Our Stories

On September 30, Interstate Assembly Systems employees Steve Holtgraver, Scott Lasater and Donald Jakobe delivered a check for $10,000 from The Second Step Foundation to Melissa Prins at The Hope Market in Gardner, Kansas.

The team learned from Melissa that the need for assistance has doubled this year in our community. The Hope Market mission is to eliminate hunger and food insecurity in our community, through the distribution of nutritious food and personal hygiene items. The charity empowers neighbors to share resources, providing opportunities towards an improved quality of life.

It can be a tough choice. Heat or food? Lights or dinner? Rent or a meal? While many of us never have to consider this question, more than 130,000 households in the Gardner area are constantly burdened with these types of difficult decisions. The Hope Market doesn’t just help put meals on the table, they take hard decisions off someone else’s plate.

Troy Thomas, a credit analyst from Interstate’s corporate office, recently visited Second Harvest Heartland in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, to present a check for $10,000 on behalf of the Second Step Foundation.

Second Harvest Heartland works to end hunger through community partnerships. As one of the nation’s largest, most efficient and most innovative hunger relief organizations, they leverage their unique position in the emergency food chain to make an impact. The charity partners with more than 1,000 food shelves and hunger-relief programs. And they create new partnerships with schools, hospitals and clinics to broaden and deepen our reach across our service area.

Their work is about more than moving food. It’s about making families whole again — making sure kids have the food they need to learn in school, relieving the stress of an empty cupboard for parents, or giving seniors a little bit more so they can stretch their dollars every month. In 2020, the group helped provide 105 million meals to more than 1,000 food shelves and meal programs serving 59 counties in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Interstate Power Systems team members in Carol Stream, Illinois met with Jenny Ackerman of the Northern Illinois Food Bank on September 28, 2022 to deliver a $10,000 check. The team toured the facility and saw firsthand the great work the charity does in feeding the hungry.

While on site, the Interstate team learned about the food bank’s statistics for the last fiscal year from July 2021 through June 2022. An impressive 96% of the food bank’s resources go toward programs.

Last year, the Northern Illinois Food Bank distributed 78 million meals through more than 900 food pantries and programs. With the help of 17,000 volunteers and 37,000 donors, the charity was able to serve an average of 375,000 neighbors every month. The meals included fresh produce, proteins, dairy and shelf stable foods as well as non-food items to support the community.

Nobody in America should be hungry. Interstate’s CEO underscored this message with a visit to St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Arizona.

“In-between projects and announcements in the office today, a handful of us had the privilege of meeting Lisa Notaro and members of her team at St. Mary’s Food Bank,” said Travis. “Their story is extraordinary.”

The founder of St. Mary’s, John van Hengel, invented the concept of the modern food bank in Phoenix in 1967. Although not related to any religious institution, the food bank received an initial donation and use of a building from St. Mary’s Basilica and named itself in honor of that assistance. The food bank concept was freely shared. Eventually, John van Hangel started the nation-wide food bank network that is known today as Feeding America and helped to spread the concept worldwide.

The need for food assistance in the greater Phoenix area has risen 74% since last year alone. Today, every dollar donated to St. Mary’s Food Bank provides seven meals. Less than 2% of all things donated to St. Mary’s go to waste.

“It was a great privilege to join our teams from Surprise, Arizona in presenting a check to St. Mary’s from The Second Step Foundation for $10,000,” said Travis. “That translates to 70,000 meals provided to someone in Phoenix that would have otherwise been hungry.”

The St. Mary’s Food Bank donation is just one of 28 $10,000 donations that will be provided in 2022 from The Second Step Foundation to local food banks in markets Interstate serves. The $280,000 in direct food aid will fund hundreds of thousands of meals for those in need.

The mission of the Friday Food Bag Foundation is to partner with the community to provide nutritious food to children who might not eat well – or at all – on the weekends. They deliver bags of single serve, nutritious, non-perishable food each week to district schools for distribution by school personnel to children.

Data reported by Laramie County School District for the 2021-2022 school year indicated 5,389 students out of a total enrollment of 16,213, or 33.23% of students in grades K-12 qualified for free or reduced meals.

