Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Welcome to our show.

We hope you make plans each week to join us as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives.

They're devoted to ending the cycle of hunger in the local communities of northern Indiana by providing a food rescue service.

And they've built a local network of food suppliers with the goal of providing wholesome meals.

So no one in our community goes hungry.

We'll take a closer look at Cultivate Food Rescue.

Coming up on economic outlook, they're teaming up with local businesses in the region to help end the cycle of hunger in our local communities.

They've built a unique model that has quickly gained traction and helped some of the most vulnerable in our communities.

We're taking a closer look today at Cultivate Food Rescue with its CEO, Jim Conklin.

Welcome, Jim.

Thank you, Jeff.

Jim, glad to have you here.

So, you know, for somebody who doesn't know what cultivate food rescue is, just give us a high level.

What is cultivate?

Yes.

Cultivate is a food rescue organization.

So in most food businesses, there's excess food.

And so what we do, we partner up with grocery stores, universities, farmers, food distributors.

So anybody in the food business is a potential food donor to us.

And so we have food donors with excess food, and we have people in our community that really could use food.

And so we're the logistics in-between of all that.

So we work with food pantries and schools on the other side where we're providing perishable food on a consistent basis, all at no cost to them.

So we have about 67,000 adults and children in Elkhart, Saint Joe Marshall County, that are food insecure.

And so we're just trying to put more food in the community with resources we already have in this community.

Great.

And we're going to we'll dive a little bit deeper into the.

But I'm also curious.

So, Jim, you were you you've been a successful business guy in the community for a long time, an accountant by trade.

Tell us a little bit about just sort of your business piece and then this transition into getting involved with Cultivate.

Yeah, I spent most of my years in the accounting industry, mostly working for private companies in their finance department.

So CFO, Comptroller that's the typical title I've had in the past.

RV companies in Elkhart ag company and Bremen musical instrument company in Elkhart.

Those are some some of my background, but sometime in public accounting, doing business tax returns, business valuations and those kind of things.

So about 12 years ago I had some major medical issues that just had me start rethinking life a little bit.

And especially from a faith piece, I wanted to start giving back to the community.

I'm a man of very few skills, but I'm pretty good at those.

And so I thought, How do I use my business background for the good of the community?

And so I started just getting on a board of a crossing education center in Elkhart, and I really started learning about kids and food insecurity there, kids really struggling weekly with food needs.

And in my last business, a job as a CFO at a company called Head Site in Bremen.

I had some resources to to invest in a charitable organization.

And so we started cultivate like a lot of small businesses with kind of an idea.

We started off as a culinary school and we were training at risk youth on how to skill trades so they can earn more money while they're in high school and college, and then found this concept called Food Rescue from a place in Indianapolis called Second Helpings.

So they been in the food rescue business 23 years.

We went and saw it and was just amazing.

We thought we really, really got to try to bring this back to Saint Joe County, Elkhart County and Marshall County.

So I met with the University of Notre Dame and they suggest we'll be a food donor.

And kind of six years later, we're off and running.

Great.

I want to dive in for a second.

So you talked about this food insecurity and in particular the work you're doing in schools.

A little bit for those who maybe don't know the term, don't understand maybe the need or some of the challenges that you saw.

Help us understand the what that look like and how you're connecting the dots and solving that problem.

Yeah, food insecurity is having a reliable source stream of food, not just food, but healthy food.

And so many children.

So many children are in community.

About 20,000 in the three counties are living in poverty.

And Monday through Friday, they get great nutrition from our public schools and private schools, and they have resources through free and reduced lunch.

But Saturday and Sunday morning, these kids are going hungry.

And so what we're trying to do with our backpack program is fill that gap from Friday at lunch to Monday morning at breakfast.

So each week we deliver 1200 students in our three counties, six frozen meals and their meals.

It's a protein, a vegetable and a starch.

They're microwaveable.

And so they go home with the kids from school, which is a big deal.

Many of these kids live in food deserts, and many of them struggle over the weekend.

So having meals that go home with them that are easy to prepare, that are big enough to share with their siblings or their parents is all kind of part of the plan.

