Ground beef, milk, chicken, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, coffee and orange juice are among the staples that cost more these days.

Soaring prices are causing shoppers to rethink long-held habits such as store loyalty.

Wal-Mart and other supercenters that sell food are on the climb representing almost 25% of the market share.

Those who can’t absorb the added expenses are increasingly seeking help from food pantries and food banks that distribute nearly two billion pounds of food and grocery products each year.

Many of the food banks I have spoken with have experienced anywhere from a 35%-60% increase in demand over last year.

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The Central Missouri Food Bank’s Columbia location served more than 11,000 needy people in the month of August.  The food bank set a new record for clients served in each of the past three months.  This time last year, the food bank was serving between 8500 and 9000 people a month. 

The center averaged between 150 and 200 new clients every month since June. 

Boone county has had the lowest unemployment in Missouri for the past two years, but we are they still see people coming out.

Corporate donations and community food drives really help, but it just doesn’t keep up with the increased demand.  The Central Missouri Food Bank, like the Northern Arizona Food Bank, is reaching out to local hunters and gardeners to boost its stocks of protein and fresh produce – key components to the Food Pyramid.

Patrons have come to ask if there is fresh game like deer available as there are so many health benefits to protein from free range animals as well as from fresh fruits and vegeatables locally grown.

The Missouri Department of Conservation’s “Share the Harvest” program donated 2.1 million pounds of meat to food banks in the state.

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There are a few distinctions on the definition of a Food Bank and a Food Pantry.  Both are 501c3 organizations that fill out 990 forms to the IRS and have transparent financial statements as they both fall into the non-profits category.

There are a few hundred non-profits that call themselves a “Food Bank” across the US.  These look and feel typically like a Costco with pallets of shelf stable food items, large commercial refrigerators for fresh produce and freezers for frozen items.  The difference is that, typically, food banks don’t directly service an individual who needs food…although many do as well.

These Large Food Banks service over 65,000 smaller non-profit agencies that have smaller storage facilities and will directly service individuals who come to their location.  Each agency will drive their own vehicles to pick up their supplies from their closest food bank as much as once each week.

Furthermore, over 200 food banks across the country share the distinction of being affiliated with Feeding America.  Feeding America’s mission is to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks by sharing best practices to maximize the amount monetary and food donations received and stretch food purchasing dollars throughout its group.

Isn’t it comforting to know that your local non-profit is supported by a larger non-profit entity, who is supported by another larger non-profit entity — all with the same intent in mind — Feed the Hungry!

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I spoke with Northern Arizona Food Bank earlier today….and I have to share.  I beam when I hear how non-profits handle their challenges creatively.

It is almost a universal fact that virtually every single non-profit food organization has experienced an increase in demand.  Northern Arizona Food Bank has had a 65% increase in their demand just versus last year which was up from the year before.

Their demand is up but their financial donations are down.  I asked how they manage to keep up.  They rely on creative measures to continue to hand out more and more pounds of food each year.   In creating their emergency box of food that they hand out to families, the majority of the items are a balance fresh produce and fruit.  The creation of “The 3000 Club” of 3000 local growers and businesses aid in the collection of over 30 million pounds of fresh produce each year that directly contribute to meeting the rise in demand.

Knowing that each emergency box was filled with fresh produce I was curious about the challenge surrounding protein as this is the most costly part of our food pyramid.  Again, I was struck by another creative solution.  Successful hunters that fill their tag have a unique opportunity to return to their heritage as food providers and give back to their community to help the less fortunate. Donations of wild game meat from individuals have exceeded 32,900 pounds, providing over 144,500 quarter pound servings or meals comprised of wild game meat that is both lean and range fed (Venison, Elk, Buffalo).

I learn more and more with every food bank that I speak with.

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I just read a great quick Blog from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara, Second Harvest Blog. 

There was a food show held earlier this month by the National Association of College and University Food Services in San Jose.  As this convention was wrapping up the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara staff quickly rounded up 24 unsuspecting volunteers along with carts and bins to collect extra samples and food that wasnt handed out .  Within a short order of time, 8,000lbs of food was collected!