Based upon results from childhood hunger programs in existence for several years, providing nutritious weekend meals for this at-risk population will not only alleviate their immediate hunger, but improve their overall health and performance levels during the school week.

In September, employees from Interstate Power Systems’ newest branch presented a $10,000 check on behalf of Second Step Foundation to the Friday Food Bag in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN) is Montana’s only statewide food bank and member of Feeding America. They distribute food to 360 partners that include community food banks, pantries, schools, senior centers, and shelters to end hunger in Montana. Their hunger relief programs include BackPack, Hunters Against Hunger, Mail-a-Meal, No Kid Hungry, Retail Food Rescue, and SNAP outreach.

In September, Interstate employees presented a $10,000 check on behalf of Second Step Foundation to the Montana Food Bank Network in Missoula, Montana. For every $1 donation, MFBN is able to provide at least five meals (this year’s donation of $10,000 will cover more than 50,000 meals).

MFBN advocates for long-term policy solutions to strengthen public nutrition programs and address the root causes of hunger. MFBN partners with local and national food manufacturers, agriculturists, and other food manufacturers to secure large amounts of food through generous donations, grants, or wholesale. Then, through a team of volunteers, they break down the large-scale food into manageable family-size portions that partner agencies and other programs can easily store and distribute to Montanans experiencing food insecurity.

The Nutrition On Weekends (NOW) Program is a collaborative, community effort targeting childhood hunger. The program provides healthy, ready-to-eat nutritious foods for children during the weekend, providing a safety net for children when they are not in the classroom and able to access school meals.

Interstate employees presented a $10,000 check on behalf of Second Step Foundation on September 29 to Ashley Winch for the Marshfield United Way NOW Program. In addition to the donation, I-State Truck Centers and Interstate Assembly Systems employees volunteer to pack lunches in the Training Center throughout the year.

NOW was created in response to data collected in 2012 from Marshfield students as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In this survey, 20% of students indicated they had gone to bed hungry at least once in the past thirty days because there was not enough food in the home.

The program is currently serving 483 children in eight school districts plus the Head Start program. They engage over 700 volunteers throughout the year to help make the program happen and partner with approximately 30 local businesses and organizations that help prepare the weekly food packs throughout the year.

The Rock River Valley Pantry’s mission is to fight hunger in the community by providing nutritious food to those in urgent need. Founded in 1976, they are the largest community-based food pantry in Northern Illinois, distributing needed food from two locations five days a week that amounts to more than a million pounds of food each year.

On October 2, Interstate employees delivered a check for $10,000 from Second Step Foundation to Tabatha Endres-Cruz of the Rock River Valley Pantry in Rockford, Illinois.

The Rock River Valley Pantry provides enough food to supply a balanced diet for four days for each member of the receiving households. They rely on a community of donors and every dollar truly makes a difference in their ability to fight hunger.

No one should go hungry. River Bend Food Bank feeds people experiencing hunger by rescuing, safely storing and distributing nutritious food through more than 400 hunger-relief partners in 23 counties in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

Interstate employees presented a $10,000 check on behalf of Second Step Foundation on October 2 to employees at the River Bend Foodbank in Davenport, Iowa.

River Bend Food Bank is a proud member of the Feeding America network – a nationwide nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support and resources to 200 food banks across the United States.

They operate three warehouse facilities to distribute food to hunger relief partner organizations across our service area and serve as the food rescue and distribution hub for food pantries and hunger-relief partners in 23 counties.

On October 3, Interstate delivered a check for $10,000 from Second Step Foundation to employees at Hope Center in Waukesha, in Butler, Wisconsin.

Hope Center is a non-profit organization that has been serving the basic needs of financial assistance, food and clothing in Waukesha County. More than 20,000 women, men and children currently live in or near poverty in Waukesha County. For 44 years, Hope Center has strived to minimize the poverty related risk factors that contribute to homelessness by providing, at no cost to County residents, food, clothing and simple living items.

Their “Outreach Meals” program began in 1991 to address the need of hunger in the community. Guests include the homeless, those living in rooming houses or shelters, families trying to stretch their budget and elderly persons on a fixed income, many of whom are physically and/or mentally impaired.

