Nonprofit Food Bank Business Plan

Helping Hand is a tax-exempt not-for-profit food bank that serves all of Johnson County, Washington.  Helping Hand’s goal is to alleviate hunger in Johnson County by soliciting, collecting, growing, and packaging food for distribution through a network of service agencies and programs that serve our target population groups.  Our services include food box programs, emergency food programs, and a youth farm that provides opportunities for self-sufficiency activities for “at risk” youth.  Helping Hand receives support from the county, charitable organizations and corporate sponsorship.

Approximately 20% of Johnson County residents qualify for assistance from Helping Hand.  Our client base is low-income people, mainly families, who need emergency help to put food on the table.  Nearly half of those served by the program are children.  Helping Hand operates a warehouse facility where we store donated or rescued food for distribution.  The program actively solicits food from local food growers, retailers, wholesalers, and processors.  In addition, Helping Hand collect food donations from restaurants for immediate distribution to service programs.

It is estimated that the number of children who need services from Helping Hand will increase during the next five years.  Johnson County is growing and a number of new families are entering the area to look for employment.  A number of programs exist to help transition these new families into the county.  Helping Hand is an important resource to these programs because we can respond quickly with the one of the most important resources these families need. Food!

Our services improves the ability of families to care for children and achieve goals of self-sufficiency. Helping Hand’s services, now, are a small investment in comparison to cost of ignoring the problem of hunger in the county and the influence it has on a number of health and crime issues.

1.1 Mission

The mission of Helping Hands is to alleviate hunger in Johnson County by soliciting, collecting, growing, and packaging food for distribution through a network of agencies and programs, as well as provide opportunities for self sufficiency.  Our services include food box programs, emergency shelters, congregate meal sites, residential treatment services, and children’s programs.

1.2 Objectives

This new initiative is designed to create a food bank that will serve all of Johnson County, Washington. Our objectives are:

• Establish donation network of local growers, retailers, wholesalers, and processors in Johnson County.
• Establish youth farm that will employ “at risk” youth.
• Collect over four million pounds of food the first year of operation.  Increase collection amount by 20% each year.
• Effectively distribute the food to low-income families that make up over 20% of Johnson County.
• Acquire $200,000 of start-up funding through corporate, private charities and government financial support.
• Raise an additional $100,000 in fundraising activity.

Helping Hand is a food bank serving Johnson County, Washington. The program’s focus is to identify and utilize resources for food in the county in order to eliminate hunger among low-income individuals and families in the area.

The program performs the following:

1. Solicits and distributes food to community programs.
2. Operates a youth farm program for “at-risk” young people.

2.1 Start-up Summary

Helping Hand’s start-up cost is $200,000.  A significant portion of the cost is donated trucks and collection vehicles for food, as well as a storage facility.  The remainder are the expenses normally associated with opening an office.  The program is funded by contributions from ten corporate sponsors, a grant from a private philanthropic trust, and Johnson County. The assumptions are shown in the following table and chart.

2.2 Legal Entity

Helping Hand is a Washington nonprofit corporation.

Approximately 20% of Johnson County residents qualify for assistance from Helping Hand.  Low-income people, mostly families, who need emergency help to put food on the table will be helped by this new program.  Nearly half of the people we serve are children and nearly one-fifth are senior citizens.  In the families we serve, there is at least one working person.

Helping Hand collects food at its centralized facility in the city of Monroe and distributes the food to nonprofit social service agencies and programs in the county.  The majority of the food we distribute is in the form of emergency boxes. Individuals or families can receive up to 15 boxes a year.  Each box contains a 3-5 day supply of high-quality food.  The remaining resources are dedicated to providing food to residential treatment facilities, dinner programs, youth service centers, foster homes, children’s program and more. 

The population base for Johnson County is 600,000.  Approximately 20% of the county’s population can be characterized as low-income.  This represents 120,000 residents that are potentially in need of services from Helping Hand.

This group can be broken down into three segments:

• Seniors (30,000);
• Individual Adults (35,000);
• Children (55,000).

Children represent 45% of the county residents in need of Helping Hand services. The program has identified children and their families as it primary target customers.  It is projected that the number of low-income children will increase in Johnson County by 20% over the next four years.  By 2006, children will represent 52% of Helping Hand’s client base.  With effective intervention, the debilitation effects of hunger can be eliminated.  Consequently, the families will be better able to be successfully providing for its children.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Service Geographics
Helping Hand serves the Johnson County area with a total population in excess of 600,000 people. Over 50% of the county’s population lives in Monroe.  The remaining bulk of county’s population resides in Lewisville, Drain, Fremont, and Lakespurs.

Service Demographics
It is estimated that 20% of the county’s residents are low-income. Of the county’s 120,000 low income residents, 25% are seniors, 30% are individual adults, and 45% are children.  Family groupings represent over 64% of low income residents in Johnson County. Over 90% of these families has at least one family member working full-time.  This is why children and their families are the focus of the program.

Service Psychographics
One of the most typical profiles of families interested in this type of program can be described by the following:

• At least one parent/guardian works full-time.
• The average family size is five, with three or four children.
• The family has made contact with one or more social service agency or program in the last 12 months.
• The families are most receptive to receiving food assistance through social service programs that are working with the families in other concerns.

Service Behaviors
Helping Hand has established that the most effective method to distribute food is through the network of existing social service programs and agencies serving the target population groups.  There are 25 programs and agencies that provide services to low-income seniors, adults and children. On average, clients visit one or more of these programs or agencies on a weekly basis.  In addition, these programs have an excellent volunteer base that can be mobilized to distribute food.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

The primary target population group for Helping Hand is children (from birth to 16 years of age) and their families.  This group has been identified as the fastest growing segment of the population that need food bank services.  The impact of food assistance is most critical during the first five years of a child’s life.  Children ages birth to five years of age represents 50% of the children served by the program.

