Nearly 200,000 Nevadans – the number it takes to fill the Sam Boyd Stadium five times – live without enough food for a healthy, active lifestyle. More than one-third of them go hungry. The Food Bank of Northern Nevada has worked 25 years to eradicate this problem in the state’s northern region.
“We’ve distributed about 50 million pounds of food since we started, and we still have not ended hunger in Northern Nevada,” said Cherie Jamason, who has been the organization’s president and chief executive officer for 18 years.
The Food Bank serves all of Northern Nevada (13 counties) and parts of Northern California (eight counties), or about a half million people across 80,000 square miles. It is a member of America’s Second Harvest, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization. Through the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, the Food Bank also delivers commodities for low-income citizens to various local areas, including Hawthorne, Fallon and Carson City.
The Food Bank feeds the hungry in two ways. It provides food to 90 partner agencies through emergency food programs and social services organizations, such as Project MANA, the Committee to Aid Abused Women and the Truckee Meadows Boys & Girls Club. Agency representatives travel to the Food Bank, shop there, and transport the food back to their own locations, where they distribute it to the needy.
The Food Bank also implements programs that directly feed the hungry. Kids Café provides a free meal on weekdays to children living in low-income neighborhoods in Reno and Sparks. Backpack Kids, a pilot program, gives needy children easy-to-prepare weekend meals. The Summer Food Program drops food for children at 35 neighborhood parks during the summer. About 20 employees – mostly full-time – and several volunteers run the Food Bank, located in a 22,500-square-foot office/warehouse building in Sparks. Last year, volunteers contributed more than 6,700 hours.
Operating costs total about $6 million per year. Food Bank revenues come equally from government funding, private donations, and grants and foundation monies.
To enhance its service, the non-profit organization is changing a major operation method. This year, the Food Bank will begin delivering food to its partner agencies instead of having the partners travel to its facility. “The goal is to distribute to 25 [agencies] this year,” Jamason said. Regularly scheduled deliveries will allow the agencies to receive what they previously could not: perishable items and fresh produce.
To effect this change, the organization has been acquiring delivery trucks equipped with refrigeration and freezing capabilities. Additionally, the Food Bank purchased land for a new facility off U.S. Highway 395 at Parr Boulevard. The $6 million building will span 60,000 square feet, 45,000 of which is planned for warehouse space (three times that of the Sparks building). “It also will offer visibility in the community, which will give us the opportunity to get the word out in a better way so more people can understand about hunger in Nevada,” Jamason said. The Reynolds Foundation funded the new facility and vehicles via an $8 million grant.
As the Food Bank concentrates on refining its methods, it will continue to face another challenge: educating the public. “There needs to be an understanding of who’s hungry and why, and an understanding of the foods we can make available to fight hunger,” Jamason said. “As people understand the reasons, tolerating hunger will not be acceptable.”
Food Bank of Northern Nevada
994 Packer Way
Sparks, NV 89431
(775) 331-3663
(775) 331-3765
www.fbnn.org