Special Food Distribution Held for Families in Need
New Technology Funding to Be Announced at Thanksgiving Distribution Thanks to Technology Investment Made by Alliance Data
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., November 20, 2018 /3BL Media/ – On Tues., Nov. 20 Roadrunner Food Bank will hold a special holiday mobile food pantry distribution to provide food to low-income families and their children right before the Thanksgiving. The distribution will take place at the Cesar Chavez Community Center located at 7505 Kathryn Ave SE starting at 3 pm. It is estimated that more than 400 families will be provided food to take home and receive help with additional services also such as: assistance applying for SNAP (food stamp) benefits, flu shots and other health screenings, Medicare and Medicaid registration, information about housing services, adult literacy help and other services assisting low-income and at-risk people in the community.
Staff from Alliance Data’s card services business will volunteer at the mobile pantry, where Alliance Data will also announce $500,000 data and technology-focused investment to Roadrunner Food Bank. The contribution will help create Service Insights, an innovative new extensive data collection project specifically looking at the issue of hunger in New Mexico, which ranks first for childhood food insecurity and sixth for overall hunger according to the latest Map the Meal Gap report.
Mag Strittmatter, president and CEO of Roadrunner Food Bank said, “The people we serve aren’t one dimensional – food insecurity is only one factor. The insights we can gain from this long-term and impactful data project will allow us to serve our communities better. It will help inform everything we do, and the data will offer deeper insights into who we serve and how we can improve or tweak our work to serve them better.”
The information collected from this multi-year, multi-phase data project will contribute to a better understanding of issues faced every day by thousands of hungry New Mexicans while informing the available services provided by the charitable hunger network at local, state, regional and national levels. Currently, a real-time data collection process that assesses these services does not exist; however, this investment will give Roadrunner Food Bank a better picture of hunger in New Mexico.
“At Alliance Data, we understand how the power of data helps strengthen communities to create a future where business and local economies can flourish,” said Dinah Garcia Tolley, Alliance Data senior director of operations. “Roadrunner Food Bank has taken a visionary approach in their quest to eradicate hunger in New Mexico. Leveraging data and technology to better understand the needs of hungry New Mexicans is not only a strategic step in ending this epidemic, but a necessary one, which is one of the many reasons we’re proud to invest in this new program.”
Roadrunner Food Bank staff involved in the Service Insights project are currently surveying hunger-relief partners across the state as well as reviewing options for database selection. It is expected the project will bring on the first six to eight hunger relief partner sites by the end of June 2019 and phasing in additional partners in each New Mexico county over the next three to five years.
Service Insights will replace quadrennial research performed by food banks in partnership with Feeding America. The Hunger Study was done every four years for nearly the last two decades. The last study was completed in 2014 and provided a snapshot of hunger at a very specific time frame. This new data project will allow for continual data gathering providing the most up-to-date information to funders, donors, advocates, the community and others interested in hunger and hunger research.
About Roadrunner® Food Bank
New Mexico is ranked as one of the hungriest and most poverty stricken states in the nation. Roadrunner® Food Bank, a Feeding America member, is the largest non-profit dedicated to solving hunger in New Mexico and operates locations in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Last year, the Food Bank distributed more than 33 million pounds of food through its own programs, a statewide network of partner agencies, and regional food banks helping nearly 70,000 children, seniors and adults weekly. For more information on solving hunger in New Mexico, visit www.rrfb.org, or follow us on social media at: www.facebook.com/roadrunner.food.bank, www.twitter.com/roadrunnerfdbnk or
About Alliance Data’s card services business
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Alliance Data’s card services business develops market-leading private label, co-brand, and business credit card programs for many of the world's most recognizable brands. Through our branded credit programs, we help build more profitable relationships between our partners and their cardmembers, and drive lasting loyalty.
Using the industry’s most comprehensive and predictive data set, advanced analytics, and broad-reaching capabilities, Alliance Data’s card services business has been helping partners increase sales and provide greater value to their cardmembers since 1986. We are proud to be part of the Alliance Data enterprise (NYSE: ADS), an S&P 500, FORTUNE 500 and FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For company headquartered in Plano, Texas. To learn more, visit KnowMoreSellMore.com, follow us on Twitter @Know_SellMore, and connect with us on LinkedIn at Alliance Data card services.
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