Deloitte and Gleaners Community Food Bank

The Project  

A team of Deloitte employees developed a plan to optimize volunteer support and increase capacity at the Gleaners Community Food Bank.

The Opportunity

In a country as wealthy as the United States, it is often easy to ignore the prevalence of hunger across the nation. The statistics are startling; the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in 2006 that 35.5 million people lived in households described as "food insecure" - this is 10.4% of all adults and 17.2% of all children.

Over the last several decades, food banks have stepped in to provide millions of people with the food that they cannot afford. The Gleaners Community Food Bank, the 3^rd oldest in the United States, uses surplus food to provide millions of meals for hungry people in southeastern Michigan. Gleaners has had a huge positive impact over the past thirty years, but the food bank realized it could be doing more to fulfill its mission by optimizing volunteer support.

Deloitte's Pro Bono Investment

In Fall 2007, Deloitte assisted the Gleaners Community Food Bank in developing a strategy to manage and optimize volunteer relations. The team competencies were cross-functional and team members represented each of Deloitte's functions (audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory). Overall, the team donated approximately 350 hours of their time over 6 weeks and focused on four themes important to the success of Gleaners: organizational/cultural, process, people, and technology.

The Impact

Deloitte's pro bono investment will have a long-term impact on the infrastructure of the Gleaners Community Food Bank, which can now direct more resources to securing donations and food for its customers. The team's work will enable Gleaners personnel to automate and standardize routine tasks so that they can focus more time and resources on value added activities (e.g. fundraising); will assist management in prioritizing resources, measuring metrics and identifying continuous improvement opportunities; will increase the number of volunteers; and will enhance the overall volunteer experience by improving communication. Smoothing volunteer engagement will allow management to step back from the day-to-day activities of running the organization and look at a longer-term strategic view across the organization.

About the Client

The third-oldest organization of its kind in the United States, Gleaners Community Food Bank's mission is to feed hungry people in southeastern Michigan by turning surplus food into full meals, rather than letting the food go to waste. When founded in 1977, Gleaners Community Food Bank distributed just one to two million pounds of food a year; today, Gleaners distributes nearly 25 million pounds annually, equivalent to 65,000 meals per day. 

About the Company