Every Meal's mission is to fight child hunger through community and school partnerships.

Every Child. Every Meal.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Our goal is to be in every school in Minnesota and western Wisconsin that wants our programming by 2028. This includes expanding and diversifying our programs.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Two: Invest in systems, tech, and relationships to improve engagement with community and partners. This includes adding a new CRM and creating a new initiative connecting all weekend food programs in MN.

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Goal Three: Develop a 1st class volunteer experience by connecting volunteers to the fight against child hunger to broaden our reach and ensure that every child has every meal.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Describe an investment in leadership

To better equip and support leadership roles at Every Meal, the organization has made investments at several levels. Manager-level staff attended a Mid-management Track Workshop. This consisted of six sessions from March through August 2021 on different topics designed to deepen understanding of key nonprofit principles and build leadership skills. Director-level staff have been undergoing certificate programs in their focus areas and are also receiving professional coaching. Our President recently completed a leadership certificate through Stanford Business School.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

We partner with schools through a mobile delivery solution, providing food to children right where they are – at school. Additionally, we have many strategic partnerships with industry, community, and business leaders to develop collaborations. We present to various local groups around backpack programs and food insecurity. We equip our sponsors (community organizations that partner with schools) with the tools to raise funds towards the program and train volunteers to distribute meal bags. We participate in groups with other hunger-relief organizations. This includes developing shared resources and advocating for universal meals for children in school. Of special note, we convene all weekend food programs in Minnestoa to collaborate, support, and strategize on how best to serve Minnesota kids. We use various marketing channels such as social media, email, web, and PR to spread awareness about child food insecurity and how we are fighting child hunger.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed life for everyone, including children in our community. It drove over 100,000 more children in Minnesota into food insecurity. Every Meal took quick action to respond to the skyrocketing needs. We completely shifted our in-school distribution model of placing meal bags directly in children's backpacks. To ensure kids still had access to food, we worked with our school and district partners to make our meal bags available at their distribution sites. We set up more community meal pick-up sites at libraries, parks, community buildings, workshop centers, and fire stations. Our community relationships and donor support were vital in ensuring children had food during these uncertain times. As a result, we were able to do what we do best - distribute food to kids who need it most. Within a month into the pandemic, we increased our food output by 400%. In the midst of this, we responded to another crisis following the killing of George Floyd. The unrest turned some neighborhoods in the Twin Cities into overnight food deserts as locals found their grocery stores destroyed or closed. A parent put out a call on social media for 85 kits of food and supplies for Sanford Middle School students. It went viral very quickly. The school then turned to Every Meal to help manage the anticipated influx in donations. The result was one of the biggest food drives we’ve ever seen… and perhaps one of the largest-ever in Minnesota. In less than a day, about 18 semi-trucks of food and supplies were collected and approximately 2,000 families served. In the days and weeks following, we distributed the overflow to other organizations throughout the Twin Cities to get it to families in need. Through all this, we've adapted our distribution with children on top of mind. In the year following the pandemic (from March 13, 2020 to March 12, 2021), we provided 3.5 million meals to children, many of which faced food insecurity for the first time.