California Baptist church helps stretch food dollars

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Before members of the congregation began arriving to pick up the prepaid boxes of food, the Rev. Bruce Jackson, associate pastor of Bayview Baptist Church, asked volunteers involved in the distribution process to join hands for a prayer circle.

"Praise you, Lord," Jackson prayed. "Because of you, somebody will eat tonight."

A few minutes later, the pastor and volunteers began checking lists and carrying the food boxes to cars, trucks and SUVs pulling up near the church in the Encanto neighborhood of San Diego.

On this recent Saturday, the scene was repeated at more than 200 churches across Southern California and others in Phoenix and Northern California, under a venture begun by the Treasure Box, (www.thetreasurebox.org), a Carlsbad, Calif., start-up company.

Once a month, 20 trucks hired by the company deliver discount boxes of frozen food for distribution to people who have paid for them in advance. More than 90 percent of the host sites are churches looking to supplement their traditional food-giveaway programs.

Between loads, Jackson discussed the reasons Bayview has become involved in the distribution program.

"To a lot of people, the church is seen as anti-gay, or antiabortion, always espousing things to be against, but never helping," he said. "This is a way to serve people directly and change their viewpoints about the church."

For owners and managers of the Treasure Box, veterans of the food distribution business, the effort is not solely charitable. They hope ultimately to make a profit.

The company, which started in November 2008 and has sold about 200,000 boxes to date, has average deliveries each month of about 18,000 boxes. The break-even point, where profits are a possibility, is closer to 20,000, according to company officials.

Good Source Solutions Inc., parent company of Treasure Box, has for decades been in the business of selling wholesale food to nonprofits and institutional buyers such as schools and jails. But persuading churches to participate is different, said Treasure Box Executive Director Steve Guy.

"I can't say, 'God wants you to do this,' but I can say, 'This is a way to serve your community,'" Guy said.

Tonita Boatner, a volunteer at Bayview Baptist, believes in the Treasure Box approach and is trying to get other churches to sign up as distribution points and to spread the word to their congregations. It isn't always easy, she said.

"Churches have seen programs come and go, and they feel ripped off sometimes," Boatner said. "I understand the resistance."

Treasure Box provides a per-box subsidy to each church to offset its overhead. To spread the word about the program, the company gave away several hundred boxes at a neighborhood festival this spring.