Rhode Island Community Food Bank

Part 1: Research

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank was established in 1982 with the goal of

eliminating hunger in Rhode Island. Its current headquarters is a 77,000 square foot

warehouse/office space that was converted grocery store located at 200 Niantic Avenue

Providence, just outside of Cranston. The Board of Directors has five officers and 19 members.

The Food Bank collects donated food items from individuals, supermarkets, food

manufacturers and growers; these donations are then shipped to its 160 member agencies.

These member agencies include local food pantries, meal sites, shelters, and transitional

housing facilities throughout the state.

The Food Bank has a current Strategic Plan posted on its website that lays out the

specific challenges facing the organization and how those challenges will be address by 2019.

The listed goals and objectives of the plan are:

 Address hunger as a health issue.

Partner with member agencies to meet the immediate need for food assistance and

collaborate on innovative solutions to reduce the need.

Inspire generosity among current supporters and attract a new generation of donors

Build the Food Banks capacity to measure and reward success.

The overall mission of the RI Food Bank is To improve the quality of life for all Rhode

Islanders by advancing solutions to the problem of hunger. Their main focus is to rid the state

of Rhode Island of its hunger problem. The Food Banks overall vision is listed on their website

and captures what they hope to accomplish. It reads: We envision a state where no one goes

hungry. This statement is what the Food Bank hopes Rhode Island can one day accomplish in

the future, with help from the community and its donations.

The Food Banks goals are simple but work towards a greater goal of reducing food

insecurity across Rhode Island. The Food Bank hopes to maintain its overall compassion

towards the community and the diverse communities that they serve on a daily basis as well as

giving all Rhode Islanders access to healthy food that is essential for good health. They also are

working towards finding new and creative ways to prevent and reduce food insecurity and

deliver outstanding service and high quality programs. The Food Banks most important goal

that they focus on is that they cannot end hunger alone. They need all of the help that they can

get and it is important for nonprofits like the RI Food Bank to promote community involvement

throughout all forms of social media and in person.

The Food Bank has 47 employees, five of which are part time truck drivers. The full time

staff is composed of 12 administrators and 30 warehouse workers. The Food Bank currently

collects and distributes 200,000 pounds of food weekly through 160 partner food agencies

statewide. While there are partner food agencies all over Rhode Island, there is a higher
concentration of them in densely populated and high need areas; with 53 locations, Providence

has the most food agencies of any area of the state.

The Food Bank serves 60,000 Rhode Islanders per month. Many of the families still

reliant on the Food Bank are supporting children and senior citizens. This number has nearly

doubled since the economic recession of 2007, but despite the healing national economy, the

demand being put on the Food Bank has not waned.

At 14.2 percent, Rhode Island owns the highest poverty rate in New England, and the

Food Bank recognizes poverty is the direct cause of hunger. Additionally, the poverty rates in

Rhode Island among African Americans (20.6 percent) and Hispanics (31 percent) are even

greater. However, the Food Bank has risen to the challenge and delivered 9.7 million pounds of

food to people in need in 2015.

While the Food Bank is best known for collecting and giving food to the hungry, its other

services include a culinary job training program for unemployed and low-income adults, a

nutrition education program for clients of member agencies, a volunteer fueled community

farming program generates fresh produce for the hungry while preserving valuable land, and

two separate after-school meal programs.

Annual Operating Budget of RI Food Bank: $15.8 million annual budget

Special events revenue, net of event expenses: $199,693 in 2015 (2016 report not

available yet).

Management and fundraising costs: Only 13% of annual expenses.

Summer Food Drive During the summer months, the amount of food and funds donated to the

Food Bank decreases. As a reminder that hunger doesnt take a vacation, our Summer Food

Drive Kick-Off in June brought together donors with our Chair, First Gentleman Andy Moffit, to

ask Rhode Islanders to continue to give to help make sure no one went hungry.
Stamping Out Hunger with the Letter Carriers On Saturday, May 9, letter carriers across the

state collected more than 97,000 pounds of food from generous residents who donated non-

perishables by leaving them at their mailbox that morning. We thank all of the letter carriers and

food donors for making Stamp Out Hunger a success as well as the volunteers who sorted food

at post offices throughout the area.

