Midwest Food Bank

What terrific content for Hidden Blog's 300th post! An inspiring example of basic human goodness, with international influence, right here in our backyard.

BLOOMINGTON -- Santa may get top billing, but he’s nowhere without his elves.

So says David Kieser, the head Santa at the Bloomington-based Midwest Food Bank. Though he volunteers to lead the food bank, he gives credit to God, his family and a host of volunteers and donors for the food bank’s miracle-like growth during the past five years.

More than 100,000 people are served every month through more than 500 non-profit groups the food bank supplies, according to a recent study by Illinois State University. This year alone, the food bank is expected to distribute canned goods, dry goods and meat valued at more than the $14 million. Food is donated by food manufacturers and grocers, community food drives, and individuals.

The non-profit operation once fit into a garage-sized shed. Today, it fills a huge warehouse on Bloomington’s southeast side. Two more warehouses, one in Peoria and one in Indianapolis, will open in February.

“So many generous, kind people are reaching out to other people,” said Kieser, 52. “The food bank has become an opportunity for others who feel a need to serve those in need.”

Kieser’s brothers and sisters-in-law, Robert and Laura and Paul and Karen Kieser, took over the responsibilities Kieser and his wife, Wilma, had to the family farming business to give them time to volunteer full time as the food bank grew.

Kieser traces the seed of the Midwest Food Bank to his mother, Jean, and his father, the late Louis Kieser. They raised their large family on a farm just southwest of Bloomington. As a boy, Kieser thought it odd when his mom returned from the grocery store with far more food than her own brood needed.

When he was older, he saw what his strongly Apostolic Christian parents were doing. His mom had Kieser load the surplus food in a Radio Flyer wagon and haul it to a family with eight children who lived nearby.

“I was too young to understand mom wasn’t making a mistake. That was part of the plan,” he said. “It’s a biblical principle to recognize a need and then try to do what you can to fill the need.”

After growing up to run a successful family grain-farm operation, the Kieser siblings were looking for some way to give more back to the community. At the same time, a coalition of non-profit groups that distribute food called Harvest of Hope was searching for a place to serve as a headquarters and storage area. The Kiesers volunteered a shed.

Food collections began to swell, and more and more groups that serve the hungry appeared on the doorstep. Agencies receiving food must be non-profit, they must agree to give what they receive from the Midwest Food Bank to the needy and they cannot sell, barter, trade or raise money with food the bank has supplied.

Corporate and public partners signed on. They include State Farm Insurance Cos., ISU, the cities of Bloomington and Normal, Cub Foods, Caterpillar, Tyson Foods, RMH in Morton and ADM, to name a few. Another major food chain is considering joining. A network of area meat processors and the Eastview Christian Sportsmen agreed to channel surplus venison, hogs and beef to the poor through the bank.

More help arrives every day.

Kieser tells a story of a company representative who noticed the warehouse sign just off Veterans Parkway. He stopped to learn more and asked what his company could do to help.

“It’s absolutely and completely, totally amazing,” Kieser said. “But that’s OK. God is amazing. He can make amazing things happen. … It’s just amazing how God opens doors and how God opens hearts. God is the one touching hearts and moving people do to what they are doing for the food bank.”

The bank is critical to the missions of area agencies, according to Capt. Scott Shelbourn of the Bloomington-based Salvation Army. The food bank is by far the single largest contributor of food to his agency’s food pantry and its homeless shelter, Safe Harbor, he said.

Midwest Food Bank also reaches far beyond Central Illinois. The U.S. Navy sails donations from the bank to areas around the globe that are in desperate need. The bank also responds with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross wherever disaster strikes on U.S. soil. For example, the food bank helped send food during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts along the Gulf Coast.

“They sent just hundreds of truckloads that benefited so many people,” said Shelbourn, adding national officials of the Salvation Army often call Kieser for help.

“Dave has the contacts to get the food and has trucks to deliver it. That is just fantastic,” Shelbourn said.

Lyn Hruska, executive director of the Bloomington-based American Red Cross of the Heartland, noted her agency awarded Kieser the Ambassador Award for his work outside the community at its 2007 Heroes Breakfast.

“He really is an example of how one person who draws more people in can make a powerful impact,” she said.

Kieser said he learned quickly that the need for food was “greater than I realized prior to us being in the food service business. A person is dying somewhere in the world of hunger every 3.6 seconds. Every year, 15 million children die (around the globe) annually. … I went personally to New York City a week before Thanksgiving Day. We took 5,000 meals. The need there is greater than here. I’m thankful the Midwest Food Bank can serve this community, the regional community and reach out beyond that. I’m glad we can make a difference.”

Food is driven by retired or volunteer truck drivers on vacation in semis the food bank supplies. Volunteers also sort food, load the trucks and do all the other work at the warehouse. So many groups have volunteered to help, the schedule for workers is booked through April, Kieser said.

“It is totally humbling for me to see that,” he said. “They call this area ‘the heartland.’ When I think of that word now, I consider it the heartland because people are kind and generous and giving. They’ve touched so many lives.

“The light has to shine on the people who deserve it,” Kieser said. “Thanks to God for blessing them with the spirit of giving. …It’s the elves who make it happen,” he said.