Fact sheet

Chattanooga Area Food Bank

Our mission

To feed the hungry by linking America’s food bounty with those in need.

Our results

Through a network of over 360 nonprofit agencies and churches, we distributed nearly 8.8 million pounds of food to more than 125,000 families in need last year . Over 13,600 emergency food boxes were shared.

Our service area

Over 360 non-profit agencies join us in our efforts to end hunger by distributing food to those in need. Agencies issue vouchers for emergency food boxes or have their own on-site pantry. Our member agencies include childcare centers, soup kitchens, church pantries, shelters, group homes, and youth and senior programs. The Chattanooga area food bank is a member of America’s Second Harvest Food Bank Network, a national food bank network.

Our volunteers

Last year, volunteers donated over 11,237 hours to assist the Food Bank staff in their mission. Our volunteer database includes over 1,100 individuals. The Chattanooga Area Food Bank has a 25-member volunteer Board of Directors.

Our staff

Clare Sawyer is the Executive Director. There are 12 other paid-staff members.

Our source of food items

Local growers and producers, processing plants, manufacturers, retail stores, distributors, restaurants, cafeterias, delis, and community food drives supply our food. National companies also make donations to local food banks through America’s Second Harvest.

Our history

The Chattanooga Area Food Bank was founded in 1982 as an outgrowth of a task force on hunger issues led by area congregations and civic-minded leaders.

Our future

Thanks to a generous two-acre donation of land by the Chazen Family and a one-acre donation by the City of Chattanooga, the Food Bank has a three-acre site off Amnicola Highway for a new facility. A capital campaign to build a new facility is underway.

Celebrating 20 years of feeding the hungry

Chattanooga Area Food Bank Timeline:

1982

An Episcopal minister, the Rev. Jim Bills, and a group of other civic-minded Chattanoogans began vocalizing their concern that hungry families had nowhere to turn for provisions

February 9, 1982

Jim Kennedy, III, presided over the first board meeting that established a pantry in the office of Metropolitan Ministry

Founding members included:

Rev. Jim Bills
Gene Blaes
Bates Bryan, Jr.
Sue Cohn
Norman Covington
Fred Decosimo*
Roberta Doub
Lou Garcia
Ruth Holmberg
Bill Johnson
Jim Kennedy, III*
Mrs. Patten
Virginia Quigly
Mary Suggs
Mike Thatcher
* current board member

American National Bank donated the office equipment and furnishings, Combustion Engineering our first fork lift, and The Chattanooga Times underwrote the utilities.

Our first product donors included McKee Baking Company, Quaker Oats – both still top donors today –and Meadow Fresh Milk.

1983

Bill Johnson is named the first executive director of the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.

1984

The pantry’s mission and outreach was significantly expanded with the move to a Market Street facility with an industrial cooler.

1985

WRCB TV generously founded the community-wide December food drive Share Your Christmas at Ross’s Landing downtown. Red Food Stores and now Bi-Lo have served as co-sponsors. The event brings in over 62,500 pounds of food each year that goes directly to thousands of hungry individuals and families through our emergency food box program.

1986

The first community gardening project was established with the Chattanooga Housing Authority on the Westside downtown to assist seniors in the enriching self-reliant experience of growing their own fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers. The garden continues as an intergenerational project that inspires and educates.

1987

The first annual Spring Garden Tour was held. The event has become a signature fundraiser for the Food Bank’s community gardening program and has a loyal following of dedicated master gardeners, corporate sponsors and volunteers.

1990

Stuart Sorrow, a former employee of ConAgra, brings his expertise to the role of executive director.

1991

After a courageous battle against illness, former Executive Director Bill Johnson passed away. The Food Bank’s Community Garden on the Westside was named in his honor.

1992

The Food Bank’s business manager, Georgiana Kotarski, is promoted to Executive Director and oversees the move to lease a large former hosiery mill distribution site off Hawthorne Street – our current location. The move continues to expand the Food Bank’s scope of service to 22 counties.

1993

The local affiliate of the National Association of Letter Carriers began its annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive – which has become one of our top food drives each year – generating over 90,000 pounds of food. Residents are asked to participate by simply placing bags of non-perishables at their mailbox.

1997

After serving as an active member of our board of directors for six years, Clare Sawyer agrees to serve as Executive Director. The former Development Director for Orange Grove, Clare has been an advocate for hungry neighbors that might otherwise be forgotten, founding a local Kid’s Café and Second Helpings program that delivers prepared foods to groups homes, shelters, nursing homes and daycares. Under Clare’s leadership the Food Bank has embarked on its most critical effort to date, the building and furnishing of a new facility.

1999

Kid’s Cafés are welcomed at Inner City Ministry of First-Centenary United Methodist Church, Northside Neighborhood House, and the East Lake Boy’s Club. Today there are other sites on a waiting list and the success of this vital program is contingent on a new larger facility.

2000

Wally’s Restaurant in East Ridge and the Town & Country Restaurant in North Chattanooga sponsor our first Second Helpings prepared food rescue program. Volunteers use a refrigerated truck to deliver to agencies including Orange Grove, Friendship Haven, Community Kitchen, Ronald McDonald House, Room in the Inn and New Life Home for Boys. Today nearly 20 area deli’s, cafeterias, and restaurants participate.

The Food Bank’s Community Garden program launches its local campaign to Plant a Row for the Hungry, a national initiative sponsored by HGTV and Garden Writers Association of America.

2001

The Chazen Family makes a generous donation of 2-acres of land for a new facility to be located off Amnicola Highway on Curtain Pole Road. The City of Chattanooga matches with an additional acre. A capital campaign chaired by Candace Chazen, Jim Kennedy, III, ad Fred Decosimo is kicked off with a garden party at the Patten’s Ashland Farms in Chattanooga Valley. Chattanooga architects Derthick, Henley and Wilkerson develop plans and renderings that bring our vision into focus.

David Hudson with Artech Design Group and other members of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, present the first local CANstruction project. The architects and design professionals mentor middle school students in the design of large scale sculptures created from canned and packaged food items that are then donated to the Food Bank. The first CANstruction "gallery" was held at Eastgate Town Center.

The Chattanooga Area Food Bank participates in the nation-wide Second Harvest Hunger Study. The results are documented in an unprecedented report that reveals 23.3 million Americans rely on the Food Bank network each year for help. Nine million of these are children.

2002

The Chattanooga Area Food Bank celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Paul Newman ‘s Newman’s Own and Ford Motor Company donate a new 14-foot refrigerated truck through a national effort to improve food distribution in rural areas.

Freezers are purchased for several of the Food Bank’s partner agencies from the Tommy Sandusky Memorial Fund. Mr. Sandusky was a long-time employee of McKee Foods and shared our mission to feed the hungry.

2003

After the million dollar mark is reached and ground breaking on a new facility is within site, the Capital Campaign enters Phase II – an outreach to our broad grassroots network of individuals, families, and the faith community that have always supported our belief that hunger has a cure. The grassroots campaign is chaired by Bradley Cobb with Toyota of Cleveland and Jean Payne with Memorial Hospital.