Blaine County Hunger Coalition Inc

2. Wrap around services: people need help with resources other than food. Support services is able to refer participants to 22 organizations in blaine county that can help with housing, childcare, utilities, medical bills, and educational classes to name a few. Our internship program offered opportunities to support youth in becoming healthy, thriving adults. We help teens develop skills by working in our programs and reduce their vulnerability to food insecurity. This year, 5 teens completed their 18-month internship in october of 2023. Our volunteer program does more than bring volunteer labor in to support our core programs, it provides an important avenue for building community and building leaders. We have established objectives for our volunteer program with specific outcomes to reduce social isolation and increase connection to a variety of supports, increase knowledge of poverty and food system issues, create inclusive opportunities for effective action on those issues and to increase leadership among all community members who interact with the bloom community food center. During the reporting period, 400 volunteers gave 6,700 hours in support of our programs. We believe that lasting change comes when all community members' voices are heard and valued in the decision-making process. We are investing in building leaders by deploying a leadership track for rising leaders within our organization that has been shared with partner organizations; promoting civic engagement with community leaders who are interested in running for office or joining boards; offering mentorship to younger nonprofits to strengthen the social service ecosystem; and engaging with local leaders who thoughtfully and creatively risk-take to innovate solutions to our community's deepest gaps. Strong community leadership can lead to better outcomes in areas like education, health, and economic development, all important factors in food security.

3. Addressing root causes: in order to achieve our vision of a hunger free blaine county, we are strategically addressing root cause issues. Our efforts through our 2025 strategic plan are dedicated to exploring deeper partnerships that affect greater, systemic change. Through this work, we prioritize the entire community over our individual organization and share resources with partner organizations that are providing services for food insecure communities. The hunger coalition team addresses the root causes of hunger to help prevent people from needing food from our organization in the first place. During the reporting period, our team advocated for affordable housing, distributed nonpartisan voter information, led support groups for spanish- speaking communities, advocated for a bilingual family liaison position in the blaine county school district, advocated for public education funding, and encouraged constituents to speak up for summer-ebt or lunch money for low-income kids. In the last year, 380 people in our circle have taken action to address the root causes of hunger as a result of our advocacy efforts. The partner collaboration program upholds our mission to improve collaborative efforts by providing direct support to key partners effectively engaging in root cause work. Root cause work is defined as any activity related to an underlying cause of food insecurity, such as: high cost of living, lack of access to affordable housing, systemic racism, discrimination, immigration and citizenship issues, mental health issues, unexpected financial burdens, lack of access to affordable health care, poverty, unemployment, chronic health issues, etc.

We recently completed a new strategic plan which outlines two key areas for impact: good food access and root causes. We are deploying board-designated assets in order to maximize the long-term impacts for our community. To address immediate needs, we will continue core programs through 2025. In order to achieve our vision of a hunger free blaine county, we are strategically addressing root cause issues. We know addressing complex problems like food insecurity is a massive undertaking and we can't do it alone. We need to combine areas of expertise to be most effective. Our efforts through 2025 will be dedicated to exploring deeper partnerships that affect greater, systemic change. This furthers our transition from charity to solidarity, in collaboration with key partners. Through this work, we prioritize the entire community over our individual organization, foster a sense of belonging and interdependence, present our work not as individual transactions but holistically, and encourage mutual support between nonprofits.