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Feed America First Celebrates 10 Years!  -  by Tom Henry

In June 2000 my partner Don Herbert and I chartered Feed America First with the desire to utilize our collective business experience to help feed America’s hungry. Don and I shared a couple of basic beliefs: first, that we both were called to feed the hungry, and second, that America produces enough food to feed our neighbors as well as people all over the world. Our vision was to construct a network to allow FAF to reroute food overproduction, away from the landfill and toward feeding hungry families in rural areas and small towns.

Don passed away in 2001, but the vision lives on. Since June 2000 Feed America First has distributed well over 22,000,000 pounds of food _at no charge_ to a network of over 200 agencies, and we have done it economically. With donated food and equipment, and a motivated staff of three plus dozens of volunteers, FAF has been able to keep our overhead low, to provide 12-15 meals for each dollar donated.

In fact, 2010 will be our strongest year yet, a year of significant growth as FAF is tracking over 5 MILLION pounds of food to distribute, an increase of 40+% from 2009. FAF has cultivated suppliers of fresher, more nutritious foods, so now we need another refrigerated truck to keep up with the supply and distribution. The increased volume of food allows us to serve more agencies, so our staff and volunteer base needs to grow, as does our fundraising to keep the staff paid and the trucks rolling.

Finally, I believe it is important to say that this has always been a work of faith, and Feed America First has been blessed with Stewart Orell and Steven Carter in Operations, two men who share that belief and keep it alive every day.