2018-19 AR Text Pages:2018-19 AR Text Pages 10/24/19 1:40 PM Page 1 Nourishing New Beginnings The staff and board at Mid-South Food Bank worked hard in 2018- Mobile Pantry 2019 toward a much anticipated goal: moving into a newly Our Mobile Pantry trucks provided food to thousands of retrofitted warehouse and office facility. This move represents a households at 91 distributions, with a total of 4,059,000 new beginning for the Food Bank, to work out of one building, pounds in both urban and rural areas. Additionally, our with capacity for more food to be distributed to people in need Mobile Pantry distributions included food for the government throughout our 31-county service area. But the new building is employees affected by the government shutdown in not the end, but an opportunity to nourish a new beginning and January 2019. move ahead to fully realize the dream the building is part of – the Mission of Mid-South Food Bank: Volunteers More than 6,400 volunteers contributed 24,970 hours of To change lives by eliminating hunger in the Mid-South. service sorting food in the warehouse, helping at special events, in the office and at Mobile Pantry distributions. Aside from the move to the new facility, there were many successes last year to acknowledge - SNAP Outreach Hunger’s Hope Food Distribution Mid-South Food Bank helped people at our partner agencies Mid-South Food Bank shattered its goal of distributing 15 and other appropriate venues with 1,325 applications for million pounds of food by increasing our distribution to 16.2 SNAP benefits (food stamps), the largest federal nutrition million pounds through our partner agencies and other assistance program. It is part of the Food Bank’s overall programs. efforts to provide people the food they need to lead healthy lives. Child Hunger Programs Two Kids Cafe locations in inner-city Memphis served 35,489 In January 2019, President & CEO meals to 450 kids (unduplicated). Estella Mayhue-Greer announced her plans to retire after 23 years Our 16 Food for Kids BackPack Programs provided 83,700 with Mid-South Food Bank, BackPack boxes with more than 500,000 meals to 2,135 kids working in agency relations, as (unduplicated). Senior Vice President and as Chief Operating Officer before We began a new program, Healthy School Pantry, at two becoming President & CEO in locations, distributing over 192,000 pounds of food through 2011. Her tenure was marked by monthly food boxes to 210 students and their families. significant growth in the number of people served by the Food The Summer Harvest program, which is the summer Bank, but her greatest successes extension of the Healthy School Pantry and BackPack include beginning new programs Programs, provided family food boxes equal to more than including Kids Cafe, the Food for 17,000 pounds of food to 49 families. Kids BackPack Program, Mobile Pantry and Healthy School Pantry. She also formulated the Nutrition on Wheels program to serve Seniors patients at low income clinics, which began in the Fall of 2019. Food distribution to seniors included the Senior Grocery Box Her most notable success and lasting legacy is the new Mid- filled with nonperishable food appropriate for senior diets South Food Bank facility at 3865 S. Perkins in Memphis, the including no-sodium vegetables, no-sugar fruit and fruit juice, culmination of many years of planning and partnerships. For this, low-sodium protein entrees, plus nonmeat protein, cereal and we will always be grateful. shelf-stable milk. More than 10,000 Senior Grocery Boxes were distributed through partner agencies as well as senior apartment complexes in Shelby County. 2018-19 AR Text Pages:2018-19 AR Text Pages 10/24/19 1:40 PM Page 2 Nourishing by Tackling Child Hunger Now One of the Memphis Dream Center's goals is to have a positive impact on future generations. The Dream Center is the urban missionary arm of The Life Church. A Mid-South Food Bank partner agency since 2010, the Dream Center has worked aggressively to meet that goal by feeding children. The charge to fight hunger originated when Dream Center administrators took note of a sobering 2010 statistic that ranked Memphis as the hungriest city in America. The Feed Memphis program distributes food directly to 4,000 children attending eight schools in four target areas of high poverty every Friday afternoon, using scores of volunteers. The teams come together to pray and carpool to the schools. Each child receives a bag with simple meals and snacks for the weekend. Volunteers greet the kids with lots of smiles, encouragement, high fives and hugs, as they hand out bags of food to every child. “There should not be a hungry child in Memphis," said Joe Carson, coordinator of missions for the Dream Center. "Hunger is simply