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At
the west end of St. Louis Avenue, just before the street breaks left to become Hamilton,
there is a very unassuming industrial court, with link fences and potholes and a
warehouse. You'd probably drive right past the place, even if you were looking for it; the
warehouse is home to the St. Louis Area Foodbank, the primary food distribution center
organization for the greater St. Louis area.
With the influx of trucks dropping off and picking up goods from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., the
warehouse is constantly bustling. Cases of applesauce, black-eyed peas, cereal, and sloppy
joe meat, and perishables like cottage cheese, fresh fruit and frozen chicken must be
weighed and catalogued before being neatly packed on shrink-wrapped pallets, or finding
their way to one of two jumbo walk-in freezers.
"Karl, were you down here this Saturday? Was it busy?" asks executive director
Frank Finnegan. "It was a mad house," Karl responds, pushing a mini forklift.
"But we got it under control."
The St. Louis Area Foodbank distributes an estimated 11 million pounds of food annually to
over 350 agencies within a 100-mile radius — spanning both sides of the Mississippi
river, including 14 counties in Missouri and 12 in Illinois — making it the area's
largest hub for food distribution. Not an easy task for a staff of 24, but entirely
necessary to keep the nonprofit's overhead low; approximately 97 cents of every dollar
given to the Foodbank goes directly into food distribution.
Since 1975, the St. Louis Area Foodbank has been collecting foodstuffs, personal care
items and cleaning supplies, dispensing them to various charities, and referring those in
need to local soup kitchens and food pantries. Although for the most part, they don't
distribute food directly to those in need, they do supply goods to a host of St. Louis
charity programs, including the Red Cross, homeless shelters, church pantries, residential
programs, rehabilitation centers, emergency feeding programs and HIV pantries, feeding an
estimated 43,530 St. Louis area residents per week. If food is being served at a community
soup kitchen or parceled out at a church food pantry anywhere in St. Louis, chances are
some of that food came from here. "Our goal," says Finnegan "is to
get it out as fast as possible, because it's not going to feed anybody if it sits in our
warehouse."
Gathered through a variety of sources — government-funded hunger relief, corporate
donations and community food drives — goods are made available to local charity
groups who place orders by phone, fax, online or in person. After an order is made, turn
around time is fast, food is pulled from warehouse inventory, packaged and either
available for pick or delivered the next day.
Because of the speed in which the food is distributed, staffers must continually work to
keep warehouse inventory full. "We actively solicit food manufactures, encouraging
them to donate excess food… rather than dumping it or selling it on a second
market," explains Finnegan pointing to stacks of Easter candy.
However, corporate donations follow food industry trends, and since the Foodbank can't
control the types of items donated, available foodstuffs vary from week to week.
Occasionally this results in large quantities of esoteric items, like dried tart cherries,
that aren't easily incorporated into everyday meals. Here the Foodbank gets creative,
suggesting quick and tasty recipes to local soup kitchens or posting them on their
website. Still, says Finnegan as he opens a box containing an assortment of canned goods—
tuna, ravioli, green beans, pineapple, stew — community donations are crucial. The
recent Boy Scouts of America food drive, the county's largest, yielded approximately one
million pounds of food for St. Louis and its surrounding cities.
Inspecting every single, box, bag, or can of donated food for safety are some 2,230
trained volunteers, who clocked in roughly 6,410 hours this year at the Page facility. Any
cans that are opened, badly dented, past their expiration date or rusted, aren't
distributed. After inspection, the product is boxed, placed on a palette, wrapped in clear
shrink-wrap and prepared for distribution.
With nearly a million pounds of food distributed per month, tracking donations must be
fine-tuned to pinpoint accuracy. "We track every single pound," says Finnegan,
who must make sure each box of Rice-a-Roni or can of creamed corn makes into the hands
(and eventually the bellies) of those who need it. As food comes in, it's catalogued on a
"picking sheet," which is signed once a charity receives their order. As the
sole Missouri distributor of USDA product, the Foodbank must follow stringent guidelines
for allocating government supplied food, in addition to frequent inspections and an annual
organization-wide audit.
Even with the titanic proportions of foodstuffs they handle, the organization continues to
work to increase hunger awareness. Although people generally know hunger is a problem,
Finnegan says it's easier for most to understand severe starvation abroad, rather than the
impact of low-grade malnutrition nationally. What goes unnoticed, for example, is the
number of children who go hungry daily. In fact, children comprise the largest segment of
the population both affected by hunger, and aided by the efforts of the St. Louis Area
Foodbank; the organization operates four Kids Cafe after-school programs, providing
nutritious lunches and snacks to 200 children. Even still, they are making efforts to
increase community donations, according to Finnegan. While 60 percent of Foodbank's
donations are made during the last quarter of the year (due to the tide of holiday season
food drives), donations are always needed, regardless of the season. "Hunger is a
year round problem," he points out.
Pat Boedenfeld of the Arcadia Food Pantry made a visit to the Foodbank to procure extra
foodstuffs for the pantry's Christmas In the Valley gift baskets. "I don't know what
we'd do without the Foodbank," she says. Since September 11th, the food pantry —
which receives monthly deliveries from the Foodbank — has seen a marked increase in
the number of people requesting assistance, according to Bodenfeld. Food distribution
agencies, like the St. Louis Area Foodbank, are as important as ever to combating hunger.
"Everyone works together, and that's what it's all about — working
together."
To make a donation, organize a food drive or find
out more information about the St. Louis Area Foodbank, call (314) 423-6100 or go to
www.stlfoodbank.org. |
