Frequently Asked Questions
- What is River Bend Foodbank ?
- How much food does the foodbank distribute annually?
- What is the difference between a foodbank and a food pantry?
- Where is River Bend Foodbank located ?
- Who receives food from River Bend Foodbank ?
- How does the foodbank get its food?
- Does the foodbank charge for donated food?
- Does the foodbank purchase food?
- Does River Bend Foodbank operate any other programs?
- Who are the poor and needy in the Quad Cities ?
- How do I find a food pantry or meal site?
- How does my contribution to the foodbank make a difference?
- What are our overhead and administrative costs?
What is River Bend Foodbank ?
River Bend Foodbank is a private nonprofit organization that collects, stores and redistributes surplus food to other charities that have feeding programs. The Foodbank has been serving the poor and needy from our own community since 1982.
How much food does the foodbank distribute annually?
River Bend Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organization in the bi-state region with an annual distribution rate of over 4 MILLION pounds of food
What is the difference between a foodbank and a food pantry?
Food banks collect and handle very large quantities of food, donations that a single food pantry or feeding program could not accept because of a lack of storage and handling capacity at their facilities. Hungry people obtain food directly through the food pantries and foodbanks serve as a critical source of food and other essentials to help them meet the needs of hungry people.
Where is River Bend Foodbank located ?
The Foodbank is located at 309 12th Street in Moline, IL. Adjacent to the I-Wireless arena, the Foodbank has a warehouse of 25,000 square feet. The Foodbank is equipped with frozen storage capabilities to handle perishable as well as nonperishable food items.
Who receives food from River Bend Foodbank ?
The Foodbank serves over 300 charitable feeding programs throughout a service area of 22 counties in Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa. Programs like Kids Cafés, food pantries, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, after school programs, residential treatment facilities and others all benefit from River Bend.
How does the foodbank get its food?
The foodbank receives food from various sources within the food industry. Wholesalers, distributors and retailers are able to donate their surplus food to River Bend. The donated product is not marketable for a variety of reasons but is still safe and edible. Mislabeled, overproduced, test market items and product with short code dates are some examples of product that comes to the foodbank. The Foodbank also receives food from both the state of Illinois and state of Iowa. People from our own community can participate in the Foodbank by donating food through the two largest food drives in the Quad Cities: The Student Food Drive and the Letter Carriers Food Drive.
Does the foodbank charge for donated food?
No. River Bend does not and in fact cannot sell the food that is donated to alleviate hunger in its service area. Furthermore, the local food pantries and other agencies cannot charge its recipients for this food. The donated food that our member agencies receive is free but they donate a shared maintenance contribution of 14 cents per pound to defray the cost of food recovery, storage, transportation, quality assurance, inventory control, insurance, utilities, supervision and coordination of volunteers. This allows us to supply the food to our member agencies need when they need it, and to judiciously distribute the food to all of our member agencies. Our member agencies collectively save over $5 MILLION annually by using the foodbank as a resource. For example an agency that contributes $25 can get 200 boxes of cereal or 233 cans of soup.
Does the foodbank purchase food?
The foodbank recently began purchasing food at wholesale prices food that is greatly needed and not often donated to help supplement our inventory and better meet the needs of our member agencies.
Does River Bend Foodbank operate any other programs?
Yes. The Foodbank has taken a proactive stance in addressing childhood hunger in our community by developing a Kids Café program. A Kids Café is an evening meal site that provides a free meal to children who are at risk of hunger. The Foodbank partners with other charities to provide this service at four different locations throughout the Quad Cities. In the fall of 2007, the Foodbank partnered with the John Deere Foundation to implement a Backpack Program in our community. Currently we are providing 400 hungry children at risk of hunger with bags filled with nutritious food weekly throughout the school year.
Who are the poor and needy in the Quad Cities ?
The poor and needy fall into three basic categories. The situationally poor are people who are experiencing hunger on a temporary basis. Perhaps a layoff, divorce, or illness has forced a person to ask for food assistance at the pantry level. The second group is the working poor. In today’s economy it takes two full time workers earning minimum wage to support a family of four above the poverty level. The final category is the chronically poor. These are people who slip into and out of poverty on a regular basis.
How do I find a food pantry or meal site?
How does my contribution to the foodbank make a difference?
For every dollar contributed, River Bend can distribute $18 worth of food. A $10 donation will enable us to distribute from $180 worth of food. For a donation of $112, you can sponsor a child to receive a backpack for an entire school year and for $120 you can feed a child at a Kids Café in this community for the entire year.
What are our overhead and administrative costs?
Less than 1% of the foodbank’s budget goes towards fund raising activities and approximately 97% of all resources go directly to helping programs that help seniors, children and working families.