2014-15 ANNUAL REPORT

REPORTCONTENTS

03PROGRAM IMPACT

04REAL CHANGE

05EDUCATION

06FINANCIALS

07OUR TEAM

THANK YOU

Our Fresh Access program enabled food stamp, credit,

and debit purchases of fresh local farm produce. In 2014, 3,000 shoppers spent $95,000 with 90

local vendors at 9 farmers markets.

HEALTHY FOODOur free tax preparation program completed over 2,700 income tax returns and refunded over $5.6 million to low-income

families, including $4.6 million in

tax credits.

INCOMEWe boosted access to critical public

bene�ts like SNAP/food stamps, cash assistance, and LIHEAP, helping 1,295 households (1,799 people) with food

stamp applications and bene�ts case

advocacy.

PUBLIC BENEFITS

KEEPING FOOD ON THE TABLE How Just Harvest Reduced Poverty and Hunger in Our Community in 2014-15

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COMMUNITY IMPACT

Minimum Wage, Subsidized Child Care, School Meals,Earned Income Tax Credit, Food Deserts, Healthy Corner Stores, Government Budget Priorities, Tax Fairness, Food Stamps, WIC,

Benefits Cliff, Summer Food, Payday Lending, Asset Tests, Voting, Barriers to Benefits, Sustainable Food Systems

7,905 VOLUNTEER HOURS 439 MEMBERS

1in7 people in Allegheny County have trouble putting food

on the table

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PROGRAM IMPACT

IMPROVING ACCESS TO FRESH, HEALTHY FOODOur leadership within the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council helped that coalition expand its visibility, hire its fi rst staff members, and advance its working relationships with city and county government. Twenty-two orga-nizations, educational institutions, and government agencies are now rep-resented on the Council. And we are partnering with the Allegheny County Health Department to implement an exciting Healthy Corner Store initiative to expand access to fresh fruits and vegetables for people living in food deserts.

ADVANCING CITY AGENDA ON FOOD & HUNGERJust Harvest joined fellow anti-hunger and food policy advocates in forging a powerful partnership with the City of Pittsburgh, reaping important results: ➢ The City is bringing new afterschool meals programs to its recreation centers and expanding and promoting its summer food program for children as part of a National League of Cities initiative. ➢ All Citiparks farmers’ markets will accept food stamps and other electron-ic transactions through Just Harvest’s Fresh Access program. ➢ City zoning changes will make it easi-er for residents to raise their own chick-ens, bees, and garden crops, thanks to leadership from Grow Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council.

CUTTING THROUGH PARTISAN GRIDLOCK IN HARRISBURGIn 2014, Just Harvest made exciting progress in engaging state Republican leaders on hunger- and poverty-related issues through our work with Indiana County Rep. Dave Reed. Now the House Majority Leader, Reed is devel-oping bi-partisan legislation to address the “benefi ts cliff ” – protecting people from losses of critical benefi ts as they move into low-wage jobs. After years of advocacy by Just Harvest and our allies to support access to education as a key to long-term self-suffi ciency, Republican Rep. Jim Christiana has introduced HB 934. The bill would give legislative authority to the KEYS pro-gram, which enables people to keep their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefi ts while pursuing a degree for up to two years.

BARRIERS TO BENEFITS PROGRESSThe PA Department of Human Ser-vices (DHS) continues to respond to our ongoing campaign for sorely-need-ed improvements to customer service. DHS is expanding availability of while-you-wait scanning and receipts for clients’ documents to cut down on lost paperwork and unnecessary delays in benefi ts. In addition, the improved Call Center is being closely monitored, with reports showing decreasing telephone wait times and fewer dropped calls.

PA ELIMINATES FOOD STAMP ASSET TEST Just Harvest along with our fellow anti-hunger advocates in Pennsylvania pushed Governor Tom Wolf to end the state’s resource test for food stamp applicants, which had unfairly blocked tens of thousands of households in need from receiving food stamps since being put in place by former Gov. Tom Corbett in 2012.

