Digging Deeper...
/In the food bank community, September is recognized as Hunger Action Month. It was established in 2008 by Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States with a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs. In 2021 Feeding America helped provide 6.6 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need. Kansas City-based Harvesters is a member of the Feeding America network, serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas. Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 620 nonprofit agencies including food pantries, community kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes and others. As a food bank, Harvesters acquires, stores and distributes food to its grid of nonprofit agencies so they can provide direct service to families, children and seniors in need. And, just so you know, in 2011 Harvesters was “Feeding America’s Food Bank of the Year.”
By Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC. Resources, commentary and insight for this article were provided by Karen Siebert, Advocacy and Public Policy Advisor, Harvesters – The Community Food Network, Kansas City, Missouri; Kansas Department of Agriculture; Missouri Farmers Care Foundation.
Food Banks Took Some Punches
… But Never Went Down For The Count
Over the last two years, Harvesters – like every other industry, business, organization, school, hospital, institution, government agency, most families and you name it – got clobbered by a “perfect storm” of events brought on by COVID-19. The pandemic shutdown disrupted just about everything. “We’ve heard that perfect storm analogy so often it’s become tiresome,” says Karen Siebert, Harvesters’ Advocacy and Public Policy Advisor.
So, here’s another comparison. What happened to food banks – without too much exaggeration – was the equivalent of getting into a sparring ring with Mohammad Ali. And George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather. All at the same time. When the pandemic hit, food banks took it on the chin. Social distancing, quarantines, lockdowns were akin to a fighter’s jabs, uppercuts and crosses. Harvesters got roundly pummeled. The food bank’s food donations evaporated and volunteer help was scarce at the same time the need skyrocketed.
Just as supply disruptions and shortages of everything were proving to be routine and sort of manageable, other health, world and economic events almost threw the old one-two knockout punch at food banks. The pandemic came up with new virus variants, inflation soared, household evictions were rampant, and a major war broke out in Ukraine.
And while all this was happening, worldwide demand for food bank services was expanding. In the U.S. more than 53 million Americans received help from food banks in 2021, according a report from Feeding America. That was 30% more than before the pandemic. But Karen Siebert says communities in Kansas and Missouri’s food bank coalition “came through.”
How It Works
Speaking at KC’s Agricultural Business Council meeting in August, Siebert reminded members that Harvesters is not a food pantry. Rather, it is a food bank, which is a large food collection and distribution facility. “We have a fleet of more than 20 trucks and 275,000 square feet of warehouse space between our two distribution centers in Kansas City, Missouri, and Topeka, Kansas,” she said. From those two centers food is distributed to a vast network of nonprofit food pantries, kitchens and shelters located in churches, community centers and other faith-based organizations across a 26-county service area in Kansas and Missouri.
Harvesters mission is to acquire, warehouse and transport large quantities of food, to member pantries that focus on putting food on the tables of those who need it. “To give you an idea of the scope of our network’s impact,” Siebert explained, “last year Harvesters distributed more than 68 million pounds of food to our network of more than 760 agencies. Together, those pantry partners serve more than 226,000 people every single month.”
But like other food banks around the country, Harvesters has felt the brunt over the last two years of COVID-19 and the disruption, disorganization and discouragement it left in its wake. It washed over every aspect of the nation’s economic, educational, governmental and agricultural institutions and systems. During the pandemic, government foods accounted for more than a quarter of Harvesters’ distribution. “When COVID hit, we had to close our warehouse to volunteers, our food donations plummeted and the food supply chain seized up—all at the same time the need soared,” said Siebert.
Harvesters saw much of its operational model upended by the pandemic, she added. And that’s saying something. Two years ago, this column, Digging Deeper, described the complexity, expanse and sophistication of Harvesters’ operational footprint: “One can easily see Harvesters being touted in a classic textbook case-study about properly managing all the components of its business model – logistics, transportation, networking, financing, fundraising, community relations, distribution and compliance with federal and local regulations.”
At the August meeting Karen Siebert indicated membership in the Agricultural Business Council is important to Harvesters. “The conversations we have here and the partnerships we build help us achieve both aspects of our mission – ‘to feed the line and shorten the line.’ ”
According to Harvesters, feeding the line is parlance for providing food to those who are in immediate need of food. “We work on partnering with farmers, processors, distributors, retailers, community members – everyone along the food system chain – to acquire food so that food insecure families can get the nutritious food they need to eat today.” Many of those partners, she noted, are part of Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City.
Shortening the line describes Harvesters’ efforts to ensure that people can feed their own families and don’t need to turn to the charitable sector for help. One of the ways Harvesters does that is to advocate for the federal nutrition programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps). SNAP provides funds for low-income families and seniors so they can purchase groceries themselves at their local grocery store.
Going Forward
On May 9 Harvesters’ board of directors issued it Strategic Plan for FY2023 –FY2025, with a statement of the organization’s vision of a healthy, thriving community where no one is hungry. To realize that objective, Harvesters plans to mobilize the power of its community to create equitable access to nutritious food and address the root causes and impact of hunger.
The plan encompasses the following high-level aspirational key intentions for Harvesters’ path forward:
Refining its mission and vision statements, to more explicitly express Harvesters’ focus and distinction in addressing food insecurity.
Explicitly clarifying of its values.
Defining an "aspirational" path, with explicit strategies, that will further advance its mission, guiding how Harvesters will advance nutrition, in both food acquired and distributed, while ensuring food is desirable and culturally appropriate.
Intentionally identifying paths for addressing root causes and impact of hunger.
Articulating how Harvesters will be an even more effective organization in 2025 than it is today, after this strategic plan is implemented.