And so what we're trying to do is give that security over the weekend, one, so they're not hungry, right?

Two, So they're healthier, but three, when they come back to school on Monday, they're ready to learn.

So we focus on elementary age kids.

And so, you know, a lot of times kids misbehave because they're hungry.

A lot of times they don't perform well because they don't have proper nutrition.

So with studies with the University of Notre Dame and we know that kids are in the backpack program, come to school more often and they perform better in school, which it's not rocket science.

We understand as humans, we need to breathe and eat.

And so that's what we're trying to do, is fill that need over the weekend and really help many times, which is a single mom at home have a reliable source of food for their children.

Great.

And so then I want to hit on the other piece there.

So not only the schools and sending folks home.

You mentioned being involved in pantries and some of that stuff.

So.

So talk to us about how you kind of supplement sort of what what they're already doing in those organizations.

Yeah.

I mean, like any business, I think we've done pretty good and evolving.

And so when COVID came around primarily prior to COVID, we were rescuing food that was already prepared.

And so working with the university, places like Four Winds and Century Center and and taking food that they had prepared but never served and putting that into our backpack program.

But then COVID came and then a lot of our food donors closed.

You know, Century Center wasn't hosting events.

The university closed down.

And so we had to make a major shift there.

And we started rescuing from grocery stores and farms.

And what we really want to do there is to get food into our pantry, especially perishable food, proteins, fruits, vegetables, dairy.

Trader Joe's is now one of our largest donors in the community, and we think our future growth really is going to come from our local grocery stores.

We've grown 270% every year, year over year since we've been around, which is that's hard to do as a business is really hard to do as a not for profit.

So yeah, we really want to get additional food supplies into our neighborhood pantries.

And right now the need is very high and our community pantries are about 40% busier than they were last year at this time.

Great.

So let's talk for a second about the just the businesses that you mentioned Notre Dame Four Winds some of those that you team up with, What's the what's the reaction when some random guy comes in and says, I got this idea on how to repurpose some of what you're not serving?

Tell us about just maybe that business connection there.

Yeah, you know, I think it varies a little bit in organizations like Notre Dame and Trader Joe's, where sustaining sustainability is a big part of their business model, something that that's a priority to them.

It's a much easier conversation.

But usually when we approach a food donor, the first thing that comes to mind is liability.

And so but many food businesses don't know that there are federal laws that provide liability protection for them and for us, as long as we handle the food safely.

And so that's usually the first obstacle that we face.

Then I think the next step that we face is how hard is this going to be?

You know, how how much will I need to pay, you know, our employees to get you to get your food?

And the reality is, is it is harder than throwing it away once we're just like a food vendor.

We come in at a set time.

On a set schedule, you put the food, we're in a place that we come and get it.

And we really want to make it a seamless as possible for the businesses.

And a lot of our food donors, they don't want their food to go to waste.

They understand there are people in the community that are struggling.

And so once we get the program going, I think we've only lost one food donor in our six year history.

So that's been a good thing for us.

Jim talk a little bit about what happens?

So the Four Winds, Notre Dame somebody has some food they're not going to serve.

Walk us through the maybe the steps that happened between you acquiring that and then you putting it in a kid's backpack to send home.

Yeah.

I mean, I think from a from a business standpoint, most businesses are going to overproduce food not because they're wasteful.

It's good business if you're catering company and you don't want to run out of food.

Right.

That's bad.

Customer satisfaction would not be good there.

And then for a grocery store, if it's not on the shelf, you can't sell it.

So.

But yeah, depending on catering company, somewhere like Century Center, it's an event center.

There's a big event.

Less people came than expected.

The chef there is plays a big part in us rescuing.

They will typically call us ahead and say, Hey, I've got a big event.

Maybe it's MLK Day and, you know, 300 less people showed up.

So the chef there would keep that food hot until the event's over and then put it in the refrigerator and let it cool down properly.

He would call us, we take our refrigerator, they go over there, pick up the food in their hotel pans, bring it back to our facility, and then we have volunteers that come in and help us package that.

