News

2024 Impact Report

More fresh food and growing reach among kids is driving impact across Feed My People's service area.

Feed My People's mission to create equitable access to food for healthier communities continues to drive us forward. This year, we've seen steady progress, all thanks to the unwavering support of our team, volunteers, and community.

As we reflect on the past year, we are inspired by the collective efforts that have made our mission a reality. Your contributions have empowered us to explore innovative solutions to address local hunger. Together with over 250 hunger relief programs and partners, we have turned ambitious ideas into tangible outcomes, making a lasting impact throughout our 14-county service area.

Key Achievements

People Served: We're on track this year to once again distribute food to over 75,000 children, seniors, and individuals in our mission to ensure no one is left hungry. Our partners and programs have reported an overall 12.9% increase in total visits from January to October compared to the same period in 2023. This reflects an increased demand and reliance on community pantries, meal sites, backpack programs for kids, and specialized resources for seniors and homeless individuals.

Food Distributed: We're also on our way to distributing over 8 million pounds of food to our neighbors in need this year - a 3.6% increase from the previous year, illustrating our shared mission's growing impact. A growing share of this food, 30% more than last year, is fresh food primarily sourced from our Farm to Food Bank partnerships.

Volunteer Hours Recorded: Volunteers have recorded 19,467 hours as of the third week of November, equivalent to 10 full-time employees. With the giving season still in full swing, we expect this number to climb further before the end of the year. The impact that volunteers make on our mission is enormous - without them, we would be unable to do what we do.

Program Highlights

Project FEED: Our youth hunger program is expanding access equitably to youth in need within our service area, and it is now in its second school year. This fall we introduced ABC Food for elementary-aged kids, a program revisioning the program formally known as Weekend Kids' Meals. In addition to kid-friendly snack items, students can receive Kwik Trip vouchers for eggs, dairy, and produce that support their whole family. Enrollment in this program has grown 68% from last year. Additional school markets have been installed or created, opening access to more students and families.

 Farm to Food Bank: Having concluded our second harvest season with this new program improving access to local, fresh food, its impact on our mission has been immense. Not only does it increase the amount of fresh food available, it improves the quality of what we can provide by expanding our variety and enhancing nutrition since it's now fresher than what we could previously offer. Pop-Up Pantries: This program continues to make a big impact, providing food in communities with little to no resources.

"It makes a huge difference and adds much-needed relief. It's nice to know there is something in the cupboard," shared Linda, a guest receiving food at the Arcadia pop-up.

This year, we expanded three pop-ups from seasonal to year-round locations in Granton, Weyerhaeuser, and Radisson.

RCU Recycling Hub: We've added an outdoor recycling hub as part of our FRESH Futures initiative, which aims to practice more sustainable food banking. Our new publicly accessible recycling hub will allow anyone in the community to donate clean, polyethylene plastic waste. The Royal Credit Union funded this new build outside our Hunger Action Center. More detailed plans will be unveiled in the new year.