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.”

“At second harvest heartland, we work to end hunger together. As one of the largest, most efficient, and most innovative hunger-relief organizations in the nation, we leverage our unique position in the emergency food chain to make an impact. Through partnerships, we support those in our region facing hunger today. More than a food bank, we're a leading partner in the policies and programs that work to end hunger, like snap, school meals and senior nutrition programs, and we're an innovator in the areas where food can be the solution, like foodrx and minnesota central kitchen. In fiscal year 2022, our work provided more than 113 million meals, as 1 in 6 people in our service area sought our assistance. All of our hunger-fighting efforts strive to decrease the racial hunger divide, the fact that black and hispanic households experienced food insecurity at least twice the rate of white, non-hispanic households. We reached those experiencing hunger through both food bank operations and hunger-fighting programs: as a food bank, we work with 423 food shelves and non-profit partners and more than 1,100 hunger-relief programs in 41 counties in minnesota and 18 counties in western wisconsin to get food to neighbors facing hunger. Last year we provided, on average, 86% of all food distributed by food shelf partners to their neighbors. Of the nearly 123 million pounds of food we distributed last year, more than 65.2% was fresh food (produce, meat, dairy and bakery items). Our agency relations team helped ease pandemic-era pressures for our partners by making $1.8 million in grants available to help partners adjust to increasing needs and changes in how the network operates. Among other needs, these grants helped support partners as they continue to address pandemic-era and inflationary pressures, increase their capacity, and provide services in new ways to support neighbors. Our volunteer base is critical to our operations. Last year, 9,348 unique volunteers donated time to second harvest heartland from food sorting and packing to client assistance to skill-based volunteer projects and more contributing 57,293 total hours. Volunteers donated the time equivalent to 27 full-time employees, based on the average hours per year worked by a full-time employee: 2,080. Minnesota central kitchen, our prepared meals initiative, provided 1,387,217 fully prepared meals at locations across the region, in partnership with more than 75 community organizations who distributed the meals where they were needed most. On average more than 60% of the ingredients in each meal were sourced by second harvest heartland. 19 kitchens participated in the collaborative, employing around 80 food service workers weekly and investing $6.5 million in local businesses. We provided commodity supplemental food program (csfp) food boxes to more than 230 unique distribution sites in 41 minnesota counties, serving approximately 5,300 seniors monthly. Foodrx, our medically tailored nutrition box program, provided services to support a healthy diet and improved health of 10,394 individuals through four service categories: foodrx chronic disease management program (1,060), foodrx stability boxes (555), snap referrals (6,080), community resources (2,699). Our snap (supplemental nutrition assistance program) outreach specialists processed over 18,600 new client referrals and assisted over 13,100 households with snap applications and re-certifications. This added over 9.4 million meals to families last year. Our child nutrition programs provided over $492,600 in grants to 24 education and nonprofit partners to help meet increased need and address food access challenges due to covid-19, inflation, and other hardships affecting families. These grants supported the delivery of 4.4 million meals to minnesota kids.”

“The organization did not change its oversight process or selection process during the tax year.”