WEEKEND-FOOD-BAGS.PDF

Last updated: 03/06/2018
General information
Organization Arizona Brainfood
Contact First name Claudia
Contact Last name Walters
Contact e-mail steveandclaudiawalters@gmail.com
Contact phone number 480-226-2078
Address
Street PO Box 242
City Mesa
State AZ
ZIP Code 85211-0242
From what tribe is the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
organization requesting the
grant?
Total grant amount request 15,000
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Applicant Info: Arizona Brainfood
PO Box 242
Mesa, AZ 85211-0242
Primary Contact: Ruth Collins
PO Box 242
Mesa, AZ 85211-0242
480-415-0066
ruth@azbrainfood.org
Arizona Brainfood is a volunteer-led, volunteer-run nonprofit that serves at-risk children in the East
Valley with a weekend backpack program. This ongoing project is the only program of Arizona
Brainfood. It started more than 10 years ago, serving children at two elementary schools in Mesa. It now
serves children at risk for going without food or having insufficient food on the weekends at 115 schools
in Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Guadalupe, Mesa, Scottsdale, and Tempe.
In 2007, founder Ruth Collins found that there were children in Mesa who ate a school lunch on Friday
and next ate when they returned to school on Monday and ate a school breakfast. She believed that was
an unacceptable situation and was determined to do something about it. Not only was the hunger
terrible, but both the food insecurity and hunger prevented children from being able to concentrate in
school. She talked to family and friends and Arizona Brainfood was born. Our mission statement says:
“Arizona Brainfood is a non-profit organization that discreetly provides a backpack of food to feed
hungry school children on the weekends. We hope that each child will return to school every Monday
mentally aware and physically able to concentrate.” With this dual purpose, Arizona Brainfood’s work
falls into both health and education funding priorities that the Fort McDowell community emphasizes.
We serve children who are experiencing a wide variety of difficult situations. Those include
homelessness, having a parent in prison, parents with bad health and devastating medical bills, parents
with addiction issues, the family living in a car or tent, a parent who has been deported, and hundreds of
other difficult problems. In Mesa Public Schools, about 68% of the elementary-age children qualify for
Federal free or reduced price meals. Approximately 7% of those children are being served by Arizona
Brainfood, because they have also been identified for being at risk for weekend hunger. These children,
of whatever gender, race, or ethnicity, are the target population we serve.
The success of the program is measured by the annual surveys of children receiving Arizona Brainfood
bags, as well as surveys of their parents and teachers. Those surveyed and the school liaisons also
provide anecdotal reports on the impact of Brainfood bags. We are aware that hunger is not the only
challenge impacting most of these children, so we know that receiving Brainfood bags will not solve all
of the problems. However, in 2016-17, 96% of children receiving Brainfood bags reported that they
always or sometimes do better in school because of it. More than 50% of teachers surveyed reported an
increase in student achievement among students receiving Brainfood bags. One other success is that
90% of children reported that they sometimes or always share their food with others in their family. The
children report that this is often a younger sibling. Hunger doesn't start in Kindergarten.

We have requested $15,000 in funding. All of that would be used to purchase food for the weekend
food bags. That amount of money would provide food for at least 2,727 bags of food. This is enough
food to provide weekend meals to at least 83 children for the entire school year. Because we have no
paid employees, we are able to direct almost all of our resources to the purchase of food.
Arizona Brainfood has many community partners that make the work possible. We work with the East
Valley school districts that serve the cities where we provide weekend food bags. Mesa United Way
provides our routine accounting and back office support at no charge to Brainfood. Mesa Public Schools
provides our “warehouse” building where we pack the food bags each week and store our supplies. A
number of businesses provide vehicles and drivers, free of charge, each week to help deliver the food
bags to the schools. Chiquita donates bananas. Bashas’ helps us get the food we need, at cost. Every
week during the school year, we have between 80 and 100 volunteers fill approximately 3600 food bags.
Arizona Brainfood works because of collaborations.
Our funders include: the Whiteman 4G Foundation, Concerned Citizens for Community Health, the
Chandler Compadres, Hunger Is…(Albertsons/Safeway), the Arizona Cardinals Foundation, the Phoenix
Suns Foundation, Concrete Reinforcements, the Tempe Impact Education Foundation, the Steele
Foundation, Mesa United Way, Boeing of Arizona ECF, Chandler Service Club, the Sundt Foundation, and
Charleys Kids. In addition, we have hundreds of individual donors who give everything from a few dollars
to thousands of dollars. We are applying only to the Fort McDowell community for tribal funding.
The funding we are applying for will be used for our 2018-19 school year weekend backpack program.
The timeline is that we provide the weekend food bags during the school year, so the time for which we
are asking for funding will start with the fall of 2018 and it will end in May, 2019.

AZ Brainfood
Budget 2018-19
*Please note - program budget and org budget
are the same. AZBF only has one program.
Revenue
Gifts, Grants, Contributions $ 491,920
Pledged Gifts, Grants, Contributions $ 185,000
In-Kind Building $ 30,000
In-Kind Food (Food drives, Bananas, Other) $ 45,000
In-Kind Personal & Business Vehicle Use $ 17,985
In-Kind Back Office Support from MUW $ 16,000
Total Revenue $ 785,905
Expenses
Insurance $ 3,120
Fundraising Expenses $ 10,000
Tax Preparation $ 1,000
Professional Fees $ 5,000
Food Purchases for Backpacks $ 653,400
Office Supplies $ 1,000
Warehouse Equipment $ 2,500
Postage & Mailing $ 100
Printing & Copying $ 500
Licenses & Fees $ 100
Miscellaneous $ 200
In-Kind Building $ 30,000
In-Kind Food $ 45,000
In-Kind Back Offic Support MUW $ 16,000
In-Kind Truck Use $ 17,985
$ 785,905

Board of Directors, Arizona Brainfood, 2017-18
President – Ruth Collins, Community Volunteer
Vice President – Beth Coons, CEO, The Farnsworth Companies
Secretary – Kristen Cowley, Community Volunteer
Treasurer – Ingrid Ahlstrom, CPA, Self-employed
Director of Operations – Karen Zaharis, Community Volunteer
Executive Board Member – Supervisor Denny Barney, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Landmark
Companies, CEO
Executive Board Member – Dr. Michael Cowan, Mesa Public Schools, Superintendent
Executive Board Member – Tim Cowley, The Cowley Companies, VP
Executive Board Member – Tony Ham, Boeing (Retired)
Executive Board Member – Broc Hiatt, Cardon Hiatt Companies, Owner/Managing Partner
Executive Board Member – John Lewis, East Valley Partnership, CEO