Boy Scouts Go Scouting for Food Once again in November, the Narragansett Council, Boy

Scouts of America did an incredible job, collecting more than 190,000 pounds of food for the

Food Bank from generous neighbors and friends. For the 28th year, the Scouting for Food Drive

helped stock the shelves for the long winter months ahead.

Volunteers 18 and older are utilized by the RI Food Bank in order to visit food pantries

and meal sites to talk directly with guests, and guide and refer them to the programs and

organizations that will best address their additional service needs.

The RI Food Bank is best known for distributing food to people in need through a

statewide network of 160 member agencies. These agencies include food pantries, meal sites,

shelters, youth programs and senior centers.

Overall, the RI Food Bank is positively perceived by the community. Their reputation is

best summarized as a place that distributes food to food pantries and people in need. It is also

widely known that they accept food donations at all of their member agencies as well as their

base of operations located in Providence.

The RI Food Bank focuses primarily on marketing towards middle to high income Rhode

Islanders that have the ability to either donate food or donate their time at food drives or at

member agencies across the state.

They consistently post information about donating, special events, food drives and ways

to stop hunger in Rhode Island, directly asking their followers to help in any way possible. The

Food Bank also posts pictures of volunteers helping, other similar non-profit organizations and

articles that relate to the hunger crisis affecting Rhode Island.

 Currently, the Rhode Island Food Bank utilizes social media accounts on Facebook,

Twitter, and LinkedIn. On Facebook, their page has almost 6,000 likes with 4.8/5 star rating. On

Twitter, the account has almost 7,000 followers and has posted almost 4,000 tweets. The

LinkedIn page has 500 followers and includes 37 current employees linked to the page. Posts

on LinkedIn occur every couple of days.

Their social media strategy is focused on creating awareness about the organization and

informing the public about hunger in Rhode Island. They are attempting to get donations from

the public and consistently provide links in their posts that make it easy for people to donate

through social media.

The Rhode Island Food Bank creates small but effective social media campaigns that

help achieve their mission. The campaigns are easy for people to view and act upon. Updating

accounts with recent events as well as future events keeps followers engaged with the work of

the organization. Everything posted on social media all leads to promoting food donations for

local hungry families.

The strengths of the organization come from its consistent and strong social media

effort, its ability to reach people across all of Rhode Island through partner agencies, and its

reliable network of volunteers and regular donators.

The Food Bank struggles with limited resources and the staggering number of Rhode

Islanders suffering from hunger. The resources that impact the Food Bank most are limited

funding, labor, space, transportation and food. As with all not for profits, the Food Bank faces

the challenges of community awareness, interest and advocacy.

Achieving their mission depends on the generosity of the Rhode Island people to donate

food to those who need it. If people are unaware to donate to them or are unable to donate,

then the Food Bank will not achieve their mission. Reasons that people may not donate is due

to a lack of funds to help support their cause or unable to purchase food to donate.
 On a national level, Feeding America is the organization that is most aligned with the RI

Food Bank. On a local level, the RI Food Bank is partnered with 160 member agencies, along

with hundreds of member agencies partners across Rhode Island.

The overall cause of this organization is simple: fight hunger in Rhode Island. This

organization is extremely important to Rhode Island because of the number of people struggling

with hunger that depend on the Food Bank to get by. The meals and training programs the Food

Bank provides relief and hope to the 14 percent of Rhode Islanders living below the property

line.
Part 2: S.W.O.T

Strengths:
Up to date information
Well known logo
Mission statement
Links to social media on website, links to articles, links to website
Location listed
Posts all include pictures
Talks about addressing hunger during the holiday season, upcoming food drives,
organizations that help out (Boy Scouts)
Give people more information about how to donate, volunteer and stay aware of the
hunger problem facing Rhode Island
They have a big following
Rated very well on Facebook
Facebook has a Donate button built in
Strong website- modeled after Feeding America
Easy to contact for tours
Well established

Weakness:
Dont have Instagram
Dont respond to reply tweets
The social media platforms arent linked together
Use same links for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Not many views on YouTube

Opportunities:
Branch out to social media like Instagram (existing content)
Talk/respond to people that tweet at them
Involve the Twitter community more with polls, promotions and helpful information
Newsjack Thanksgiving/ #givingtuesday/Christmas to increase website traffic, encourage
donations and gain followers
Strong relationships with local online publications (Providence Journal)
Going live on Facebook
Introducing staff to the public
Adding more of a personal touch to social media posts

