Midwest Food Bank -- March 3

On our first trip of Spring 2010, we took a private, behind-the-scenes tour of the Midwest Food Bank in Peoria and spoke with Larry Herman, division director, about the donations, distributions, and volunteers that allow the non-profit facility to feed more than 225,000 people each month.

The food bank distributes food to over 600 organizations that provide food goods to members of their communities in need. It is able to distribute the food at no cost due to the immense numbers of volunteers; according to Herman, 99.87% of all donations go to program costs rather than administrative expenses. He estimates that each donated dollar ultimately funds nearly $20 in wholesale value food.

Midwest Food Bank, located at 9005 N. Industrial Road, receives food from manufacturers, distributors, grocers, food drives, and individuals. The overall distribution of the facility (and its sister sites in Normal and Indiana) approaches $2 million monthly.

The Peoria facility is currently partnering with ADM and the University of Illinois to develop nutritious dry mix meals known as Tender Mercies. Using rice from Arkansas, vegetable protein from ADM and flavoring from Watson Company, the bags of food will be heat-sealed, labeled, and distributed to Haiti and within America. The facility had enough product on hand during our visit to make 600,000 servings; volunteers will package it and the overall cost will be less than ten cents per serving.

OLLI extends its thanks to Larry Hermann and Chris Roecker from Midwest Food Bank for making us feel so welcome during our visit.

To learn more about Midwest Food Bank, please visit its website.