We procure food and necessities from a variety of sources, including a robust grocery rescue program, which reduces food waste while providing quality food for people in need. We also receive direct contributions from partners throughout the food industry, from farmers to restaurants. A smaller but still sizeable portion of our food is purchased using donated funds and other means of foundational support. And because we can purchase food in bulk quantities at wholesale prices, we can make that funding go further, providing about the equivalent of three meals for every dollar.

We use this metric as a general way to explain how donated dollars have major purchasing power through Food Bank of Wyoming. 

$1 helps provide three meals thanks to Food Bank of Wyoming’s robust purchasing power, grocery rescue program, federal government allotments, donations, and lower bulk pricing from agricultural and retail partners. 

Ultimately, $1 helps provide 3 meals because of the way we are able to leverage the power of donated food. More than half of our food is donated by retailers, manufacturers, and agricultural partners or funded through government programs. Although there are costs associated even with donated food (i.e. the freight to pick up the food, the cost of running our distribution center, the cost of labor and freight to distribute the food), it’s still an incredibly efficient model. 

While Food Bank of Wyoming currently spends over $120,000/month on purchased food, that food represents a fraction of the food we’re distributing thanks to donated and government-funded food. Additionally, we are purchasing food for much less than what the average person would spend at the grocery store, which helps us stretch donors’ dollars further.

Our two processes for food distribution are through direct services and through Hunger Relief Partners.

Direct services are programs run wholly by Food Bank of Wyoming and our associated teams. These include our Totes of Hope® programs that provide weekend nutrition support for families, delivery of meal boxes for older adults, and much more.

Hunger Relief Partners are locally based relief organizations throughout Wyoming who receive resources through Food Bank of Wyoming. Our partners are the lifeline between Food Bank of Wyoming and communities throughout our state, and we are so proud to currently be partnering with more than 160 organizations.

Everything raised in Wyoming stays in Wyoming. We’re proud of the fact that 96¢ of every single dollar we bring in goes directly into our hunger relief programs. And we have been given a 4-Star rating on Charity Navigator for 11 years running.

We are strident stewards of the funding and support that is so generously provided by our community and partner organizations, and we strive for maximum transparency by offering our financial statements for all to see. 

That’s a question almost as big as the problem of hunger itself. 

In Wyoming, the number of adults estimated to be food insecure in 2020 was 1 in 6. For children it’s 1 in 4. 

One of the biggest recent impacts has obviously been the economic devastation of the pandemic, where we saw need in our region explode by 150%. And recovery from this will be a very long road for so many of our neighbors in need. 

But food insecurity in America was on the rise long before the pandemic, due to an incredibly complex web of factors, from systemic inequalities to infrastructure failings to global economic shifts. 

In 2020, Food Bank of Wyoming helped provide food and necessities to around 99,000 Wyoming residents who were experiencing food insecurity. Their backgrounds and needs are about as varied as you can imagine, from heads of households losing their jobs (or even just hours) to recent graduates finding career paths suddenly closed off. So often, we hear from our clients that they never thought they’d need the kinds of services we provide.

Which is why we will remain diligent and ready to answer the challenge of hunger wherever and whenever it rises. 

All of our clients receive our food and support either through direct programs or one of our more than 160 Hunger Relief Partners.