Goal

Having outgrown its small space (with warehousing conducted from off-site storage lockers), the Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank was in need of strategic direction planning and goal setting with the intent to increase brand awareness (potentially through rebranding efforts) and donor engagement to secure a new, larger base of operations due to a dramatically rising need of services in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

Situational Analysis

For all the good it provides, the current food bank model is in its very nature, challenged… providing an essential service which unfortunately has no choice but to address the symptoms of food insecurity and hunger rather than its causes.

Unfussy Recommendations

As the first priority toward strategic direction setting, it was critical to realize that while the Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank can alleviate the pangs of hunger, it cannot cure it.

The big question then became: Do we want to win the battle, or do we want to win the war? Winning the daily battles means more of the status quo… It means collecting and distributing more and more food and goods in perpetuity. It’s a heartfelt and valiant effort to curb hunger and lesson the pain and despair of others, but unfortunately it comes with a catch… that of assuming sole responsibility of the human right for food accessibility with the help of like-minded donors and supporters… Day after day, and battle after battle. Winning the war, however, means a paradigm shift of purpose and priorities, where success is measured not by pounds of food distributed but by lives changed.

How could the Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank achieve this exceptional status as a true driving force and change agent? By elevating the way they think and act as a Food Bank in order to truly expand and evolve into a Community Nourishment Centre moving forward.

Unfussy proposed that the key was to focus on the root causes of hunger. When we shift our attention to strategies that build empathy, equity and will, and when we encourage and participate in conversations and actions that focus on the systemic causes of poverty and food insecurity, the value of social and economic supports, and the ways in which food bank services can be augmented in order to respond to these issues as something that is more complicated than hunger, we can then begin to implement real solutions to not only provide a helping of food, but a helping hand. If the goal is to not just feed hungry bodies, but hungry hearts and minds, and to not just serve food, but serve up educational opportunities to curb oppressive stereotyping and discrimination, share valuable information, ideas and techniques, support the growth of personal and professional skills, and provide every opportunity to promote advocacy, dignity, self-esteem and community building, then the Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank must evolve as an organization in order to truly elevate the lives of those they wish to help.