Ensuring the integrity and quality of an agile strategic oversight process, a new policy and procedure codifies a process for ongoing plan progress tracking, reporting, and adjustments
In a statement introducing the strategic plan, Harvesters’ recently retired President and CEO Valerie Nicholson-Watson focused on five strategic imperatives that would serve as key pillars:
Nourish: Acquire and distribute a diverse mix of nutritious food and household products that are distributed through accessible, efficient, and safe distribution methods. Nutrition receives significant focus in this plan. Harvesters will work to increase awareness of and access to healthier food options in the food it distributes and the programs it supports. This will include focus on quality product, culturally appropriate food, and real time demographic data from neighbors to better inform programs.
Break Down Barriers/Develop Pathways: Work to break down barriers and develop pathways to food security through intentional collaborations, partnerships, and advocacy. This imperative encompasses the second portion of the mission to address the root causes and impact of hunger”, focusing on health, economic mobility and lived experience.
Engage the Community: Educate, engage, and influence stakeholders to take positive action to advance our mission. This advances Harvesters’ community relations and advocacy in alignment with the mission focus around root causes and impact of hunger.
Inspire a Culture of Excellence: Create and maintain a culture of excellence by supporting and inspiring highly qualified and diverse employees and board, reflective of the communities we serve. This imperative elevates Harvesters’ organizational culture and people to acknowledge the tremendously important role staff and board play in sustaining and increasing Harvesters’ impact in the community.
Sustain Operational Excellence: Drive organizational excellence in all areas of business and stakeholder operations to further the mission, sustainability, and overall success of the organization. This imperative focuses on financial stability, organizational health, and infrastructure investment.
Real Time Action
As Harvesters rolls out its strategic plan over the next several years, the food bank is engaged in efforts to address current circumstances. “We advocate for robust federal nutrition programs, including a strong nutrition title in the Farm Bill,” Karen Siebert told the AgBiz Council. That would include funding for SNAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP, or senior food boxes). “And we advocate for other important federal nutrition programs in the USDA outside of the Farm Bill such as a Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children), the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program and the School Breakfast and Lunch Programs.”
Siebert went on to explain the reason the Farm Bill commodity programs are especially important to Harvesters is that it distributes those foods to pantries on behalf of the government. “In a normal year, commodity foods account for about 12-13% of our total distribution,” she noted. “However, during the pandemic, government foods accounted for more than a quarter of our distribution.”
Kansas & Missouri Join USDA in Hunger Fight
Earlier this summer Governor Laura Kelly was joined by USDA Undersecretary Jenny Moffitt and Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Mike Beam to introduce a new program to purchase and distribute locally grown, produced, and processed food to food insecure Kansans. KDA has been awarded a $2.5 million cooperative agreement from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service as part of the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement Program. These funds will be used to purchase and distribute Kansas-grown and -processed foods to underserved communities and families across Kansas through the state's existing distribution network of food banks.
“This common-sense partnership will make progress on two challenges facing our state: Food insecurity, and the fact that though more than 50 million pounds of food was distributed across Kansas last year, very little was locally grown,” said Governor Kelly. “Our farmers and ranchers feed the nation – and this agreement will help them also feed their neighbors.”
KDA will work with agricultural stakeholder groups to develop a network of producers, establish a tiered purchasing standard that gives preference to socially disadvantaged farmers to expand their businesses, and ensure that food purchased by the grant is widely distributed across rural and urban communities impacted by food insecurity.
“USDA is excited to partner with Kansas to promote economic opportunities for farmers and producers and to increase access to locally sourced, fresh, healthy, and nutritious food in underserved communities,” said USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt. “The Local Food Purchase Cooperative Agreement Program will improve food and agricultural supply-chain resiliency and increase local food consumption around the country.”
The local food purchased through this agreement will be distributed through the state’s existing distribution network of Feeding America food banks: Kansas Food Bank, Harvesters — The Community Food Network, and Second Harvest Community Food Bank. Just Food, part of Harvesters’ network, is the food bank of Douglas County, supplying more than 29 partner agencies with fresh produce, dairy products, meat, bread and pantry staples.
“Together our three Feeding America food banks serve the food insecure in every one of Kansas’ 105 counties,” said Stephen Davis, newly installed President & CEO of Harvesters. “In a time of increased need and decreasing food donations, we are grateful for these healthy, locally grown foods that we can share with our neighbors in need throughout the state.” Source: Kansas Department of Agriculture.
Across The State Line
At the Missouri State Fair last month, Missouri Farmers Care Foundation announced that resources were raised to provide 2.4 million meals to help feed food-insecure children across the state through the “2022 Drive to Feed Kids.”
“Partners in the Drive to Feed Kids generously respond to address the stark reality that 1 in 7 Missouri children regularly face hunger,” said Executive Director of Missouri Farmers Care Foundation, Ashley McCarty. Missouri’s agricultural youth programs again partnered with the Drive to raise meals for communities across the state. Missouri 4-H members donated 264,000 meals during their 4-H Feeding Missouri campaign which ran January-April 2022 and packed an additional 3,000 meal boxes for veterans at the Missouri State Fair. On Aug. 16, hundreds of Missouri FFA Association members and agricultural leaders came together at the Missouri State Fair to pack 152,000 family meals for the Missouri FFA Food Insecurity Day.
The sixth annual Missouri FFA Food Insecurity Day was held Tuesday, Aug. 16, at the Missouri State Fair in partnership with the Missouri Farmers Care Drive to Feed Kids. Together, hundreds of FFA members and agricultural leaders packed 152,000 family meals to feed families in need. The meals were distributed to Missouri’s regional food banks across the state through a partnership with Feeding Missouri. Governor Mike Parson and First Lady Teresa Parson, along with Missouri elected officials and agricultural leaders, joined the cause in August, packing 300 emergency boxes that will provide nourishment to central Missouri families in need. Source: Missouri Farmers Care Foundation