So I would say in Cultivate, it's like chopped every day.

We really don't know what's coming in the door, but we're putting 8000 meals into our community on a weekly basis.

And so we're always reengaging and recalibrating on what's coming in the door.

But we bring the hot food in.

It's it's in our refrigerator.

And volunteers come in, they package it, put it into a meal, we freeze it, and then we take it out to our community schools on a weekly basis.

On the pantry side of things is very similar.

We'd go we go to Trader Joe's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we pick up an assortment of fruits, vegetables, dairy proteins.

We bring it back to our facility, we organize it, we put it online, very much like Amazon.

You can order online 24, seven, seven days a week off your pantry and they place an order.

We pick it and we'll either deliver it or they come pick it up from us.

Great.

Jim we're gonna take a quick break here in the studio.

We're going out into the field.

George Lepeniotis my co-host, is going to give us inside look at what's happening over at Cultivate.

George, let me throw it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm on the west side of South Bend and I'm getting a behind the scenes look at how Cultivate operates.

I'm joined by Lainie Holland.

Lainie, thank you for being with us.

Thanks for showing us around this great building.

Not only is it kind of an old school building that you've converted, there's a lot going on behind us.

Tell us a little bit about what you do for Cultivate.

Absolutely.

Great to have you guys here.

We're excited to be on.

I'm the director of Planning and Programs, so I'm in charge of our development team finding the funds to keep this organization running.

So we are a nonprofit.

Everything we do is donations, whether that's the food or the funding.

So I'm connecting grant sources, planning events, working with our donors and stewardship activities, and also planning and figuring out where our food is going.

So I get the pleasure of working with all of our backpack program is on social workers, nutrition directors, teachers at all the schools who are identifying students to be in our programs and making sure that those meals get delivered to those kids so they can take them home for the weekend.

So, Lainie, I want to unpack a little bit of that, because that is quite the responsibility that you have.

But more importantly, I look at this as we've talked before, we went on camera and as you're talking about what you do here as two parts to your mission, and the first is to raise the money necessary to fund the operations.

But then secondarily, and maybe even more importantly, to get the food.

Yes.

To be able to distribute.

Let's start with the funding.

And that, you know, our show is economic outlook.

We're all about our region's economy.

And when we look at what you've done here in your new expansion and how you've grown since 2016, it's rather incredible.

Yeah, it it must have something to do with the strength of our regional economy and as has as our business community come to help.

Absolutely.

We are so blessed to have so many faithful and generous financial donors.

There is such a strong community of business, corporations in the community, and we have corporate sponsorship opportunities that a lot of our financial donors participate in us with.

And so they come in and they volunteer and they also donate to support the distribution of the meals and the distribution of the food in our community.

I'm actually looking over and we talked a little bit about your March Meal madness, and I'm going to date it.

My producers are going to get upset because they don't like when I date things.

But March Meal Madness was a program you recently did and tell us you were aiming for Final Four and you got to Sweet 16 or something.

Absolutely.

So it's not only our second year of a Virtual Madness program.

We had 12 corporate and group volunteers this year.

We were shooting for $4,000 to raise for this program that would help support the distribution of the meals that they pack.

And we are currently over $16,000 that we've raised and we still have two days left to go.

That's awesome.

And no matter what happens there, you've won the tournament.

Absolutely.

It's a win for all of us.

Cool.

So, all right, so that's the financial component of of paying for the trucks and the buildings and the freezers and the coolers and getting the meals out there.

But really, there's also this secondary component of the meals themselves.

I'm looking around here and I'm amazed at what you've put together.

How do you come up with all of this food to distribute?

Absolutely.

Again, partnerships and sponsors of these programs are really what keeps us afloat.

So in addition to all our financial donors, we have so many food partners in the area.

So catering companies, event centers, universities, grocery stores, restaurants, you name it, and food distributors at every level have partnered with us to donate food.

So part of the reason for that is their sustainability goals as well.

These companies don't want to be throwing away food.

They don't want their consumers to know that they're throwing away food.