Threats:
Lack of likes and shares on Twitter/not many reply tweets @RIFoodBank
Inconsistent likes and shares on Facebook
Lack of exposure on other social media platforms (Instagram)
Donations and attention declines after holiday season
Difficult to provoke the same feeling through social media accounts opposed to actually
visiting the center
Other charities are also putting forth a strong social media push for donations at this time
Part 3: Recommendations

The Rhode Island Food Bank has an impressive social media presence for a local

nonprofit. The strategies and tactics that they use have been effective in spreading their

message about helping feed hungry Rhode Islanders through food donations. With everything

they are doing right, there is always more that they can do. Some new strategies and methods

that they should implement are creating an organizational Instagram, be more responsive on

social media, creating a friendlier customer approach, and utilizing additional Twitter tactics.

Implementing an Instagram page for the Food Bank would give off a friendlier

appearance and would spark emotion in followers. On previous social media efforts, the Food

Bank has posted some amazing pictures that would be perfect for Instagram. Of course creating

another social media account to post on would involve more work, but this free app would

feature some great pictures of what the Food Bank is doing. Seeing what goes on behind the

scenes and seeing special fundraising events will get people to appreciate the work that the

Food Bank does.

On Twitter and Facebook, the Rhode Island Food Bank posts frequently, which is great,

but rarely do they respond to comments on their posts. Responding to social media posts gives

followers a friendly sense of communication which lets them know that the organization

acknowledges their comments. It makes the follower feel special that the organization sees their

comment and appreciates the followers opinion.

Tweets on the Food Bank twitter account are great- they are consistent, have good

content, and keep followers informed of the Food Banks food donation efforts. One major tactic

that can be used on Twitter is using polls to gauge followers donation methods. Seeing how

followers poll can help the Food Bank concentrate special efforts toward that method of food
donations. Having a better overall understanding of your followers will benefit marketing and

social media strategies immensely.

With these suggested strategies and tactics, the Rhode Island Food Banks social media

efforts will be vastly improved. Continuing their already prominent presence on Facebook and

Twitter, implementing additional Twitter methods and creating an Instagram account will give the

Food Bank a friendlier and familiar appearance to its followers.

Part 4: Summary

After our group visited the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, we felt the dedication

and heart that the employees put into their work. Everyone welcomed us with smiling faces and

warm hellos. The sense of camaraderie is something that the Food Banks social media fails to

capture but is a key component to how the bank operates. Incorporating this feeling into Twitter,

Facebook and a potential Instagram account could influence a lot of Rhode Islanders into

contributing to a local crisis.

The Twitter and Facebook posts are strong but answering response posts is a tool you

could utilize to make people feel more involved. Having posts that introduce the social media

staff would allow you to address the responder and sign off, adding a personal touch to the

Food Banks social media. Doing this could also increase the amount of likes, favorites, shares

and retweets because if people have previously visited the Food Bank and met these people

they would feel a personal connection to that post. On Facebook there is also the opportunity to

Go Live which could give updates of new deliveries or even what is going on during a

collection event. This is something that alerts people that follow you that you are going live

encouraging them to tune in. Along with Facebook and Twitter comes Instagram which is a

platform that the Food Bank isnt using.

Instagram would be a great social media account to consider. It could be an easy way to

introduce staff, give quick updates of who is visiting the Food Bank and who they are helping.

This is another platform that makes it easy to give that sense of going live. Showing pictures

and videos from an event as it is taking place telling people to come join and help out with the

Food Banks efforts.

 Overall the Food Bank has a strong social media presence but there is always room for

improvement. We think that taking these few suggestions into consideration could invoke that

sense of community and heart that we found captivating during our visit.
Works Cited

1. Rhode Island Community Food Bank. (2009). In LinkedIn profile. Retrieved November

28, 2016 from https://www.linkedin.com/company/rhode-island-community-food-bank?

trk=biz-companies-cym.

2. Rhode Island Community Food Bank. (2009). In Twitter. Retrieved November 28, 2016

from https://twitter.com/RIFoodBank?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp

%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

3. Rhode Island Community Food Bank. (2015). In Facebook. Retrieved November 28,

2016 from https://www.facebook.com/RICFB

4. Rhode Island Community Food Bank Annual Report 2015. (2016, January). Retrieved

November 28, 2016, from http://rifoodbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Annual-

Report-2015-FINAL.pdf