska Public Defender Agency
Jennifer Redmond
Grants Administrator at Chugachmiut
Kunaan Smyth
Mother
Carla Baker
Interior Alaska Center For Non-Violent Living
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
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? Not applicable -
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? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: