FOOD RESCUE FOOD BANK SEES GROWTH IN STORE DONATIONS
You may not realize it but one of the biggest supporters of the Food Bank of North Alabama is your local grocery store.
The Food Bank of North Alabama has a team of staff truck drivers that go out to grocery stores and distribution centers every week day to collect donations of food that have to be moved out of their stores, usually to make room for incoming merchandise.
The Food Bank of North Alabama’s Store Donation Program Coordinator Austin Kusiak said that most of the food is moved before it’s even close to the sell-by date.
“The vast majority is still comfortably in date,” he said. “If you look at bakery, most stores with a bakery bake their product fresh every day, they don’t try to sell two-day old bread, even though it’s still perfectly good. It’s the same idea with meat and even dry goods, if they’re getting shipments in on a consistent basis they’re going to put the new items on the shelves.”
Many of these stores rely on the Food Bank to serve as an outlet for their product that would otherwise need to be thrown away. The food is still perfectly nutritious and edible, it just can’t be sold. Often food is donated just because the packaging is torn, which makes it unsellable for the store but not unusable for the Food Bank.
From October 2022 to March 2023, the first half of its fiscal year, the Food Bank was able to rescue 2.8 million pounds of food, a 150,000 pound increase from the same period the previous year.
Kusiak said that during that time, every food category increased. The largest category of food was frozen meat, where the Food Bank rescued 740,000 pounds. Other categories include 670,000 pounds of dry goods, 590,000 pounds of produce and 510,000 pounds of bakery.
The food is then distributed to over 210 partner organizations in the Food Bank’s network of feeding partners, places such as Manna House, the Salvation Army, Downtown Rescue Mission, and others across our 11-county coverage area.
“Certainly one of the biggest things is how much money we save,” Kusiak said. “Roughly 40 percent of our food comes from store donations. It’s a lot of things that aren’t easily purchased or acquired in other ways.”
“Any time food is kept out of landfills, there’s a huge positive environmental impact to make sure that food stays in the supply chain versus just ending up in the trash and rotting away,” he said.
SPRING 2023
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Daniel Kaufmann
Joe Clark Jr.
Markeisha Layne
Directors
Dr. Krisshonna Brown
Aaron Caradonna
Sean Franklin
Ericka Gorman
Alissa Mackiewicz
STAFF
Chief Executive Officer
Shirley Schofield
Chief Operating Officer
Joshua Matthews
Development Director
Bobby Bozeman
Finance Director
Liz Rice
Mike Monis
Nick McKinney
Michelle Omenski
Nick Stavely
Agency/Community Relations Manager
Michele Pepper
Warehouse Manager – Huntsville
John-Edward Thomas
Warehouse Manager – Shoals
Jenn Tittle Farm Food Collaborative Manager
Carey Martin-Lane
Farm Food Collaborative Coordinator
Justin Luangkhot
Special Programs Manager
Natalie Bishnoi
Store Donation Coordinator
Austin Kusiak
Inventory/Food Sourcing Coordinator
Chris Birdwell
Healthcare Partnership Coordinator
Chyna Smith
Senior/CSFP Program Coordinator
Ebony Hickson
Grants Coordinator
Robin Gilbert
Agency Services Representative
Susan Szczepanski
Special Programs Assistant
Donor Services Assistant
Operations Assistant
Edward Ikard
Administrative Assistant
Finance Assistant
Warehouse Technicians – Huntsville
Vincent Wilson Jr.
Jonathan Henderson
Le’Keith Hogan
Lead Warehouse Technician – Shoals
Eric Brown
Food Sorting Captain
Carla Johnston
Drivers
Mark McCrary
Frank Mitchell
Ty Johnson
Jermaine Douglass
PO Box 18607
Huntsville, AL 35804
(256) 539-2256 • www.foodbanknorthal.org
VOLUNTEERS GIVE BIG BOOST TO FOOD BANK OF NORTH ALABAMA
It was a cool and wet Friday morning in early April at Milton Frank Stadium, but volunteers from Raytheon Technologies were smiling and happy as they worked in the parking lot taking names and information and handing out groceries to families dealing with food insecurity.
As people drove through, they were handed a box of food, a bag of fresh grapes and frozen chicken. This mobile pantry was sponsored by Raytheon Technologies as part of their Global Month of Service.
“We all were so glad to be there, it was a really great event and to be able to be there and give back for me personally was super rewarding,” said Natalie Lapacek-Trout, the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Raytheon Technologies. “We of course serve year round, but our Global Month of Service is when we really like to celebrate it. Also we just really wanted to amp up our partnership with the Food Bank of North Alabama. We have partnerships with Feeding America food banks around the nation, so it was time for our Alabama offices to step up and start helping our local food bank.”
Lapacek-Trout said she was especially happy to see how resilient everyone who received food was.
“It was amazing to see, they have to be going through some tough circumstances to be going to the Food Bank, but there were smiles on their faces and that was super encouraging to see we could bring those smiles to their faces,” she said. “It was also great to see the amount of food we were able to give out to help people and to see our volunteers really engaging.”