So with an organization like ours in the community, they can partner with us to distribute their food and know that it's going to people who need it.

So you are getting non expired, what I'll call fresh foods and hard goods.

You know, we see packaged coffee and bottled water and that sort of thing.

But you're also getting neonics fired, fresh food.

We talked about cucumbers.

You you happen to get a load of cucumbers recently, but you're also going a step beyond that when you talk about universities, catering banquet halls, country clubs, you're getting food that maybe was cooked for an event but not served.

Yes.

And then what are you doing with that?

Yeah, and that's a really unique aspect of our program.

That's not a very common practice in a lot of organizations.

So we bring that food in.

That's the leftover food.

We only work with licensed kitchens.

We make sure that the heating and cooling process all along the way is in line with health code regulations and we bring it back to our facilities.

We have chefs on staff.

They create with this food.

We say it's like chopped every day in our kitchen because they never know what they're going to get and they have to find something to make out of that food.

So it could be chicken and a few bananas and they're going to come up.

And then after that, we bring the food out to these lines right here, these tables.

We have volunteers in here every single day of the week that are using this prepared unserved food and transforming it into nutritious meals that will go out to students in our community.

That's awesome.

So as we look at the distribution of food and going back to that prepared food, it must be nice in a world where many have and we put on these glamorous events, weddings, corporate events, to know that you're not only serving your guests, but maybe if that kitchen participates, you're serving in an underserved community that may go hungry without that plate of food.

Yes, absolutely.

That's awesome.

All right.

So you have a second program, though, that goes beyond just the fresh meals.

Tell us a little bit about the backpack program.

Yeah, so the backpack program is the fresh meals.

Those meals are all going out to students who are on free or reduced lunch in our community.

We're currently serving 1200 students in ten different school districts.

And then our second program is Cultivate Care's Food Network.

So that's a pantry program.

We know that the need at the pantry levels just continues to rise as some of the federal benefits that started during the pandemic start to go away.

The lines in the pantries are up 40 plus percent from what they saw last year at this time.

So again, connecting the resources that we have in our community to those who are under-resourced in our community is really our main goal.

There's food at all levels, again, of the food system, at the grocery stores.

And these people are turning product and making sure that they have the most fresh product on all on the lines and in the grocery stores for their consumers.

But there's so many products with a long shelf life that can be redistributed to people in our community.

Well, thank you Lainie.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for showing us around and telling us the story.

It's very cool.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

A very unique story on our region's economy and how our economic machine and industry go beyond just making profits, but to helping feed people across Michiana.

George, thanks for at the inside look, Jim, quite an impressive operation you got going there.

So, you know, I'm curious, we talked early on.

You're a business guy.

You sort of embark on this new journey.

You're creating this new organization, new nonprofit.

Got to fill this service.

Talk a little about just the the steps of putting all the pieces in place to do the good work that you do today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Certainly.

We're a service business, so, you know, one of our largest expenses is payroll.

But we're we're really a food distribution company.

And so the hardest thing to manage, I think, if I had to sum it up, is growing volunteers, food donors, financial donors and cold storage capacity in unison.

And we've been growing rapidly.

And any time you're growing rapidly and I see this in my career, you can grow yourself right out of business, you know, and and that's really easy to do in the not for profit space.

So what's really hard is the need is high and there's a lot of food that's being wasted.

The U.S. wastes about 40% of the food.

It produces about 133 billion of food a year.

And so you see the supply and you see the need, but you have to grow responsibly in a disciplined way.

And we've been we've been, I think, really blessed to have great community support, great companies and individuals that have come behind us, great foundations in our community that see the need and see what we're doing and how we're able to serve more people.

We have great organizations like the Food Bank and St Margaret's House and Hope Ministries that are there serving food every day to people.

And so we're there to help them as well.

And we're additional capacity that that wasn't there before.

And that's pretty exciting because just because there's so many people that that could use food support in our community.

Jim you mentioned earlier a model in Indianapolis.

Maybe as you start to see some food recovery and then you just mentioned how much is wasted.

So so is this unique is this a trend that's catching on?

How how much of this is happening around the country even these days?

