Second Harvest Heartland

“The form 990 is prepared by our auditor with support from staff at second harvest heartland. The finance committee of the board reviews and approves the form 990 which is then provided to all board members prior to filing.”

“Upon hiring, employees are provided a copy of the conflict of interest policy. Human resources retains a signed copy from each employee stating they understood and accepted the terms of the policy. Members of the board are required to provide a signed agreement annually.”

“Shh periodically uses external surveys to evaluate all employees' compensation. Shh also uses other compensation sources as well as considering the cost-of-living adjustment per the federal social security administration guidelines, the consumer price index, and wage and salary trend reports to determine an appropriate average annual percentage. An average increase based on second harvest heartland's financials is approved for budgeting purposes. Employees are given a performance appraisal and a recommendation of an increase (if merited) is made to the executive team.”

“Copies of all information are available upon request. Form 990 is made available through the organization's website.”

“Our mission is to end hunger through community partnerships. In the years since our 2001 founding, Second Harvest Heartland has evolved from a food bank focused almost solely on food distribution. Today, Second Harvest Heartland is one of the nations largest, most efficient and most innovative hunger-relief organizations. In FY19, we distributed more than 97 million meals. New and growing partnerships with retail donors, government agencies, corporations, foundations and individuals, alongside increasing efficiencies within our organization, will allow us to continue to deliver more food. We invest in a range of efforts to fully address the problem of hunger in our communities. Through the SNAP Outreach Program, outreach specialists visit food shelves, soup kitchens and other organizations and events to help people understand the program and break down barriers to participation. Nearly 19% of Minnesotans who qualify for SNAP are not accessing this benefit. That translates to millions of dollars of already-funded food and financial assistance that goes unclaimed because people are unaware of their eligibility or because they have difficulty with the application process. We also operate the USDAs SFSP, a Minnesota Department of Education-administered program that funds free meals to children during the summertime. We identify high-need areas annually in our collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education using school free and reduced meal program data. This data helps us promote our mini-grants program to eligible agencies and organizations and plan our outreach efforts for the year. Second Harvest Heartland has dedicated staff to conduct outreach in targeted communities and provides mini-grants to organizations to help alleviate barriers to participation. Fresh Food Nutritious food is a growing part of Second Harvest Heartlands offering. Retail partners and growers have joined hunger-relief efforts and continue to contribute record levels of perishable food. In fact, more than 65.2% of all food distributed throughout the fiscal year was fresh food, such as meat, produce, bakery and dairy products. Of this amount, more than 40.6 million pounds were distributed through the Food Rescue Program, largely comprised of fresh food such as produce, meat and dairy options. Volunteer program Our volunteer program is a vital component of Second Harvest Heartlands efforts to bring more food to those who are hungry in our community. In the coming years, we will need additional support from volunteers to propel our growth. We expect our volunteer capacity to increase when we are fully operational at our new hunger-relief campus in Brooklyn Park, with the addition of a temperature-controlled clean room. To meet a rapidly growing demand and to better serve our volunteers, Second Harvest Heartland is making significant investments in our volunteer program. In FY19, we were able to engage more than 24,000 individual volunteers who contributed more than 110,000 hours, the equivalent of 53 full-time employees. Volunteers are an integral part of accomplishing our work, and continued growth in our volunteer program is required to help us meet our goals for our hungry neighbors. In addition to bulk food sorting and packing, volunteers pack and distribute CSFP boxes for seniors and help participants apply for CSFP and SNAP. We also continue to see an increase in both individuals and groups who volunteer to share their unique and specialized skills with us, such as data analysis, process improvement and more. Hunger and Health For our clients, a lack of food means a higher likelihood of chronic disease and poor health. To address this intersection of hunger and health, Second Harvest Heartland launched an innovative program called FOODRx in September 2016 to achieve better health for those who are hungry. FOODRx works to bring healthy food directly into health care settings, removing barriers to the nutrition people need to be well and producti”

“Food Rescue: More than 500 stores donated 40.6 million pounds of food through our Food Rescue Program in 2019. We also worked with Minnesota growers to capture a portion of the 200 million pounds of crops that are either plowed under or unsold each year in our state. This year, the produce capture program collected more than 7.5 million pounds of sweet corn, potatoes, apples, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, watermelon, tomatoes and other produce.”

“Community Outreach: Since FY11, Second Harvest Heartland has enhanced our outreach efforts to connect people with the public resources for which they are eligible, including SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps). Second Harvest Heartlands SNAP outreach specialists visit food shelves, soup kitchens, workforce centers and other organizations and participate in events to help people understand the program and break down barriers to participation, from a lack of awareness to challenges with the application processes. In FY19, we assisted nearly 4,000 households with SNAP applications and re-certifications, adding nearly 3 million meals for families. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a meal reimbursement program that funds free meals to high-need children during the summertime. This USDA program, administered by the Minnesota Department of Education, provides children with more than 150 million meals and snacks at 47,795 sites (such as schools, parks and community centers) once school is out of session for the summer. Our staff conducts outreach efforts to increase awareness of SFSP and administers 21 mini-grant programs to fund 351 meal-sites within our service area. At these sites, 1,036,653 meals and 167,481 snacks were served by grant-awarded sponsors. In the 2018-2019 school year Food + You, a school-based program designed to increase the availability of healthy food resources to students and their families, partnered with 14 schools in high-need areas of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. This multi-dimensional pilot program offered direct food distributions, support for accessing existing federal nutrition programs and connections to broader community resources.”