HEAT & EAT VICTORY FOR PA Last year Congress made major cuts in the “Heat-and-Eat” provision that en-ables states to boost some households’ food stamp benefi ts based on the share of their housing costs spent on heat. As those cuts took eff ect, Just Harvest and our advocacy partners throughout the state successfully persuaded the Corbett administration to use surplus energy assistance funds to maintain Heat-and-Eat in PA for 2014 and 2015.

ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

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We launched a re-branding campaign that emphasizes action and progress, builds on our history, and raised our public visibility.

REAL CHANGE

In early 2015, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey met with Just Harvest and other PA advocates, includ-ing Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, SWPA Food Security Partnership, Wit-nesses to Hunger/Drexel University, Central PA Food Bank, and Feeding Pennsylvania, and took our testimony to the Senate fl oor to oppose federal cuts to food stamps (SNAP).

PA Department of Human Ser- HEAT & EAT VICTORY FOR PA

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MEDIA IMPACT

28 newspaper and radio reports quoting Just Harvest staff

93 blog posts on our website

33%growth in Facebook followers

61%growth in Twitter followers

EDUCATION

FUEL 4 SCHOOL CAMPAIGNCommunity Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a new element of federal Child Nutri-tion Program rules that allows schools in high-poverty areas to serve free breakfast and lunch to all students. Through our partnership with the Congressional Hunger Center, Just Harvest hosted a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow to conduct research on and build support for local adoption of CEP. With grassroots support from allies including Southwest PA Food Secu-rity Partnership, A+ Schools, Family Support Centers, as well as input from focus groups, principals, and parents, we helped several school districts plan for CEP. In the fi rst school year for CEP, 86% of eligible schools in Allegheny County have adopted the provision, providing universal access to breakfast and lunch to over 41,000 students.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZINGIn 2014, Just Harvest maximized our community impact through policy trainings, building awareness, and grassroots engagement. We: ➢ Launched a Power Lunch policy round table series for local partner organi-zations including ACTION-Housing, YWCA, Allegheny County Dept. of Human Services, Helping Hands Min-istries (Circles Program), and Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank;➢ Gave presentations about the hunger problem to diverse student groups from fi rst grade to graduate schools;➢ Developed the training program for the United Way’s Money In Your Pock-et Coalition staff and volunteers;➢ Organized and mobilized our low-in-come clients and others for grassroots action.

CONNECTING WITH NEW GROUPSThanks to the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, our team includes three full-time AmeriCorps VISTA’s. With their help, we’ve developed new partnerships with Operation Safety Net, Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, and Allegheny Children’s Initiative to integrate our food stamp help into their services for homeless people, pre-viously incarcerated individuals, and families with disabilities. In our Fresh Access program, we’ve worked to make farmers markets more welcoming and accessible to new Pittsburghers. Local partners Casa San Jose and the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh translated our marketing materials into Spanish and Nepali and we acquired and distributed seeds for culturally appropriate produce for in-novative local farmers to plant and sell.

This year, Just Harvest has been part of 9 poverty simulations totaling over 600 participants from the McKeesport School District, Circles Program, East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, and Duquesne University School of Nursing.

Story-banking—key to dispelling myths about who goes hungry and why—grew by leaps and bounds this year with the addition of 27 client portraits, 14 stories, and a video.

A CENTER FOR ACTION EDUCATION FUND ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

REVENUE AND SUPPORTGrants $ - $408,696

Contracted Services $ - $17,500

Dues and contributions $38,030 $24,496

Fundraising Events and Other $45,270 $10,145

Total $83,300 $460,837

EXPENSESProgram Services $48,018 $327,789

Administrative and General $11,899 $35,579

Fundraising $7,411 $25,650

Total $67,328 $389,018

REVENUE AND SUPPORT EXPENSES

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FINANCIALS

Copies of Just Harvest’s official registration and financial information may be obtained from the PA Dept. of State by calling toll-free within PA (800) 732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIESFrom Audited Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2013.