Helping Hand will focus on establishing an effective collection network with local growers, retailers, wholesalers, and processors.  Another primary goal will be the creation of a youth farm that will employ “at risk” youth.  The program will also start a fundraising campaign with area retail markets, banks and credit unions in order to raise an additional $100,000.

Helping Hand will advertise its services to the target populations groups through the agencies that serve these groups on a daily basis.

5.1 Marketing Strategy

Helping Hand’s marketing program will focus on increasing its visibility in the community. Participating food retail stores will carry information about Helping Hand and how stores like this one are helping the community.  Award plaques will be distributed to stores each year and the program will find additional methods to raise the profile of stores that assist the program. 

Program brochures will be distributed by local social service programs and agencies that serve the target population groups.  In addition, these programs and agencies will serve as advocates of using Helping Hand in response to the need for emergency food. 

5.2 Fundraising Strategy

Helping Hand will immediately start a Fall Fundraising campaign that will focus on using the local banks and credit unions to collect donations to fight hunger. Typically, food drives are started in October and November. Helping Hand will place donation bins in participating banks and credit union. In addition, customers in local retail food stores can donate money to Helping Hand at the checkout stand.

5.2.1 Funding Forecast

Helping Hand’s monthly revenues for the 2002-2003 calendar year will fluctuate based on the seasons.  During Fall the program will have its major fundraiser.  The summer months are anticipated to be weak food collection months.

The following are Helping Hand’s fundraising and food collection programs:

Food Collection (FC)
Participating retailers, wholesalers, and processors will donate food stuffs. These contributors will contribute donations of a monthly basis.

Fill the Bucket (FtB)
Each Fall, Helping Hand will run a fundraiser through local banks and credit union.  Small containers that will look like the larger Helping Hand food bins will sit at the counter of each teller.

Food Rescue Express (FRE)
Helping Hand will collect donated food from local restaurants to be immediately distributed to programs in the area that will in turn distribute the food to their clients.

Gleaning
Harvest leftovers and unsold produce from farmers’ fields will be collected by Helping Hand.  Every year thousands of pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables are left to rot or get tilled under the field.  Gleaning reduces waste while feeding people.  Helping Hand actually recruits gleaning crews from the local support program.

Youth Farm (YF)
The youth farm utilizes kids in diversion program or local program serving “at risk” kids to provide a learning environment that turn these kids life around.  The produce is sold by the youth farm crew members at a on-site produce stand.  All proceeds are used to support Helping Hand programs.

Editor’s Note: To maximize the chart size for the Funding Monthly and Funding By Year charts below the fundraising categories above have been abbreviated within the Funding Forecast table. Charitable/Corporate Program Funding will use C/CPF as an acronym in the table and charts.

Helping Hand’s management team consist of a board of directors and an executive director. The program will consist of five service coordinators.

6.1 Personnel Plan

The following table summarizes the program’s personnel expenditures for the first three years.

The staff will consist of five coordinators:

• Volunteer coordinator;
• Food solicitation coordinator;
• Distribution coordinator;
• Warehouse coordinator;
• Youth farm coordinator.

The detailed monthly personnel plan for the first year is included in the appendix.

Helping Hand is funded from a variety of sources, public and private.  We anticipate that funding will increase by 15% over the next three years.  The executive director and the board of directors will be responsible for reviewing the program expenditures and making adjustment to assure the program solvency.

7.1 Important Assumptions

The financial plan depends on important assumptions, most of which are shown in the following table.

The key underlying assumptions are:

• We assume a slow-growth economy, without major recession.
• We assume population growth in the county that will contribute to additional low-income clients.
• We assume, of course, that there are no unforeseen changes in funding availability.
• We assume a continued need for emergency food services in the county.

7.2 Projected Surplus or Deficit

Helping Hand’s Projected Surplus and Deficit is shown on the following table. The detailed monthly projections are included in the appendix.

7.3 Projected Cash Flow

Helping Hand’s cash flow is represented as funding dollars and collected food and monetary donations. The monthly cash flow is shown in the illustration, with one bar representing the cash flow per month, and the other the monthly cash balance. The annual cash flow figures are included here and the more important detailed monthly numbers are included in the appendix.

Pro Forma Cash Flow
	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Cash Received
Cash from Operations
Cash Funding	$408,360	$548,296	$592,181
Subtotal Cash from Operations	$408,360	$548,296	$592,181
Additional Cash Received
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received	$0	$0	$0
New Current Borrowing	$0	$0	$0
New Other Liabilities (interest-free)	$0	$0	$0
New Long-term Liabilities	$0	$0	$0
Sales of Other Current Assets	$0	$0	$0
Sales of Long-term Assets	$0	$0	$0
New Investment Received	$0	$0	$0
Subtotal Cash Received	$408,360	$548,296	$592,181
Expenditures	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Expenditures from Operations
Cash Spending	$132,000	$132,000	$132,000
Bill Payments	$257,132	$354,348	$385,465
Subtotal Spent on Operations	$389,132	$486,348	$517,465
Additional Cash Spent
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Paid Out	$0	$0	$0
Principal Repayment of Current Borrowing	$0	$0	$0
Other Liabilities Principal Repayment	$0	$0	$0
Long-term Liabilities Principal Repayment	$0	$0	$0
Purchase Other Current Assets	$0	$0	$0
Purchase Long-term Assets	$0	$0	$0
Dividends	$0	$0	$0
Subtotal Cash Spent	$389,132	$486,348	$517,465
Net Cash Flow	$19,228	$61,948	$74,716
Cash Balance	$88,228	$150,176	$224,892

7.4 Projected Balance Sheet

The following table represents the Project Balance Sheet for Helping Hand.