North Country Food Bank
North Country Food Bank
  • Home
  • About Us
    • NCFB Holiday Schedule
    • Financials
    • NCFB Accomplishments
  • Agencies & Programs
    • Agency Documents
  • How to Help
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
    • Serve
    • Advocate
  • News & Events
    • Fall 2022
    • Volunteer Photo Gallery
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
    • Tell Us Your Story
  • Career Opportunities

News and Events

Gas prices eat up charities’ resources

3/28/2012

0 Comments

 
It eats up their clients resources, too, they say, and increase the demand for services. Some nonprofits have had to respond by pulling back. Gas prices appear headed for $4 a gallon territory and nonprofits anticipate more demand.
By: Christopher Bjorke, Grand Forks Herald
 

March 28, 2012 - Facing the choice between spending at the gas pump or at the grocery store, some people cut back on food and turn to charities to fill their cupboards. But nonprofits are also struggling with higher fuel costs.

“We have trucks that are on the road every day,” said Susie Novak, executive director of the North Country Food Bank in Crookston. “It costs us more to get food back here and out to the agencies that distribute the food.”

Other food banks and nonprofit groups in the region are feeling the squeeze, too. Some nonprofits, such as the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in Grand Forks, have limited how far they drive.

Food banks can’t make such cut backs. Like wholesalers, they supply smaller organizations all over the region, whose clients come to them for food. The higher the price of gas rises, the higher the demand from clients as families have less to spend.

“The correlation is huge. We knew this month would be a big month for us,” said Novak, whose organization also operates a food shelf where people can pick up groceries.

Most clients do not have a choice of using less gasoline, she said. “Here you really can’t get around without driving everywhere.”
 

Many miles to drive

The price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.80 at most stations in the Grand Forks area, and prices traditionally peak around Memorial Day weekend. 

Like the clients they serve, many nonprofits have little room in their budgets to absorb higher fuel prices. 

The North Country Food Bank spent $23,260 on fuel in February and March 2011, and it has spent $32,602 during the same time this year, Novak said.

“We’re a nonprofit serving nonprofits. The only way to cover that cost is to raise more funds,” she said. “If we could spend that on food, that’s way more food we could get out to people in need.”

The food bank owns a semi-trailer and a smaller truck that carry food from suppliers and to the 254 organizations it serves in Grand Forks and 21 counties across northwest Minnesota.

North Country’s counterpart in Fargo, the Great Plains Food Bank, serves all of North Dakota as well as Clay County, Minn., covering 290 food programs in 109 communities, according to Marcia Paulson, director of marketing.

“That’s big. It’s a lot of road time and windshield time,” she said.

Program Director Steve Sellent said the organization budgeted $95,000 for fuel prices in its fiscal year, ending in June 30, but will probably spend about $20,000 more than that.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going down anytime soon,” Sellent said.


Shorter distances

Groups serving small geographic areas are also trying to maintain their services as expenses go up.

“Not that we wouldn’t want to go out to Crookston, Thompson (N.D.) or Manvel (N.D.) sometimes, but it just doesn’t pay for us to do that,” Cheryl Westfall, store and warehouse manager for the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in Grand Forks.

Its thrift store owns two trucks used to pick up donated furniture, clothes and other household items. It stopped going beyond Grand Forks and East Grand Forks for donations more than three years ago, and drivers try to visit as many places as they can when they go out for collections.

“We’re trying to make sure that truck comes back full,” Westfall said.

The Grand Forks Senior Center runs a meals-on-wheels program. Rather than pay directly for gas, it reimburses volunteer drivers 45 cents a mile. While many volunteers did not bother to get reimbursements in the past, more are getting them now, said Jami Schumacher, who handles public relations for the center.


More need

Gas prices in North Dakota peaked in July 2008, averaging $4.02 a gallon, according to NorthDakotaGasPrices.com.

Novak remembered seeing an increased need for food around summer 2008. After almost four years of a weak economy, she said she thinks the demand could be greater this year if prices continue to rise.

Some analysts think $4 gas may return this year. On Wednesday, the average was $3.73 a gallon, about 17 cents higher than at the end of last month, according to NorthDakotaGasPrices.com. It said one station in Grand Forks was selling gas at $3.94 a gallon, the highest in the state.

Paulson said that, though North Dakota’s unemployment rate has been low and wages have been rising, rising expenses are still creating more need at food pantries.

“We haven’t seen less pressure, unfortunately,” she said. “We wish it were going in the other direction.”


0 Comments

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    July 2020
    January 2020
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    September 2013
    December 2012
    March 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010

    RSS Feed

North Country Food Bank, Inc.
1011 11th Ave NE
East Grand Forks, MN 56721
Phone: 218.399.7356
Fax: 218.281.7374 
info@northcountryfoodbank.org
EIN # 41-1459758


ncfb_annual_report-2016.pdf
File Size: 2430 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_annual_report-2017.pdf
File Size: 108 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_annual_report-18_.pdf
File Size: 282 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_annual_report-19.pdf
File Size: 282 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_annual_report-20.pdf
File Size: 812 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

  
Privacy Policy



Picture
ncfb_2016_990.pdf
File Size: 497 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_2017_990.pdf
File Size: 493 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_2018_990.pdf
File Size: 5135 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ncfb_2019_990.pdf
File Size: 529 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Picture
ncfb_2020_990
File Size: 766 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

North Country Food Bank, Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization.
Proudly powered by Weebly
© North Country Food Bank, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site by Evolve Creative.