Having been to a few food shows in my time, there are so many booths with so many samples handed out.  Since no vendor wants to run out, everyone ends up bringing three times what they need for the show.

This solution helps feed the hungry and reduces the carbon foot print caused from shipping all unused samples back a supplier office or warehouse….or worse the waste caused by disposing of first quality food.

What a Great Idea!

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Maybe you are too young to remember Arsenio Hall…hoo hoo hoo (pumping fist right now like Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman”…ah the 80’s…)  Arsenio had a part of his show where he talked about things that made us go hmmmm? 

I was reading through some nutrition facts at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.  This is a great little website with some very interesting facts about obesity, food trends and healthcare costs attached to recent movements in eating habits.

What struck me in particular was the growth in obesity rate among younger children.   According to the website, over the past three decades, the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years.   

At present, approximately 9 million children over 6 years of age are considered obese and 15 percent are considered at risk of becoming overweight.  More than 60 percent of young people eat too much fat, and less than 20 percent eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

The thing that made me go hmmmmm…is that these same children who are becoming obese are also at the same time mal-nourished because of the empty calories they consume!

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Top ten rules to shop by!

This week, a couple of my colleagues and I had a discussion about the nutritional highlights of  Triscuits, and whether we thought they were healthy or not.  This got me thinking about how confusing the world of nutrition can be. Have you ever gone to the grocery store only to be totally overwhelmed with all the food choices? There might be 8 choices of cracker on the shelf, but which should you buy? There is so much nutrition information (and misinformation!) in the market place that it can be confusing to know where to start, let alone what foods to cook for your family.  Michael Pollen, a food writer extraordinaire, has a knack of being able to translate complicated nutrition information into no-nonsense recommendations that work. Below are his rules for grocery shopping, I suggest you make a copy and take it with you the next time you go to the store. If you follow his rules you’ll be purchasing and eating ‘real’ food most of the time - and this is the simplest way to a healthy diet.

1.     Don’t buy anything your Great Grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Like anything orange that isn’t salmon, a carrot or an orange.

2.     Avoid products containing ingredients that cannot be found in an ordinary pantry. Even better, avoid anything that contains more than five ingredients. Better still, if you can’t pronounce most of the ingredients, you don’t want to eat them.

3.     Don’t buy anything that lists sugar in its first three ingredients and no fructose corn syrup! Not even a little.

4.     Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay away from the middle - that’s where most of the processed food is shelved.

5.     If it came from a plant, buy it (and eat a lot of it). If it was made in a plant, pass it by.

6.     If it says lite, low-fat, or non-fat on the package, put it down. You’ll be more satisfied if you eat a little bit of the real thing.

7.     Avoid food that is pretending to be something it is not. This includes soy-based mock meats.

8.     Food making health claims on the package is not food you want to buy. Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign they have nothing valuable to say about your health.

9.     Avoid food that is advertised on television. And remember, if it is delivered through the window of a car, it is not food.

10.  Get out of the supermarket. Look to farmers markets for the majority of your food and snacks.

We are Good Source Non-Profit Solutions.  We have been partnering with the non-profit community since our company’s inception in 1989.  We work exclusively with food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, Share programs, Meals on Wheels, relief organizations and other non-profit agencies in order to fully understand the unique needs of this community.

We are excited to get our blog up and running and to have the opportunity to reach out to you, our customers, in a new and unique way.  We are looking forward to learning from you as we will be collectively sharing industry insights that we think will be of interest to helping your organization grow.

So, who will be contributing to the blog? Ilona Fordham and Rene Flohr will be the main blog contributors; Ilona is a registered dietitian and loves all things to do with food while Rene has been involved in sales and retail management for over a decade. Other contributors from our Non-Profits Team include: Laura Roche, Maureen Richards, Matt Story, Gaby Escobedo, and Dan Harrison. You’ll get to know us all a lot better as time goes, but for now, know that we’re a pretty close knit group that loves sharing ideas and best practices that support our customers’ business growth.

We welcome any and all comments so please subscribe to our blog and feel free to contribute.