Restoration Bridge International, Inc.

Restoration Bridge International (RBI) is applying for the Elevate Prize because we agree with your vision; make good famous.  Winning the Elevate Prize would increase our positive, healthy impact in Palm Beach, Martin & St. Lucie Counties, Florida; the communities we serve.  It is our Founder/Executive Directors hope “it would inspire others, that no matter your age or how much you have in your pantry or your bank account; that anyone can make a difference.  When one person sees something that breaks their heart, and they begin helping with what they have; little by little they can have a positive impact on an entire community.  People need to see kindness, love, mercy, and grace in action, to know that they are not suffering and alone, meeting people’s food provisional needs has given them something beyond food; it has given them hope and people all over the world can use a few pounds of hope these days.”  RBI will utilize the prize funds to increase our organizational capacity, expand our reach, continuing to drive change and stop hunger by creating more food access points in the communities we serve; until no individual or child is going to sleep with hunger pains.

RBI’s mission is to honor and celebrate everyone by providing a hand up, improving quality of life with nutritional food. We believe no one should go without food.  Pastor Daniel West founded RBI in 2005 knowing there is enough food to go around, rescuing food and creating food access for the poor and marginalized to receive food became his priority.  He made a food pantry out of a church closet, where those in need of food could receive with no judgement and no discrimination.  From humble beginnings our goal has not changed; to stand in the gap against food insecurity.  RBI currently serves love, hope and kindness by providing over 760,000 pounds of nutritional in-kind food to over 118,700 individuals and children monthly: through our partnerships with local food banks, over 18 grocery store chains and collaborating with over 50 local nonprofit partners. It is through the collective of all parties working together that RBI can provide nutritional in-kind food access to help stop food insecurity and decimate the hunger gap in our communities, it is our vision to end hunger in all three counties we serve and expand into the next county until hunger is eliminated in Florida.

The specific problems our work addresses are hunger and food insecurity.  According to Feeding America’s research study “The Impact of the Coronavirus on Food Insecurity in 2020 & 2021” when you combine the unprecedented negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unemployment rate in the communities we serve; the magnitude of food insecurity is affecting 286,536 households. We are fighting hunger by creating food access points. What began in Palm Beach County serving 200 families a week nonperishable in-kind food donation has since expanded.  Ninety-five percent of the people we serve live or reside in Palm Beach County while five percent live or reside in Martin and St. Lucie counties.  Martin and St. Lucie Counties in-kind food donations are received through our partnership with Farm Shares. In 2012 we moved into an in-kind warehouse facility that provides us with two industrial coolers for perishable in-kind food donations and 10,000 square feet of dry storage area for non-perishable in-kind food donations, our capacity of the number of people we serve has increased 20% every year. In 2021 we are tracking to serve 512,008 individuals and children suffering from food insecurity, positively impacting 170,670 households with in-kind food provision.  

RBI’s approach is unique as we help breach the gap between available nutritional food and access to said food.  The nonprofits we partner with do not have the means necessary to pick up food from local food banks. They lack finances, refrigerated trucks and refrigerated storage space; RBI is able, willing, and grateful to provide all of these. We remove any barriers between in-kind food donations and the individuals that need food access for a healthy, balanced diet.  Our staff, board of directors, and volunteer base contributes over 45,000 hours per year to help fulfill our mission, sorting in-kind food at our facility and preparing said food for pick up and/or delivery. Volunteer hours are not required to receive in-kind food but are welcomed. Our amazing 150 volunteers are going through difficult times, some are in recovery from addiction, on parole, out of work parents, all of them choosing to not discriminate against each other but to come together to create a positive impact against food insecurity; knowing that food insecurity does not discriminate.  Their insight and testimonies continue to increase our positive outcomes, resilience and strengthen our mission of helping to improve quality of life with nutritional food.

RBI is impacting hunger as we strive to provide in-kind food immediately.  Knowing that hunger pains will not just “go away” on their own, hunger can only be stopped with nutritional food.  We continue to communicate with the people we serve and our nonprofit partners we collaborate with to find more ways to bridge the gap between food insecure and access to in-kind food we receive.  Keeping communication lines open with others that are experiencing the hunger gap firsthand is helping to create more pathways to providing food and giving people hope.  RBI has taken this approach to mirror the heart and passion of Pastor Dan, that all people need food, and no one should go without daily nutritional provisions.  In the beginning of his mission, he helped as many as he could with what he had.  As we learn individually or as an organization of a food insecurity, we immediately want to stop the hunger crisis.  In 2015 we learned of a Senior Home Facility where very low-income elderly people had a lack of food, we began providing food that day and continue to deliver to this community weekly.  Scheduling in-kind food delivery or pick up can happen immediately.