One idea feeds hundreds and hundreds

Alliance Kiwanis food drive: How we do it

By Barbara Armitage,
Alliance (Ohio) Kiwanis club

The Alliance Kiwanis club is probably typical of many—a service club with about 70 members who participate in regular projects and contribute where asked. Each year, we have a successful fundraiser, a Pancake Festival with a 50-year history that raises about US$15,000 for community projects. We give scholarships, buy third graders dictionaries, sponsor Student of the Month lunches, sponsor ball teams, and give money to numerous community and child-centered projects. How did we move from this customary, predicable club to one now recognized in our community as the group “helping meet hunger needs in Alliance?”

History

In December 2004, one of our lunchtime speakers talked about the “working poor”; those people who, even with jobs, sometimes couldn’t make it to the end of the month and needed food. Some of her statistics about the numbers of hungry people in our community were startling. Many of our members were shocked, but one of our members, Dave Puterbaugh, was stunned and almost disbelieving. He arrived at the next board meeting with a proposal to form a committee to study hunger in our community. He felt that, if the numbers were accurate, Kiwanis could not ignore the seriousness of hungry people in our community. He didn’t want a one-time Band-Aid; he wanted to make a difference.

The board approved the study, and for most of 2005, committee members visited sites and interviewed food pantry directors, the public school food service director, the soup kitchen coordinator, and anyone else they could find who could shed light on the hunger magnitude in our town. At the end of their study, the committee developed and presented a proposal that the Alliance Kiwanis would allocate $5,000 to form a partnership with the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank to purchase and distribute food in a series of one-day distributions to the needy in our community.

All of the typical organizational questions plagued us: “Would people come?” “How/where could we distribute the food?” “How would we transport it?” “Where could we get it?” “Would we screen our clients?” The committee added members and continued to work through these concerns, and in 2006, the Alliance Kiwanis club distributed food six times to more than 400 families in our community.

Logistics

We selected the final Friday of the month for distribution, as that seemed to be the time people were in greatest need. We worked with the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank that serves eight counties in Northeastern Ohio. Because they already had a structure in place, we were able to purchase food for about 8 cents a pound, and they delivered it via truck. We needed to furnish workers to unload it, package it for distribution, and distribute it to the community. We requested fresh produce and dairy products whenever possible, as these were items the local food pantries weren’t able to store and dispense. We invited our Key Club to work with us during the distribution.

The program was coordinated with three local pantries that agreed to distribute fliers before each distribution, register clients, and take any remaining food after each day’s distribution. The Akron Canton Regional Food Bank provided valuable guidance and logistical advice.

First distribution

Our first distribution was March 24, 2006, and, based on our yearlong study, we planned for 250 households to visit us for food. Kiwanians and Key Clubbers unloaded, repackaged, and distributed 10,582 pounds of food to 281 families before we ran out. Our intention was to treat our clients like our friends and neighbors, which of course, they are. We furnished chairs for waiting and had coffee available. Imagine our surprise when, two hours before we were scheduled to open, people started to line up at the door.

With each distribution we tweaked our system, purchasing and packaging for additional numbers. We borrowed grocery store carts to help our clients get the food to their cars or wagons (yes, some of our clients don’t own transportation). We borrowed unloading rollers to help remove the food from the semi, and for the last distribution, used a forklift to move palates of food. Between 20 and 30 volunteers were needed for each distribution, and our members were troupers, always serving with a smile. In addition, community volunteers showed up because they read or heard about our distribution and just wanted to help.

After five distributions, the club was contacted by the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank with an offer we couldn’t refuse. Because of the success of past distributions, and their confidence that the club could organize quickly to accomplish the goal, the food bank donated the food for an additional distribution the first Friday in December. The final distribution of 2006 served an additional 28,000 pounds of food to more than 400 families.

Final results? Our fare ran the gamut from greens to tuna salad, apples to cake icing, and potatoes to turkeys, but people were always grateful and gracious. Sometimes it was cold, and in summer, it was over 90 degrees, and we served cold drinks to people as they waited in line. We heard story after story of people who had lost jobs, had illnesses, experienced unforeseen crises, and were grateful for our organization. We helped hundreds of families in our community and developed bonds with our local food pantries, our Key Clubbers, and other volunteers in our community. Finally, we learned that our Kiwanis club could recognize a need in our community and work to meet it, and after all, isn’t that how “We Build!”