Feed America First Needs Warehouse Space

Since early 2002 Feed America First has distributed donated food to small charities in Middle Tennessee from our warehouse at 714 W. Main in Murfreesboro. Our staff of three currently uses an office and about 4,000 square feet of warehouse, for which we pay $500 a month, including utilities. We have lost our lease as of September 15, 2008 so we need a new warehouse.

Feed America First needs from 5,000 – 15,000 square feet of warehouse space to allow us to continue this important work. We need access to at least two loading docks, so that we can load and unload our two box trucks and two refrigerated trailers, and a flat paved floor to operate our forklifts. We want easy Interstate access since we pick up food every day in the Metropolitan Nashville area, and we prefer to be in or near Rutherford County. We also own a portable office and racking which we can erect in a warehouse, and neither is permanently anchored so that we do not damage our facility. We are highly adaptable to the space we occupy, and we require no build-out.

Lease terms are negotiable, including short-term leases. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Feed America First may provide your company with some tax benefit for using your space. We would be happy to share warehouse space with another company or agency. Our funding comes from donations, grants, and special events, so resources are limited. However, we pride ourselves upon our efficiency: for each dollar donated we can provide enough food for 12 -15 meals, and our overhead is around 4%.

We chartered Feed America First as a nonprofit organization in June 2000 because we believe that the solution to hunger in America lies within us, on the grass roots level, rather than from the top down. We believe that hunger will cease to be a problem when we, you and me, refuse to allow our neighbors to go hungry.

Small agencies exist in every community, no matter how poor or rural, which are devoted to helping their neighbors. We choose to help these agencies in their work by directing food supplies to them: a loaf of bread, given as an act of love by a neighbor, will open doors! In 2007 we supported 150+ of these small agencies every month, distributing almost 3 MILLION POUNDS of food at no charge! And now the need is greater. We invite you to participate in helping to meet this most basic of human needs.

If you have interest in helping us find a new base of operations, please contact Tom Henry at tomhenry@feedamericafirst.com, or call (615) 512-5915.

Sincerely,
Tom Henry, Director