How to start a Food Bank! Part 1

One of my neighbors has mentioned to me several times that I should teach a class on how to start up/ run a food pantry/ food bank. Not to brag, but I'm pretty amazing at it! I only started 1 1/2 years ago and my garage is currently overflowing with free products I have received! Now, don't think I'm doing this all for me to get free stuff. 99% of the items I receive go to families in need, my family does get items. Hey, there has to be some perks to essentially working for free. Anyways, when my neighbor said that I thought, NO WAY! Why? Because we live in a small town and if I teach people in my small town how to do it they will "steal" donations from me. If you live in a big city like Las Vegas you could easily have 10 of my food banks, if not more. However in a town of 32,00 1 is enough.

I would LOVE to share my insights though!

I do 99% of my work online e-mailing companies. The other 1% is going to local businesses, but like I said I am in a small town. In big cities I think you can relay a LOT more on local donations. You have so many more options!!! We have 3, yes THREE, grocery stores that all have already committed to donating to the state run food bank. I currently have 3 places that donate to me, 2 maybes and 1 farmers market. I am actually DYING to expand and start up my food pantries in at least 2 other cities!

So, everyone asks me, How/ Why I got started?
At the time my family was struggling financially. We made enough to make ends meet, but also living paycheck to paycheck. It seemed like every job my husband had gifted him with a 2 week layoff at Christmas time. Meaning 2 weeks of no income and 2 weeks to try to catch up on later. It was January and I was visiting a friend in Vegas. When I got to her house she walked in the door with a laundry basket full of food. She told me how a friend of hers contacted local stores and received items they would normally just throw away for FREE. I was floored! I looked at her food and thought, "Oh my gosh, if they had this where I lived it would help my family so much!" Since it didn't exist in my little town I figured, what the heck I'll start one! I started with 1 little space on my shelves for food. I mostly just pulled food from my own pantry to get us going! I remember my turning point. I had been toying around with the idea for a while, but just couldn't take the plunge. My husband had a slow week at work and bills were tight. I had $30 to feed my family of 4 for 1 week. I was freaking out. I decided I'm starting this thing! My printer was out of ink so I couldn't even print my business letters. I asked a friend if I could come use her printer. She was one of my best supporters. I am NOT a people person at all. In fact I had her talk to the first 5 places we asked for donations and she got 1 of them to come on board with us!

Since then I have learned to open up and asking for donations has become a lot more natural and a lot less nerve wracking!

I am now up to 3 bakeries donating to me and 1 farmers market. 1 restaurant is supposed to start donating next week! I also have 1 more bakery that might start soon as well. Why so many bakeries you ask? Because they are perfect for having extra food items that don't keep for days! Think about it, you have to make x amount of cupcakes or donuts for the day, but you don't sell them all. The next day no one wants day old baked goods. Sometimes you can sell them for 1/2 off the next day, but what about when you are closed for the weekend? DONATION! The same goes for our weekly farmers market. Farmers bring in fresh fruits and veggies once a week. Whatever they don't sell isn't going to last a whole nother week! DONATION! Ever donation makes me excited!