Analysis of Feeding America
Feeding America is a nonprofit organization based in the United States. The organization operates food banks all over the U.S that feed millions of people through shelters, food pantries, and soup kitchens. Feeding America is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the U.S and has the unique mission of alleviating hunger especially amongst the impoverished citizens (Handforth, Hennink, & Schwartz, 2013). Students can enable the organization to achieve its mission through donations and engage in research to examine the issue of hunger in America. To that extent, the following paper will discuss the organization’s vision, challenges and suggest the improvements that it can make to realize its mission successfully.
The Vision
Feeding America has a multifaceted vision aimed towards feeding hungry Americans through a web of community-based organizations. Also, the organization’s vision is aimed at engaging communities in the endeavor to end hunger across the U.S. The first tenet of the organization’s vision is passion. Feeding America is driven by the compassion and enthusiasm to help the people in need to enable them to realize their full potential. The second tenet of the organization’s vision is to inspire hope in the communities that it serves by using a positive attitude. Indeed, the organization aims to have a meaningful impact in the community every day. The third tenet is stewardship. Feeding America aims to be a pillar of the community in order to gain the trust of donors to serve people better. For the firm to achieve the latter, the organization aspires to involve donors in financial decision making to create an environment of accountability. By following these tenets, Feeding America will achieve sustainability and enable it to create a better future for impoverished Americans.
Challenges
The most significant challenge that Feeding America faces is related to financing. Currently, the organization lacks enough funds to solve the perpetual issue of hunger in the U.S. As a nationwide organization, and Feeding America needs a significant amount of resources like personnel and vehicles to enable it to achieve its mission effectively. However, the organization lacks enough sponsors meaning that it has to compromise part of its mission. The situation is made worse by the current macroeconomic climate in the U.S. Due to unfavorable economic conditions (rising food prices, unemployment, and the housing crisis), the demand for emergency feeding services is at an all-time high; this places a strain on the already overstretched budget of Feeding America. The second challenge of the organization is interrelated to the first as the organization lacks enough personnel. Feeding America is chronically understaffed, and there are not many people who are willing to offer voluntary services. The combination of these problems poses a significant challenge to Feeding America’s mission.
Improvements
After analyzing the challenges that Feeding America faces, it is clear that the organization needs to enhance its sources of revenue. In order to achieve this, the organization can engage in profitable ventures (Cook & Jeng, 2009). On that account, Feeding America can open restaurant-chain as this enterprise is directly related to its mission. The profits from the restaurant can be used to finance its operations.
Conclusion
Feeding America is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the U.S and operates with the primary mission of alleviating hunger in the country. The most significant challenge that the organization faces is lack of sufficient funds. To solve this challenge, Feeding America can engage in an enterprise like a restaurant-chain. Overall, students all over the country can volunteer their services to the organization to enable it to achieve its vision.
References
Cook, J.T., & Jeng, K. (2009). Child food security: The economic impact on our nation. Report research on the impact of food insecurity and hunger on child, health, growth, and development. Feeding America.
Handforth, B., Hennink, M., & Schwartz, M. B. (2013). “A qualitative study of nutrition-based initiatives at selected food banks in the Feeding America network” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 113(3), 411-415.
