In four short years as a Feeding America national corporate partner, NAFEM has helped drive more than 34 million meals to be distributed by partner food banks across the Feeding America nationwide network.
The decision to partner with Feeding America derived from direction shared by NAFEM’s Board of Directors. Board members conveyed they wanted NAFEM to have social purpose activities—and ending hunger in America was a logical role for the trade association to help play. NAFEM includes more than 500 commercial food service equipment and supplies manufacturers, entrenched in the industry for over 75 years—and it is the only trade association in recent history that has built and fostered a robust funding partnership with Feeding America to benefit communities throughout the U.S.
In February 2020, NAFEM launched #NAFEMFightingHunger, its signature social purpose platform, and donated $500,000 to help provide approximately 5 million meals to people facing hunger that first year. Through the program, NAFEM matches every donation a member company makes to a partner food bank—and all donations remain in the member company’s respective community.
Deirdre Flynn, NAFEM executive vice president, recalled that shortly after #NAFEMFightingHunger launched in 2020, “The world locked down a month later. Never was the need more relevant.”
Each year since the program’s launch, the number of participating member companies has increased.
“We set a goal to grow by 20 percent each year, and each year that has happened,” said Flynn of the program, which engaged 64 NAFEM member companies in 2023.
In addition to funding contributions, NAFEM celebrates and matches food contributions made by its members, as well as volunteer time. For example, every quarter, American Metalcraft, Inc., a NAFEM member based in Franklin Park, Illinois, notifies its staff of a food packing day volunteer opportunity at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a Feeding America partner food bank. Whether it’s three volunteers or 20, the time is paid (no one needs to take unpaid time off to participate). Once the volunteer shift is completed, NAFEM calculates a dollar amount reflecting the number of volunteer hours spent packing and matches that contribution.
The Power of the Collective
NAFEM’s decision to partner with Feeding America didn’t happen overnight. Significant time was given for thoughtful research and planning, Flynn said, to determine a compelling partnership for the association. From that arose the opportunity for internal discussions, to talk about how the association could engage and grow its collective member impact across the country.
“As an association, our impact isn’t insignificant, yet it’s just one thing,” Flynn said. “But when you take 500 voices—500 companies—and add to that, just think of the good you could do … We wanted to find the right organization, making sure there were enough resources. We asked ourselves, ‘How can we, as a smaller organization of member companies, maximize the impact we have?’”
Flynn said the resources that Feeding America provides to partner food banks, and the ability to drive funding to local communities, was a unique way to tailor a partnership.
“You don’t know when you’re working in a 100-person company if the person who is working across from you is having challenges, including around food,” she said. “We wanted to make sure our member companies could make an impact where they are living and working.”
The national reach of Feeding America—a national network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs—aligned with NAFEM’s member companies and their locations that extend to both urban and rural areas. NAFEM and Feeding America are motivated to leverage our partnership to deepen local relationships and end hunger in communities across the nation.
