KUNA FOOD BANK INC

We alleviate food insecurity in Kuna and surrounding rural areas by collecting and distributing food to people in the Kuna Community. In 2024, 3133 food orders were picked up by households in Kuna. The food order is intended to provide a week's worth of food for the household, with a retail average of $160 per food order. The estimated retail value of all of the food orders is $501000. The food and grocery gift cards in the amount of $14,000 were provided to people in the Kuna Community who need food. The grocery gift cards are typically used to purchase perishable and fresh foods. By mobilizing over 250 additional community volunteers we attain over 60,000 pounds of food and coordinate the distribution of food from our warehouse and appendage programs, the Ross Pantry and Weekend Backpack program. We also directly support Giraffe Laugh at Boys and Girls Club, Falcon Ridge Elementary Backpack Program, KunaNaz Food Pantry, and Kuna's Senior Center with less than 2% overlap among all of our programs. The Kuna Food Bank is unique in its method of resource distribution, as well as in the way we measure the success of our program. Rather than giving out assorted boxes of random foods, food vulnerable families who call into our facility work with a volunteer to fill out a food order. Foods from each nutritional group are chosen by the caller according to their personal and cultural preferences, dietary needs and restrictions, the number of people in their home, and their capacity to keep food safely stored. We also strive to send them with enough food to support their family's nutritional needs for a week or more. We have found that families facing financial crisis are far more likely to overcome their vulnerable situations when they have support to meeting basic nutritional needs for at least one to two pay cycles. We feel that our method allows families to allocate time and resources to eliminate their immediate food crisis. Nearly 45% of households we serve request food just one time. Our measuring tactics differ from other food banks as well in that we track individuals rather than orders filled. Although we record the amount of food we distribute and the number of orders we fill, we measure our success by our ability to help unique individuals and families transition from nutrition vulnerability to self-reliance. Therefore, we emphasize the individuals and families we serve above the number of orders we fill in our reporting. The Kuna Food Bank exists to feed, educate, and empower food-insecure individuals and families living within the Kuna School District boundaries and surrounding areas. This includes portions of Meridian, Melba, Bowmont, and Nampa, and immigrant families whose situations may fluctuate. We are a community-based organization. Over 85% of our inventory is derived from local sources. Throughout the year, local clubs, businesses, schools, and organizations hold food drives to help keep our shelves stocked. We also participate in food rescue programs with several local businesses and farms.