Join us – this week only! Support central Ohio nonprofits through #UnitedForImpact. Give today and 100% of your gift goes to the nonprofit(s) of your choice.-choose NNEMAP Food Pantry and help us feed people and nourish hope! Even better, your donation will make a huge impact when our community comes together to unlock an additional $250,000 in bonus prizes. Participating is easy. Don’t delay! https://liveunitedcentralohio.org/unitedforimpact/donate/nnemap/   #unitedwaycentralohio #cbus #foodinsecurity

United Way of Central Ohio is helping 80+ nonprofits raise much-needed funds, and we need you to be UNITED FOR IMPACT. For one week only, May 10-14, every $1 you give to our organization and others helps unlock an additional $250,000 in bonus prizes. It’s easy to participate, and we keep 100% of your donation! Learn more and join us!

The Columbus Young Professionals Club invited NNEMAP Food Pantry to participate in the M.A.D. Splash Challenge, a three-round fundraising event–with eliminations. Yikes!

Don’t worry, though–we got this. We are seasoned competitors in the fundraising contest arena. We stunned the competition by nearly taking the top prize in the United Way’s “Knock Out Poverty” event in 2019 and racked up lots of extra prize money for our troubles.

We were leading in the final days of the Aetna “Voices of Health” voting game in 2019 before getting swamped at the last minute and finishing just out of the money. Aetna generously awarded us $5,000 for being such an inspiration.

So…we can do this! How, you ask? Simple.

From APRIL 5-19, we need to make donations through the NNEMAP Food Pantry page through The Columbus Foundation’s Giving Store site. Don’t worry–we’ll send a link to make it easy.

If we don’t finish in the top 8, that’s where the splash comes in–a member of our fundraising team will be taking a plunge in the pool at Taylor House Apartments. Brrrr!!!!

If…I mean WHEN we advance to ROUND 2, we’ll need social media support–like our posts, comment on them and share them with your friends.

ROUND 3 ends with a limited budget ($100) creative challenge–the top 4 teams advancing out of round 2 compete for the top prize, a $500 bonus donation, and a lifetime of fame and notoriety for winning the first ever M.A.D. Splash!

WHAT WE NEED:

*Donors! Any amount will help us get there. We’ll send links when the contest goes live on Monday, April 5.

*Social Media Support–like, comment, and share NNEMAP Food Pantry’s posts to get us to the final round.

*Creative Thinkers/Insect Architects–in case we need to build a beehive!

SOUND LIKE FUN? We thought so! Please join our M.A.D. Splash Fundraising Team today! E-mail Sean Becker, Director of Development & Marketing at sean@nnemappantry.org or call 614-297-9935 to find out how you can help!

SIGN UP NOW!

NNEMAP Food Pantry is a non-profit corporation. Two key concepts reside in there, but I’m going to focus on the second idea: corporation. Non-profit organizations are businesses. As such, there are expenses–occupancy/rent; utilities; payroll; equipment. In that way we are just like, say, General Motors or Microsoft. 

As a social service agency, we clearly have a different product line from a car manufacturer or software developer. Instead of products, we offer programming–in our case, free groceries for low-income customers. And we have different expectations on how we expect those programs to perform. We are not in existence to make money, but we have to offer some sort of value proposition if we can expect community support. 

Our grocery delivery service, introduced and eventually made permanent last year, provides an excellent return on investment for the community. Here is how the numbers work out:

-Every grocery delivery that we complete costs about $13. That’s for everything. Food, staff time, mileage–the works.

-A 2017 assessment of food-insecure families found that the average low-income household in Franklin County spent $2.02 per person per meal.

-The average amount of food we deliver replaces about 31 meals for the recipient household. Stay with me here.

-By delivering food to provide 31 meals, NNEMAP Food Pantry is saving customers, on average, $62.62 per delivery. We’ll do the math: 31 meals x $2.02 per meal. Instead of spending money to have groceries delivered by a for-profit grocer at a steep markup, we deliver similar products for free. Instead of paying for a restaurant to deliver food for one or two meals for the household, we deliver food for 3 DAYS or more. Instead of going hungry, customers get fresh, healthy produce and great shelf-stable goods to go with it.

We spend about $13 per delivery. But we SAVE customers $62 and change. That is ALMOST a 5-to-1 return on investment ratio (4.81-to-1 to be exact). Would Microsoft invest in a project with that kind of return? Thinking yes.

Your support for NNEMAP Food Pantry provides big returns for the community. If you would like to help with a cash donation or volunteer to be a delivery driver, you can do it right now by clicking below. Thank you for your support!

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You never know what’s going to happen at NNEMAP Food Pantry. Take this recent customer’s adventure, for example. Kendra (name changed) sent a request for free grocery delivery service right after the New Year. It was January 4th–our first business day of 2021. Pantry Manager Jim Hamberg called Kendra back to confirm the request and set up a delivery time. Business as usual.

The next day, business took an unusual turn. Kendra called Jim back to cancel the delivery request. “I do not have money for rent, so I am probably going to get evicted. I don’t know where we will be, so I don’t know where to tell you to deliver,” she explained.

A year ago, Kendra was a working, single mother of a middle-school aged son. Like many families, they had enough to get by as long as nothing crazy happened. Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The first wave of shutdowns left Kendra without a job. After finally finding a new, full-time job that would be sufficient to support her household, she was diagnosed with Covid-19 as part of a final, pre-employment screening. After seeing the positive Covid test, the employer rescinded Kendra’s job offer.

In less than 48 hours, Kendra and her 12-year-old son were going to be out on the street in the dead of winter with no food and no place to go. That was not acceptable. Jim and NNEMAP Food Pantry Executive Director Roy Clark found a nearby organization that would help Kendra pay her rent. A couple of phone calls later, Kendra’s rent was paid and she could stay safely at home.

Crucially, avoiding eviction will keep a blemish off Kendra’s credit rating–a negative mark that could haunt her for years to come. Also, staying in her home meant Kendra’s son would not miss any school time or transfer to a new school. Countless studies have shown that the effects of missed school time or transferring to a different school have a devastating effect on academic achievement. For a middle school student, missing school or being forced to transfer could have catastrophic effects.

Some quick thinking and good listening helped Kendra avoid a disaster–and helped her son stay on track in the classroom.

All in a day’s work.

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