This past year has created a good opportunity for all of us to rethink many things in our lives. As part of Loaves & Fishes’ Strategic Plan, which we put in place in 2019, a key objective is to reassess our model of providing food and services to our clients in order to establish a model that is innovative, scalable, adaptable, health-focused, and expansive.
After a significant amount of research and analysis, including engaging the University of Chicago Booth Alumni Nonprofit Consultants, we determined that adopting a hub and spoke model achieved our strategic objectives. We were fortunate recently to be able to locate and purchase a 30,000 square foot distribution warehouse building in our target area to serve as our new hub.
Our new hub allows us to address the need in our community in a much bigger and better way. We will have the capacity to serve nearly three times the number of people and will be able to open our doors to families in DuPage, Will, Kane, and Kendall Counties. We can offer a new dimension to client choice by allowing families to not only choose the food they want but to also choose the way they get their groceries through shopping in our market, online ordering or curbside pick-up. This will increase access to the food and services that so many families in our community so badly need. The new facility’s large refrigerated and freezer space will allow us to substantially increase the amount of perishable healthy food we provide, such as fresh produce, dairy and meat.
We have initiated a capital campaign to support the investment in our new hub facility. Our community has been stepping up meaningfully, and we are extremely grateful. This project is truly being built by the community, for the community.