Yeah, I mean, food rescue has been around for a little while, but it wasn't until 1996 that the federal liability came into protection and it hasn't grown much.

But I think over the last five years since I've been involved, there are a lot of there are a lot of organizations across the country that are getting into this space.

And and it's it's in that kind of research and development mode where people with different ideas and different plans are are they're bringing those to their community.

And I think this is something that could be multiplied.

We are a food hub that tries to rescue food locally for people in need locally from a sustainability point of view, using your local resources and not, you know, expanding your carbon footprint more than you need to, that's a big deal.

And what I believe is that in every community there are food resources that are going to waste.

They think waste is tied to population and that that our model, by putting a hub in the middle of three counties and building the infrastructure and logistics, can work in multiple places across the country.

And and this community is supporting this research and development.

And so we hope in the future that we've got this all packaged up and it'll be able to expand into other communities.

Jimmy, talk briefly about the the community need that you're filling every day and whether it be schools or pantries or in our region here.

Also think that there's some organizationally to right so a so in order for you to be able to do that you also have certain needs you know from the community to help you sustain and grow.

Talk a little bit about the most critical needs from the community.

Yeah, I mean, I think always is a not for profit.

You need financial support.

And so having been able to grow donors, whether that's individuals or companies, is a big part.

But in our model, we also have to grow food donors.

So there are hundreds of food businesses in our community and we're working with about 70 of them right now.

So I think getting all those food businesses involved and you don't need have a lot to donate.

What we have found is a little bit over time adds up to a lot of food and I think a lot of food business think, well, I don't have a ton to donate.

Well, we're probably already driving by your business and we wouldn't mind stopping there and picking up any excess food that you have volunteers.

Huge part of what we do, it's really core.

Last year we had over 5000 volunteers come into our facility.

So we are, you know, as a as a nonprofit, you rely on volunteers and we have these great people in the community that are willing to give up 2 hours of the day and come help us, the community members in need.

So and then we have a capital campaign project that we're kicking off.

And so we're trying to raise now $10 million for a new cold storage facility, which will be next to our current facility.

And that facility will allow us to grow from a million pounds of food to 20 million pounds of food over the next seven, ten years.

And as a, you know, I think good and bad a little bit one good good for your success.

But it also demonstrates there's critical need here in the community that you're filling.

And I think that's such a critical piece.

Let's go back to this, the food business piece of this.

So the this is restaurants, event centers, churches, really kind of all of them that participate in that.

And then help us understand, like because there is a certain piece of this, like they got to handle it right on the front end.

You got to handle this on the right.

And this is a partnership for you both to make sure you're doing the right thing.

Yeah, You know, and they've invested a lot of money into these food resources.

Right.

And to the best of their ability, they try not to have waste.

But as food goes through the supply chain, really, the food waste at each level is relatively small, but the supply chain is very long.

And so when you add up that 1 to 3% of waste, it really adds up to the 40% that we waste as a country.

And, you know, even as consumers, you know, we're we're picky when it comes to these things and when milk gets close to its best by date, we're not going to buy it in the grocery store of that that banana looks a little you know, it's already yellow.

It's going to be it's going to be ripe soon.

So the key to our business is to turn it around quickly so we have people in need right here in this community.

And we have excess food and we try not to hold it any longer than we have to.

On the backpack side, when you freeze it, then you lock in that.

You lock in the the the health, the nutrition, and it does no longer expire, you know, So freezing the food for a backpack program is critical.

So that gives us more time to get the food distributed.

But yeah, we really need business support, not just from food donations, but even from a financial donation point of view and volunteers.

We have a lot of businesses that come in, volunteer with us.

I mean, it's a good team building experience, you know, And so we have several businesses that come in on a monthly basis and bring their employees in together to work as a team, to give back to the community.

And from my business background, that's that's very encouraging to see.

Appreciate sharing your story.

Phenomenal story.

And we look forward to looking at it again some time.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching on WNIT or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes.

You can find economic outlook at night dot org or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

So encourage you like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

I'm Jeff Rea I'll see you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.