At the Franklin Food Bank, we regard this fourth quarter of the year with a mix of love, exasperation, fear and excitement. ALL current efforts are focused on the plan and execution of helping families to get through all of the major holiday meals and go comfortably into the start of winter, without being in severe financial distress. 

In fact, nearly 50 years ago when the Franklin Food Bank was founded, this was our primary purpose - simply serving through November/December. Our raison d'etre in 1975 was admittedly a bit different than ours now (because we serve folks year round) and yet the end of our year is still very much a time of great responsibility and activity. 

As I write these words, we are already deep into our plan to support families during the holiday season. Part of this plan requires spending a large portion of our annual food purchasing budget - 75% in fact. The problem is that up to 1/3 of our financial support arrives in the last 6 weeks of the year. These two factors are at odds with each other and can cause a bit of hand wringing. It requires us to take our annual leap of faith: spending money in October and early November with the hope that our supporters come through in December. 

Not truly knowing what the future holds is sort of the reason why we have food banks in the first place. It's also part of working at an emergency services non-profit organization. That said, we canstill be proactive in our planning. More reliable cash flow would help us tremendously to better manage the volume of our end-of-year program. It would give us the relief of knowing that come January we won't be in severe financial distress - the same situation we are committed to alleviating for the families we serve. 

If you are considering renewing your support for the food bank this year, I would like to ask you to consider sending in your gift a bit earlier. It would be so helpful - reliable and robust funding throughout early to mid-November will enable us to continue to make wise and necessary food purchases, which will help us to ultimately provide more food to more neighbors from Thanksgiving through the New Year.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the Franklin Food Bank served 1,800 families annually. Now, in 2022, we are on track to serve over 20,000 families across three formalized programs: Client Choice, Community Distribution, and Beyond Borders. Learn more about those in the video below - guys, we made a video!

We are so incredibly grateful to you all - thank you. And Happy Superbowl!