In the first eight months of 2023, the Hope Center has helped combat hunger by providing 6,418 breakfasts, 5,870 lunches and 6,740 dinners.

Interstate Assembly Systems team members in New Century, Kansas met with representatives of The Hope Market on October 11 to deliver a $10,000 check on behalf of The Second Step Foundation.

The Hope Market Local Food Pantry is a non-profit organization that provides free, nutritious food to people in need in the Kansas City community. They are committed to feeding their neighbors with dignity and respect, and to building a stronger, more equitable community where everyone has access to the food they need to thrive.

Last year alone, The Hope Market served 6,958 families and 25,869 individuals. They estimate that there are 364,090 people in the area they serve who are food insecure, meaning they may have food today, but they don’t know if there will be food tomorrow.

Interstate Power Systems team members in Carol Stream, Illinois met with Jenny Ackerman of the Northern Illinois Food Bank on October 8 to deliver a $10,000 check.

Northern Illinois Food Bank is focused on delivering food and healthy eating services to the Northern Illinois community. As part of the national Feeding America network, they serve neighbors in 13 counties.

Of the Food Bank’s resources, a full 97% of them go to programs that feed neighbors in need. Every $1 donated helps provide $8 worth of groceries. They provide 250,000 meals a day and each week nearly 1,000 volunteers help evaluate, repack and distribute food.

On October 8, Steve Sauter, Petar Miskov, and Erin Caves presented a $10,000 Second Step Foundation donation to Rochelle at Friends with Food in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rochelle gave them a tour of their operations and expressed gratitude for the donation. She talked about the work the organization has done to remove barriers that many non-profits struggle with in providing food for those in need.

Friends with Food is a vital community organization located in Milwaukee dedicated to alleviating hunger and providing support to individuals and families in need. Their mission is simple but powerful: to ensure that no one in the community goes hungry. Friends with Food operates as a food bank, sourcing donations from local businesses, individuals and organizations to distribute food to those facing food insecurity.

On October 8, the team from the Lincoln, Nebraska IPS branch met with Jason Pauling, Corporate Partnerships Director for the Food Bank of Lincoln to deliver a $10,000 donation from Second Step Foundation. The IPS team was greeted by a digital sign in front of the charity’s office thanking the Second Step Foundation for their continued donations and support.

Since its founding in 1982, the Food Bank of Lincoln has been focused on the mission of alleviating hunger in Southeast Nebraska. They serve 16 counties in Southeast Nebraska covering roughly 9,200 square miles. It’s estimated that 64,510 people in the region are food insecure, including 20,320 children under the age of 18. This means one in seven neighbors — and one in five children — may not have reliable and consistent access to enough food to live active, healthy lives.

On October 11, the IAS team in Surprise, Arizona delivered a $10,000 check on behalf of the Second Step Foundation to St. Mary’s Food Bank.

St. Mary’s Food Bank provides nutritious food to families, children and seniors struggling to feed themselves and their families. Each year, they distribute food to millions of neighbors throughout Arizona. Their efficient operations and purchasing power allow us to turn $1 donated into five meals.

They provide food, at No COST, to hundreds of partner agencies, who, in turn, give food to people in need. Their agency partners are food pantries, homeless shelters, meal centers, domestic violence shelters, after-school programs for at-risk children, low-income senior living centers, etc.

On October 10, Dale Priebe, Cole Dennis, Andy Tofsrud and Adam Van Doorne had the pleasure of presenting donations from Second Step Foundation from Bismarck IPS, IBS and ITC along with Williston IPS to the Great Plains Food Bank in Bismarck.

“Last year, the team at Great Plains Food Bank was able to provide 11.2 million meals to people in need in North Dakota,” said Adam Van Doorne, Bismarck IPS Branch Manager. “They were extremely appreciative of this year’s generous gift from our foundation. They said the donation will be put to use in their general operations fund to continue to serve our great state.”

The only food bank in the state of North Dakota, the Great Plains Food Bank recovers food that otherwise would go to waste from a range of food industry partners and, through its programs and services, distributes it to those in need throughout North Dakota and Clay County, MN. Working with volunteers, food and financial donors, community champions and advocates, we are committed to serving the people in our region each day.