a symptom of poverty. Ensuring children have a healthy start affects the population's long- term health." The Dream Center's Feed Memphis goal is to reach 10,000 children in the next two years, with 300 volunteers, and food assistance from Mid-South Food Bank, along with two national hunger relief organizations. A 4,000 square- foot warehouse in Cordova and a second center in northeast Shelby County serves food pantries in Memphis, Cordova and Jackson, Tennessee. Overall, the Dream Center helps 400 households every month in addition to the 4,000 children served through weekly food bags. Partnership with Mid-South Food Bank is critical, Carson said. "It's the greatest source of food in the region and we couldn't do it without that assistance." Everyone has a story and everyone wants dignity – and we are coming alongside them; not to hand out something, but to help them," Carson said. 2018-19 AR Text Pages:2018-19 AR Text Pages 10/24/19 1:40 PM Page 3 Nourishing "One Can at A Time" For more than a decade, a group of five to ten parishioners from Balmoral Presbyterian Church in East Memphis have come to Mid-South Food Bank and they remain active in the fight against hunger. Every month, these volunteers sort and pack donated food, ensuring products meet safe food standards and are ready for any of the Mid-South Food Bank’s nearly 300 partner agencies to distribute to people in need. While the group's dedication has resulted in thousands of meals for food-insecure households across our region, the experience has also strengthened friendships and established a culture of making a tangible difference within the church’s congregation. "We support and help stock St. Luke's United Methodist Church Food Pantry and other non-profits. We know what a Balmoral Pres. Left to right. Barry Dotson,Fran Shannon,Janice Hill,Rev Amy Howe,William Warren and Linda Warren great resource the Food Bank is to our community. Knowing that helps strengthen our resolve to help," said Scott Dawson, with Balmoral. Over 60 different volunteers from Balmoral have volunteered at Mid-South Food Bank at one point or another. They put a stamp on their efforts by breaking bread at a local restaurant following hours of working at the Food Bank. "A routine service project followed by fellowship, a meal. How can you not grow closer together?" Dawson said. The span of time that Balmoral has volunteered means that many of them have seen lots of changes at Mid-South Food Bank, most notably its move into a new headquarters that doubles its space and increases capability to collect and distribute food. Mid-South Food Bank Volunteer Services Director Clifton Rockett says the group is reliably eager to help with tasks and have adapted to changes in space for volunteers and sorting processes. Dawson spoke for all the volunteers, saying they are impressed with the new facility's size and organizational design. "Volunteering at the Food Bank and at the pantry has motivated us, as a church, to take action and not just talk about it. We know by volunteering at the Food Bank, we are helping the less fortunate in our community, one can at a time." 2018-19 AR Text Pages:2018-19 AR Text Pages 10/24/19 1:40 PM Page 4 Nourishing to Provide "Nutrition on Wheels" for Patients When UnitedHealthcare (UHC) announced plans to give $1 million in grants to seven Memphis-area nonprofit organizations to expand their services addressing key social determinants of health while improving access to care and patient outcomes, Mid- South Food Bank was proud to be the recipient of the largest of these grants. The gift of $500,000, made possible through UnitedHealthcare’s Empowering Health program, allowed the Food Bank to purchase two refrigerated, beverage-style trucks for Mobile Pantry food distributions at area community clinics that serve low-income patients. The increased access to fresh and healthy food is a way to address the need for proper nutrition as a key aspect of overall health. UHC's Mobile Pantry, or Nutrition on Wheels, will travel to local healthcare clinics and senior agencies in the greater Memphis area beginning Fall, 2019. Each of the two trucks is capable of distributing 10,000 pounds of nutritious food. Several healthcare providers have been identified as specific target sites in Memphis, including Regional One, Christ Community Health Services, Church Health and UT Health Science Center. In addition to health clinics, the program will also distribute healthy food, including fresh produce, to seniors who may not be able to afford it or do not have access due to transportation issues. Additionally, the grant provided refrigerator/freezers to three local schools for Healthy School Pantries, distributing food boxes to needy students and their families.