BOARD MEMBERS

FTND – Speaking Notes

Prepared Aug 20, 2020

• 145,113 Pounds of food shared per month
• 592 Number of volunteer hours donated per month
• 35,000 emergency visits to our network per month (food bank visits + snacks + meal served)
• 37 % children served

Here’s a brief summary of operations at FTND :

• Since the onset of the pandemic, individual donors, corporate donors, community groups, Foodbanks Canada, and the federal government have increased support to ensure that we have funds to respond to the increased need for food across our Region.  Our local foodbanks are reporting a 30% increase in demand. Thank you to all who have made donations.
• Since March, a core group of volunteers and our FTND staff have been working harder than ever to share food with our neighbours in Durham.  It’s been a steady stream of changes  that have resulted in a 60% increase in food distribution.  Historically, a common month would be 90,000 lbs of food shipped to our 62 member agencies.  Now we are shipping more than 145,000 lbs of food each month.  March 23 to date over 725,569 pounds out of our warehouse to support our vulnerable!
• Simcoe Hall has just set a new record.  FTND has shipped them 103,000 lbs of food since April 1^st.  To put that in perspective, Simcoe Hall received 75,000 lbs in total during our last full fiscal year.

How are we responding to the emergency need?

• May – Created the Share our Surplus Program
• May – set up an ongoing bulk food purchasing program?
• June – We brought on a new refrigerated truck that can bring back 12 pallets of food instead of the 8 pallets we were receiving in February
• July  – We welcomed a Warehouse manager, Emily Fern, to our team who is focused on allocating our resources as efficiently as possible
• Aug – We are changing the ordering and packaging the donated fresh and perishable food.  The goal is to increase the quantity of healthy food to our members
• We recognize that our growth must be sustainable  as we work through the recovery phase of the pandemic.  Feed the Need in Durham is looking to increase our fridge and freezer space, improve our systems, expand our logistics, and secure staffing to work along-side our valuable volunteer workforce to provide guidance and supervision.

Here are some of the exciting changes in the pipeline:

September

• Our new website will go live
• Members will have access to  on-line ordering
• Non-Perishable food sorting will change to reflect the new on-line ordering
• Our trucks will receive full-wrap branding
• Hunger Action Month
• Sept 22^nd – Annual PUSH Against Hunger
• Sept 29^th – Virtual Annual General Meeting

 October

• • New agencies will be added to our delivery routes
  • Cargo Van will be used for deliveries
  • Proposals for Expanding our refrigerator and freezer will be submitted to the board of Directors

November

• • We will host our first every Virtual Empty Bowls
  • we anticipate accepting 2 weekly shipments of perishable items from Loblaw

December

• • Keller Williams partners with FTND for the 13^th annual holiday turkey drive to feed 2000 families

2021 will bring more changes, the biggest of those being a warehouse renovation to improve capacity and increase the quantity of food we can move through our 10,000 square foot facility.

We thank each one of you for your continued support and having a positive impact in our community.