About Foodnet
- Details
Foodnet is a group of volunteers from many different churches and non-profit organizations, trying to STOP the waste of food, and MEET all human needs. Especially those who are trying on their own to provide food for their families, but because of hardships, such as layoffs, sickness, car problems and other unexpected catastrophes, their paychecks are smaller and money for food is less.
Foodnet provides mostly perishable foods such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, bread, etc. to all needy families.
The first Foodnet program was started by Frank Marsh (now deceased), Pastor Lincoln Justice and Pastor Gil Visser in 1985. Their purpose at that time was to help all the homeless, transients, elderly and low income people who fall into the cracks of the legal guidelines for getting help, and also to cut down on the number of pounds of garbage that goes to the landfill. Their motto was "Tummy Fill Not Landfill." Today, 26 years later, that is still the purpose of Foodnet and still our motto. However, we have grown to a much larger organization than the 5 contributing stores and 15 receiving families of the first Foodnet.
In February 1986, a city wide letter was sent to ALL church denominations in Lincoln, to inform them about Foodnet and to ask for donations and more involvement from the different churches. 15 different churches attended the first meeting and from this meeting, 3 churches began an official Foodnet site. They were Lakeview UMC, Trinity UMC and Faith Lutheran.
Today, Foodnet is an ALL VOLUNTEER organization that receives NO government support of any kind. To keep our organization going, all food, labor, distribution sites and vehicles for hauling are donated. We feed over 1000 families each week through 23 different distribution sites in and around the Lincoln area. Most of these sites are in churches or Senior Centers, but some are in private homes. Our largest expenses are for new freezer bags and containers to distribute the cafeteria type foods, and for the 24 hour cell phone, which we keep so businesses can call us to donate food at any time and also needy families can call to find out where they can go to pick up food. We have open distribution sites at different locations and times every day of the week and ALL HOLIDAYS except Christmas Day. Because we are all volunteers, we pick up from businesses on holidays and snow days. We have over 400 total volunteers and over 100 businesses that donate their products to us. We have even received over 8 tons of potatoes from sources miles away.
Please help us to keep alive the dreams of Frank Marsh, Pastor Lincoln Justice and Pastor Gil Visser.
FoodNet Inc. is a 501-C3 non profit corporation
"TUMMY FILL NOT LANDFILL"
No one in Lincoln, Nebraska should go hungry.