1. Our Hunger Hunters mobile food pantry sites provided about 120,000 pounds of food to people in need on the south side of Grand Rapids, serving about 151 households (about 609 people) per month.

2. We implemented computerized intake at our Campau mobile site, giving clients better faster service, and opening up a whole new range of opportunities for improving our understanding of the people we serve.

3. Findafoodpantry.org‘s database hit 10,000 programs – and the site provided information to over 9,000 unique visitors! At current rates, we expect the site to help around 18,000 people find food assistance in 2012.

4. We wrapped up the landfill project with a look at food waste on the retail level in West Michigan. We’ve already shared our findings with Feeding America West Michigan, and are working hard on putting together a final report for release to the public. Spoiler: There’s a lot of recoverable food out there!

On top of that, we’ve got a number of new opportunities waiting in the wings for 2012, so stay tuned – the best is yet to come!

Together with companies like Progressive AE, groups like Rodef Shalom, and organizations like the Sebastian Foundation and Feeding America West Michigan, Nonprofit Innovations is making real progress towards ending hunger in our community. To everyone who makes this work possible, thank you!

Below: Photos from our July 19th distribution at Campau Elementary School (Click pictures to enlarge).

This past Thursday, Nonprofit Innovations and Missionary Church of Christ were honored to host the 10,000th mobile food pantry distribution in West Michigan since Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank launched its mobile pantry program (the nation’s first!) in 1998.

Braving grey skies and a spattering of raindrops, our dedicated volunteers were able to provide an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, baked goods, and dairy products to over a hundred families in need. This mobile also marked the 75,000th pound of food distributed through NII’s Hunger Hunters initiative, and our thanks go out to our volunteers, our donors, and the Sebastian Foundation for making that possible!

We’ve come a long way in a few months, but there’s a lot of work yet to be done, and you can be a part of it! If you know about a food pantry we don’t, you can add it to the database. You can also update the entry for a pantry we already have, or just explore the site and give us feedback.

Findafoodpantry.org

Hunger Hunters – Dedicated to bringing mobile food pantries into underserved areas, our Hunger Hunters program currently provides about 10,000 lbs. of food to between 140 and 200 West Michigan families a month.

Findafoodpantry.org – The nation’s largest directory of food pantries, findafoodpantry.org is a website designed to help connect families across the country with the services they need. Findfoodpantry.org has been in a public beta since November, and will officially launch in early 2011.

State of the Stomach – In January, we published State of the Stomach 2009, a detailed look at the geographic strengths and weaknesses of the Kent County charity food system. We are hard at work on State of the Stomach 2010, which we plan to release in early 2011.

The Landfill Project – The Landfill Project is an effort to build partnerships in order to identify sources of surplus food in West Michigan that could be routed into the charitable food system instead of being destroyed. The Landfill Project was made possible by a grant from the Sebastian Foundation.