“We began with just one box of bread,” says Chris Capper, executive director of Just One More Ministry, a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to recovering food from food suppliers, restaurants and caterers with the intention of repackaging it for those in need. Just One More Ministry began in 2008 as a collaboration between Capper and the Meal Outreach Ministry at St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa. “Just One More Ministry now operates as a separate entity,” explains Capper, “but we won’t forget where we came from.”
Just One More Ministry employs six staff members and depends on 350 volunteers per week to package food and pick up and deliver donations to area churches, food pantries and nonprofit organizations. In light of the projection that Just One More Ministry is on track to provide more than one million pounds of food in 2018, Off the Cuff recently spoke to Capper about his organization’s impact and its plans for the future.
How would you describe Just One More Ministry’s overall reach?
We are like a master distributor of food. We have about 49 organizations that donate food to us and we have about 65 or so partners that come to pick up food from us and take it to their church and/or organization. We don’t serve any meals here except at Christmas and Thanksgiving and maybe a few other times, but we have organizations that come and pick up food from us and then they distribute it.
How would you gauge Just One More Ministry’s impact?
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In 2015, we served approximately 109,000 meals. In 2016, we served 182,000 meals. Last year, we served 260,000 meals and this year we’re projecting 312,000 meals. In addition to that, they’re also getting pantry items, they’re getting produce items and they’re getting bakery items. In 2015, we did 265,000 pounds of food. In 2016, we did 485,000 pounds and last year we did over 770,000 pounds. We have family meals for two or four people that are frozen and include a starch, a protein and a vegetable. We also have what we call meal site meals where a church or organization will have people come in and feed them on-site.
What are Just One More Ministry’s biggest challenges as far as operations are concerned?
This is probably the standard answer for most nonprofits: financial support. The second biggest problem is finding people to donate the food and then securing volunteers.
Looking forward, are there any changes or expansions you would like to make to Just One More Ministry?
Right now, we’re in a 9,000-square-foot building and we probably need something around 15,000 or 18,000 square feet. For four or five years we’ve had over 60% growth each year and we do this mainly by word of mouth. One organization talks with another and then we hear, “Can we get food from you?” Now we’re getting more donors and larger donors are becoming aware of what we do. Just to mention a few, Saz’s Catering is among our donors. Just One More Ministry is unique in that we go after the prepared food that gets thrown away. Saz’s Catering has been with us almost since day one. We also pick up from the Bradley Center, we pick up from State Fair Park and we pick up from Roundy’s/Kroger. We’re partners with Feeding America [Just One More picks up special donations from stores contracted with Feeding America] and then we’re partners with much smaller churches and organizations. We are going to need to expand which is a good thing, but it’s a bad thing that in the city of Milwaukee more and more people are in need of food. But it’s great that more and more folks are stepping up to feed them.
To learn more about Just One More Ministry, call 414-292-5112 or jomministry.org.
