In September, FRN’s COO, Katie Jones, posed the question, “How can we provide consistent access to food to help our nonprofit partners have more sustainable (i.e. less funding spent on purchasing food, less food waste) practices?” FRN had a unique opportunity to pilot a four-week food recovery program in Indianapolis, IN during the Colts football season to find an answer.

From September 29-October 31, FRN partnered with Bullseye Event Group to ensure that surplus food from their Indianapolis Colts VIP Tailgate Parties would be donated to a local hunger-fighting nonprofit organization. For four home games, FRN sent staff members out to Indianapolis to recover and deliver surplus food from the Bullseye Event Center to Wheeler Mission. 

Wheeler Mission is a 129-year-old institution and the only shelter system in the city. Its network of shelters in the Indianapolis area provides housing, meals, rehabilitation services, medical care, and more to an average of 900 people per day, every day of the year. 

When you consider how much food is needed to provide three meals per day for 900 people, the costs add up quickly. This includes not only the cost of food, but also kitchen space, equipment, and maintenance; kitchen staff; and volunteer training time. Like many hunger-fighting partners across the United States, Wheeler Mission depends on food donations to ensure they can meet the needs of the people they serve. 

This is why FRN is dedicated to understanding what resources are needed to ensure that partners like Wheeler Mission have more consistent access to food. Their organization acts as a safety net for people’s basic needs throughout the greater Indianapolis area. 

Over the course of four weeks, our team was thrilled to pick up and deliver 459 pounds of high-quality proteins, produce, and prepared dishes from Bullseye Event Center for Wheeler Mission. This is equivalent to providing 383 meals overall, an average of 96 meals per week. 

While these recoveries should be celebrated, we know this is only enough food to provide one lunch per week for the people residing at just one of Wheeler Mission’s smaller shelters. There is a significant need for more food, but I believe a solution is possible. 

For this pilot program, FRN worked with just one food donor to recover surplus food from special events. However, if more food businesses in Indianapolis donated once per week, the impact would be much higher and Wheeler Mission would have a consistent supply of food to support the community. 

The biggest challenge standing in the way of establishing a web of food donors is people power to routinely pick up and deliver food donations to Wheeler Mission. FRN sent staff members out to Indianapolis to recover food because we couldn’t connect with volunteers on the ground in Indianapolis who could commit to showing up on a schedule determined by the food donor and nonprofit partner, even when we offered payment for volunteer time and transportation costs. 

This leads me to a new key question: What does it cost to secure consistent volunteers? Without people power, the foundation that brings a food recovery program from a concept to a thriving system, consistent food recoveries aren’t feasible. 

Throughout the next year, FRN will continue to work with our network of 4,000 college students, dining service professionals, business owners, and alumni to explore these questions further so that we can understand what consistent access to food could look like for communities across the U.S. and address the pressing need we see.