Pam Bennett: Food Bank director - Gleaner's Food Bank in Indianapolis, Indiana

Pam Bennett: Food Bank Director

Pam Bennett, director of Gleaner's Food Bank in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of thousands of dedicated people working in the private sector to help get food assistance to the needy.

Her desire to help people and "make things happen' is what brought Bennett to apply for the job of executive director 3 years ago. "I love being able to make a difference,' she says, "and food banks make a difference.'

Food banks are not-for-profit clearinghouses that solicit edible but unsaleable food from corporate donors, distributors, processors, and wholesalers. They warehouse it briefly and redistribute it to charitable organizations that provide free food or meals to needy people.

"Food banking is helpful to everyone,' Bennett says. Business people can donate products they have in surplus and get a tax deduction for them. Charities can feed more people. And low-income families can have a better variety of food available to them.

"We get donors's mistakes,' says Bennett, "but those mistakes will stretch food stamps. They allow people to have a little bit of something in their cupboards to put with something they can afford to buy. We may have tomato sauce, and they can buy spaghetti, or we may have salad dressing, and they can buy lettuce. And really, the salad dressing is more expensive than the lettuce.'

Donors come from everywhere

Gleaner's the central food bank in the Indiana Affiliate Food Bank Network. An important part of Bennett's job is soliciting donors. "Basically, what we do is go out and tell the food bank story,' she explains. "We talk to corporate food manufacturers, growers, wholesalers, retailers--anybody who handles food--and explain to them what a food bank does.

"Our story has a lot of appeal because people don't want to pay to store a product that they can't sell-- it costs them money. They also know they're going to help feed somebody who is hungry.'

As Bennett tells her story, donations come in. "The first thing we got, interesting enough, was 2 tons of taco shells. We had called up a frozen food warehouse hoping to get meat, which is hard to come by sometimes, and the guy said, "I've been storing these 2 tons of taco shells for 6 months. Would you like them?' We said, "sure,' having no idea what we were going to do with them, of course.'

In addition to food they receive on their own, Gleaner's also receives food from Second Harvest, the national food bank network. Gleaner's distributes the food to its more than 200 member agencies in a ninecounty area in central Indiana, and to 10 affiliate food banks across the state. The affiliate banks redistribute the food to their member agencies.

"So actually,' Bennett says, "we have a responsibility to the whole state of Indiana.'

Any product Gleaner's gets in large quantity and can't use in their own area becomes Indiana network food. Similarly, its affiliates share food they cannot use.

"With everybody out there looking for food in their own neighborhoods, there's less food that goes to waste, there's more variety for the network, and there's more variety for member agencies to select from,' Bennett says. Even with this variety, however, food banks cannot supply everything member agencies need, but they certainly help.

Also receive USDA foods

Gleaner's was one of seven food banks across the country selected to participate in USDA's 2-year food bank demonstration project which ended in December 1983. The project was conducted to test the feasibility of providing USDA-donated food to food banks for use in their emergency food box programs.

As a participant in the USDA project, Gleaner's received surplus cheese, butter, instantized nonfat dry milk, and honey for distribution to needy households.

"The project was a good experience for the community and me,' says Bennett. "It let us take a look at the way we were providing food to the poor and make some judgments about how it could be done better and in a more coordinated way.

"And it provided protein foods that poor people can't always buy because they're expensive. These are products you don't find in poor families' cupboards. We were very glad to get the quality and variety of commodities that we did through the project.'

Since the end of the demonstration project, which will be evaluated this year, Gleaner's has been receiving USDA-donated cheese and butter from the State of Indiana through USDA's Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Other USDA commodities made available to states for distribution through TEFAP include nonfat dry milk, corn meal, flour, honey, and rice.

Growth has been dramatic

Gleaner's Food Bank opened and began distributing food to needy people in July 1980 from an old, drafty three-and-a-half car garage. As the operation expanded, Gleaner's soon outgrew the garage and moved into a warehouse that could accommodate the increasing supply of food being donated. It was not long, however, before that space also became inadequate.

Gleaner's was recently forced to relocate for a third time, and, according to Bennett, "through a miracle' found the perfect warehouse with room to expand even further. The warehouse was purchased through funds from a local community organization and money which the food bank received from the sale of the previous warehouse.

To help defray operating costs of the food bank, member agencies pay Gleaner's 12 cents a pound for the food provided to them. Other funds come from donations from private organizations and individuals. As Bennett explains, member agencies cannot always afford to pay the 12 cents a pound for the food and, instead, frequently donate volunteer labor or equipment to the food bank.

Making everything run smoothly is a challenge. "Food banks are labor intensive,' says Bennett. "Because we're not for profit and because we have to operate with the 12-cents-a-pound charge, we have to operate on a very small margin. We can't afford to automate and we have to work with a lot of volunteers who have lots of different skill levels.

"And,' she continues, "you get equipment problems. Equipment breakdowns are planned for in a for-profit business, but for a not-for-profit organization, they can be catastrophic. Somebody usually wants to help--you just have to find out who they are and put them with the problem.'

"An old hand' at food banking

Bennett left a job with private industry 12 years ago and has worked with community organizations ever since. Her first job with a community organization was as a part-time secretary.

"I wanted the job because there were a lot of people who were excited about trying to improve their neighborhood,' she says. "And, I thought, I can do some good here because it was clear that I had some kills they did not have.'

In a short time, Bennett was promoted to director of that organization and expanded it from as she puts it, "a $20,000-a-year, everybody's parttime neighborhood agency to a statewide $3.75-million-a-year operation.

"But,' she says, "a lot of the fun was gone because instead of dealing with ordinary people, I was busy writing grants and making pitches, and I didn't like that very much.'

Bennett says she discovered she outgrew the director's job and decided to look for other employment but "did not want to leave the neighborhood.' That promoted her to apply for the position of executive director of Gleaner's Food Bank.

"Food banking is one of the few areas where I could have been involved for 3 years and be an old hand,' Bennett says. "Last year the Second Harvest Regional Group of Food Banks elected me to the Second Harvest national board so I have a kind of expert status, which is funny because I've only been food banking for 3 years. But it's young, it's growing, and it's exciting.'

Photo: Two volunteers from a local community service organization look through boxes of food at the food bank's warehouse. The food will go to needy families in the Indianapolis area.

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