In 2024, longtime hunger-relief supporter JD Finish Line Foundation became a national corporate partner of Feeding America. For years, the Foundation has supported network member Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, which is located near the Foundation’s headquarters in Indianapolis. This year, the Foundation chose to amplify its impact by making a two-year investment of a total of $500,000 that includes 90% for member grants to support our food purchasing efforts.
More than 80% of food purchasing happens at the individual food bank level in local communities, with about 15% to 20% being supported by Feeding America’s Grocery Purchasing Program, which leverages the purchasing scale of the network to negotiate lower food costs. Partner food banks are able to purchase staple pantry items that aren’t donated regularly, like cereal, peanut butter and vegetables—and at lower-than-retail prices. In fiscal year 2023, 85% of partner food banks utilized the program, which facilitated the purchase of 153 million pounds of food for neighbors.
At the end of 2023, JD Finish Line Foundation established new areas of focus that reflect its pursuit of safety, equity and access for individuals through workforce development initiatives, health and wellness programs and positive action for underrepresented voices. As part of its commitment to health and wellness, the Foundation chose to partner with us to ensure people in communities facing hunger receive the nutritious food they need. The opportunity to help bolster the network’s food purchasing power resonated with the Foundation, said Marty Posch, president of the Foundation.
“We’re very aware of the food challenges that are being faced by food banks, from supply chain disruptions and inflation,” he said. “Investing in food purchasing was something tangible and seemed like a very necessary way to go.”
Posch said it’s “our job as a partner to really talk about and spread the word about hunger” and the work Feeding America is doing alongside partners like the Foundation.
"Hunger hits all of us in different ways—in our building (headquarters) and our employees around the country,” he said. “We want to shine a light on the need.”
Engaging employees in the movement to end hunger
The Foundation has approximately 16,000 employees in the U.S.—and they will have opportunities to volunteer at their local food banks and pantries to help distribute much-needed meals.
“When employees are able to volunteer and see the impact they’re making, you see a change in them,” Posch said. “They’re able to have an understanding in what the food access challenges really are. There have been families waiting in line for two hours before we start a meal distribution, waiting for food that will carry their families for the next two weeks. Families are in dire need, and they’re working to shift their budgets one way or another to get the food they need. For our employees to be engaged, it’s a powerful thing—a powerful partnership with Feeding America.”
Posch said one of the greatest things about the Foundation’s partnership with Feeding America is that employee volunteer activations can occur anywhere that JD Finish Line has stories in America. In all, the retail chain has nearly 1,000 stores nationwide, including 400 in Macy’s.
“To be able to have our employees in Detroit have a shared experience with our employees in San Antonio is a powerful part of what we were looking for in this partnership,” Posch said.
To mark National Volunteer Month in April 2024, employees will share their time, while building team rapport, and give back to partner food banks and agency partners in more than 30 communities across the U.S.
History of hunger-relief impact
For many years, the Foundation has supported Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, which serves people facing hunger through a network of approximately 300 agency partners in 21 counties throughout the state. More than a decade ago, for example, the Foundation invested in a new conveyor for the food bank, which bolstered Gleaners’ ability to provide local children facing hunger with the food they need.
In 2022, the Foundation helped Gleaners bring a mobile food pantry to the Far Eastside neighborhood of Indianapolis. At the time, the food bank was working with a church in the Far Eastside, Posch said, and Gleaners shared that the church was at capacity at the location.
“The mobile food pantry was a new concept for us,” Posch said. “There’s a huge Indianapolis school that was no longer in use. We thought we could help set a mobile pantry up.”
That they did, supporting Gleaners to bring a mobile pantry to the vacant site, providing food to 1,300 families facing hunger every other week in 2023. The Far Eastside mobile pantry proved so successful that it now is offered twice a month—on a Monday and Saturday—to accommodate families’ varying schedules.
