Last spring, The Weld Trust awarded a $400,000 grant to the Weld Food Bank to support the food bank’s nonprofit Agency Partners. Historically, the Weld Food Bank (WFB) charged Agency Partners a shared maintenance cost of 18 cents per pound for food purchased from WFB. The Agency Partners have more buying power, meaning their dollars go further, by purchasing some food items from WFB as opposed to a retailer.
During the pandemic, WFB reduced this shared maintenance cost with Agency Partners to help ensure residents across Weld County had access to nutritious food. With The Weld Trust grant funding, the WFB has been able to continue offering the reduced cost of providing purchased food to agencies, ensuring these partners have access to the most requested food items. Partner Agencies serve as an extension of WFB services and are vital to distribution.
The WFB provides food to 72 nonprofits throughout Weld County who in turn agree to give out the food at no cost. These partners span from food pantries and soup kitchens to shelters, residential treatment facilities, and child programs.
The Weld Trust grant directly assists the WFB by absorbing a portion of the costs of offering partner agencies food at a lower cost, but the grant also indirectly assists every WFB Agency Partner in securing much needed food to support food insecure people across Weld County.
The WFB regularly meets with their Agency Partners to help identify the most needed food items for these pantries, kitchens, and shelters. This ensures that Agency Partners can regularly count on having the food items they need, and, by working collaboratively together, the WFB is able to help assist all hunger relief providers throughout the county.
Last fiscal year, the WFB saved Agency Partners over $2.8M should they have purchased the food they received from WFB from a retailer.