Counties served: Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan. The Food Bank of North Alabama is an equal opportunity provider & employer.
The Food Bank of North Alabama has recently worked with volunteers from groups such as Publix, Meta, Whole Foods, Redstone Federal Credit Union in addition to regular individual volunteers and church groups.
Christi Garris, the Food Bank of North Alabama’s volunteer coordinator, said that having groups such as Raytheon Technologies volunteering not only helps the food bank get more done, but it also gives the Food Bank an opportunity to help educate people about the need in North Alabama.
“They come in and find out stats behind food insecurity— we educate them on what people have to do to make their dollar stretch,” Garris said. “A lot of times when people come in to volunteer they don’t know exactly what it’s like. They learn about that and our impact outside of Huntsville”
Garris said volunteers also are often surprised to learn that the Food Bank is the main source of food for over 210 nonprofit organizations across 11 counties in North Alabama.
Volunteers save the Food Bank time, money and resources, in addition to freeing up staff to work on other projects. And volunteerism, Garris said, is one of the reasons the Food Bank has been able to grow its senior meal box program.
“I know for me personally, being in the warehouse working side by side with community members it’s a very fulfilling part of my role,” Garris said. “I can walk away from a volunteer shift and say ‘this is some of the most fun I’ve had.’ ”
If you’re interested in volunteering with the Food Bank, either as an individual, family or with a church or corporate group, email Christ Garris at cgarris@fbofna.org or sign up at www.foodbanknorthal.org/get-involved/volunteer.
FOOD BANK WELCOMES NEW STAFF
ERIC BROWN SHOALS WAREHOUSE ASSISTANT
Eric and his wife have a beautiful family of two. He has worked in warehouses off and on for 4 to 5 years. For the last 3 years before he came to work at the Food Bank, he was managing a family business.
EBONY HICKSON SENIOR/CSFP PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Ebony Hickson has an undergrad degree from Oakwood University in organizational management and is obtaining an MBA from University of Alabama Huntsville. She enjoys spending time with her daughter Ryleigh and their cat Chloe that they adopted. She is excited to be a part of the team and make changes in our community.
ALLISON PARKS SPECIAL PROGRAMS ASSISTANT
Allison Parks is the new Special Programs Assistant at the Food Bank of North Alabama. Allison has always worked with food, from jobs in the service industry and agriculture to her personal love for cooking. Driven by a passion for food access, environmentalism and human well-being, Allison is excited to join the Food Bank in its mission to fight hunger and foster a robust and resilient local food system in North Alabama.
ROBIN GILBERT GRANTS COORDINATOR
JUSTIN LUANGKHOT FARM FOOD COLLABORATIVE COORDINATOR
Justin Luangkhot is the dad to Hazel, 4, and Henry, 1, and husband to Amber. They have a farm comprised of goats, chickens, and you-pick produce. By training, Justin is a plant pathologist who is specialized in nematology. The Luangkhot family lived on the West Coast for 7 years prior to moving back to Alabama. Along with working at the Farm Food Collaborative, Justin, helps run the farm, and he is the owner of an agricultural research business. Justin said working with the Farm Food Collaborative is very exciting because he’s able to see all sides of producing for a farm. Connecting with growers and providing healthy local produce to people in North Alabama brings him great joy.
TERRANCE LEWIS DRIVER
Terrance grew up as a “Military Brat” and lived in four states and the country of Germany. He served in the U.S. Army for two and a half years and was honorably discharged as a disabled veteran. He was an Ammunition Stock Control and Accounting Specialist with the Army. Prior to his military service, Terrance earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Alabama A&M University in Business Administration with a concentration in Office Systems Management, where he excelled at following detailed instructions and grasping new tasks quickly. Thank you for your service, Terrance.
JUDY SHEATS FINANCE ASSISTANT
Judy Sheats is married, with 3 step daughters, 2 grandsons and 1 new baby granddaughter. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from University of Phoenix. She loves sci-fi, programming and 80’s music as well as to joke and laugh with people. She has enjoyed being a part of the Food Bank of North Alabama and helping people in need know someone does care about them.
Originally from Denver, Robin Gilbert has lived in Huntsville for 41 years. Robin has four awesome children and eight grandchildren (three of whom are 3 years old and no…they are not triplets!) She graduated from Oakwood University, has a Master’s in Divinity from Phillips Theological Seminary, a Master’s in Nonprofit and Religious Organizational Leadership from Newburgh Seminary and is currently working on her Doctorates in the same discipline. Robin stopped volunteering and started serving in the nonprofit world when as a Juvenile Probation Officer she decided that she wanted to reach the kids before they reached her. She loves reading, writing (she has two published books), spoken word poetry and music. Little known fact: Robin was a private investigator and bounty hunter! She feels blessed and is excited to be working with the Food Bank of North Alabama.
Donate today and help us feed the hungry today and create solutions that will end hunger tomorrow! Give using the enclosed reply slip or by visiting www.foodbanknorthal.org/give.
