FAIRBANKS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK SERVICE INC

REDUCE food waste by recycling local surplus food in this community and in our landfills by at least 1,500,000 pounds annually

MAINTAIN and sustain the food requests for individuals and families in need by providing at least 600,000 requested meals

INCREASE the capacity of other agencies in Interior Alaska who serve the at risk population by adding at least 1,000,000 pounds of food freely given to local 501C3 agencies

MAINTAIN volunteers as the primary labor source for this organization by at least 13,200 donated hours each year

MAINTAIN community financial support of this agency. Our goal is to have at least 70% for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank income from individual and corporate donors.

At the Fairbanks Community Food Bank there is a balance of FOOD IN and FOOD OUT, but we are well positioned to respond to an area emergency or other change in the community's food assurance needs. In FY 2019 the demand for Food Bank services exceeded our capacity, but we met those demands, distributing food 6 days each week, even during the COVID period. Employees and volunteers served more meals than our goal and took in more food than our baseline. Consistent with our vision and proven track record, when called upon, this local Fairbanks Community Food Bank surpasses all goals, as required, to effectively meet community needs, COVID 19 and its' variants have proven that we have the ability to meet community demands, even in extreme situations. We are able to do this because we are a COMMUNITY food bank, with members of our community who really care about NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS.

We are expanding the working capacity of this Food Bank operation, but not making substantial program changes. We just need more space and that is under construction in 2022, We will focus on and effectively serve our target population, primarily using volunteer labor and donated food. This is a crucial strategy as Alaska is suffering through a statewide fiscal crisis, and we are serving more people with food needs, but those same people are our donors, too, so there could be a loss of donor revenue.

We have "developed" our communities to understand that we CAN share and take care of one another, as the needs arise. We believe our huge volunteer and donor base will be essential in keeping community eyes on the problems Alaska's economy is causing. We have been strategic in working with corporations and local business, so that when people want to "give back" we have a good reputation as an efficient and team building project. We have used good business practices to remain sustainable. Reputation, reputation, reputation is our sustainability plan.

When we began 40 years ago we had nothing but an idea. We are now operating nearly 50,000 sq ft of warehouse and office space which provides food assistance to Interior and Northern Alaska, and are adding on a new warehouse which will be an additional 16,000 sf. We receive free food and give it away free, so that is an accomplishment. The various building projects are donated, built to our specifications, so we are mortgage free. We have 17% of our income, in our warehouse facility, as earned income (rental space). Three-fourths of all that we need to operate this food bank is donated, in-kind, volunteer labor. One-fourth of what we need is cash to keep our doors open and is provided primarily by individual donors and fundraisers.

One project that we are still working on is increasing our freezer space in order to accommodate incidental caught (by catch) fish, and that will be part of our new warehouse facility which is under construction. Example, last year there was a fishery in Dutch Harbor, salmon which was "incidentally" caught in that fishery was sent to Seattle for processing and then returned to Alaska. We were able to obtain 2-40 ft van loads of fish sticks and salmon patties to use in our program. Now that the politics of salmon caught in the wrong season has some solutions, we are able to salvage much of that highly desirable protein to use in our food box program. Now we need to build more freezer space to accommodate this gift.

We also started, in 2019, a new FOOD IS MEDICINE program for those who are over 60 years old, enrolled in the CSFP food program and/or are medically referred. Each enrolled person is eligible to pick up (customer choice) 30 pounds of fresh fruit and veggies each week. We seek secure long term funding for this program. We have about 900 patients who have been served in this program, even during the COVID period.