Grants Contracted Services Dues and contributions Fundraising Events and Other

Program Services Administrative and General Fundraising

BOARD OF DIRECTORSSr. Barbara FinchPresident

Fran GrudenVice President

Mary Elizabeth McCarthySecretary

Alexander Carlisle Treasurer

Jeffrey AndersonPaulette BattistiSara BennettBarbara CoffeeJeannette HickmanSteven IrlbacherGabriel McMorlandTheresa Orlando

Thanks to Keith Caldwell whose term ended in the

past year.

STAFFEmily CleathCommunications Coordinator

Helen GerhardtFood Stamp Specialist

Rochelle JacksonPublic Policy Advocate

Ken MunzOperations Coordinator

Maria MuzzieGrassroots Organizer

Carla Payne-HarrisonFood Stamp Specialist

Ken RegalExecutive Director

Ann SandersVolunteer Coordinator

Emily SchmidlappFresh Access Coordinator

Heather SeidersOffice Manager

James TedrowFood Stamp Specialist

Kristie Weiland StagnoTax Campaign Coordinator

AMERICORPS VISTASJulia LauritzenKaitlan Mahoney

Dylan Molloy

EMERSON HUNGER FELLOWDavid Blount

INTERNSJoshua BermanBecky BollAlyson CaitoRishi ChebroluMaria EvansKristen HochreiterJillian MyersAnkur SakariaDawn Marie Smith

TAX STAFFSara BennettStephanie BennettMary Grace DianaEd HeathLauren HillBarbara JakabMarrissa JohnsonKellie KasbeeKe LiRena SaimotoVaughn Schmid Kathleen SheehanKay Tanney

Janet Willoughby

TAX INTERNSArturo DakotaSingh HarpritGuo LiPritchard StephenWu WeilunZhang WenwenLi Zijun

FUNDERSAllegheny County Bar FoundationBirmingham FoundationDepartment of Human ServicesFRACGiving2GrowHoward & Nell E. Miller FoundationMAZON: A Jewish Response to HungerNational League of CitiesNeighborhood AlliesPA Department of AgriculturePittsburgh Community KitchenPittsburgh FoundationState VoicesThe Pittsburgh FoundationUnited Jewish FederationUnited Way of Allegheny CountyUniversity of Pittsburgh - GSPIAUS Department of Agriculture

EVENT SPONSORSBNY Mellon Corp.Chatham UniversityCreditVest, Inc.Gateway Health PlanGENCOHighmarkHousing Authority of the City of PittsburghLouis F. Leeper CompanyPJ Dick & TrumbullPeoples Natural GasPNC BankPNC Financial Services GroupTeleTracking Technologies, Inc.United Steelworkers of AmericaUniversity of Pittsburgh - School of Social Work

UPMC Health Plan

MEMBERSJust Harvest is grateful for our 439 active mem-bers who donated over $50,000 in 2014. Your generosity, ranging from $5.00 to $2,500 makes our work possible.

VOLUNTEERSThank you to our 191 volunteers who donated 7,905 hours to make our work successful.

GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISERSBar Marco Food Truck RoundupChili’s East End Food CooperativeElevenFranktuaryTim Stevens Jazz Concert Waverly Presbyterian Church

Whole Foods

Just Harvest Education Fund is a proud a partner agency of the United Way of Allegheny County. The United Way’s Impact Fund enables us to expand and strengthen our efforts to help low-income people access the public safe-ty-net benefits they need.

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THANK YOU

To educate, empower, and mobilize the citizens of our community

toward the elimination of hunger and economic injustice in our

communities by infl uencing public policy, engaging in advocacy, and

connecting people to public benefi ts.

OUR MISSION

facebook.com/JustHarvest

twitter.com/JustHarvest

youtube.com/PAJustHarvest

16 Terminal WayPittsburgh, PA 15219

(412) 431-8960www.justharvest.org