After 15 years of rapid growth and expansion of services, EFN purchased its own facility in Northeast Minneapolis in 1992 (pictured at right is St. Louis Park facility discussed below). The new building had a 5000 square foot warehouse with one loading dock, three offices, and a conference room. “From a business perspective, it was more efficient for us to own our building, and with a warehouse on site, we had the ability to sort, pack, and load food orders for ourselves,” says John Mitchell, EFN’s Operations Manager.
EFN’s purchase of the Northeast Minneapolis building positioned it for growth and efficiency. In 1993, each member agency was represented on the EFN Board of Directors, and at that time, board action required a consensus vote, which often made the decision-making process time consuming and inefficient. Terry Hildebrandt, currently Twin Cities Social Services director for The Salvation Army, served on EFN’s Board of Directors from 1990-1999. “With everyone represented on the board, it was dysfunctional in a sense and difficult to accomplish anything,” he recalls. Hildebrandt was instrumental to the restructure of EFN’s board of directors.
Starting in 1993, EFN embarked on a two-year board restructuring process. “It took a couple years and a lot of meetings. We wanted everyone to understand that the restructure was for the benefit of EFN and not about gaining control or power.” The new board structure cut total members from 23 to 13, established majority voting for board action, and required that only 1/3 of the members represent EFN’s member agencies (while the other two thirds represent the business community, other non-profit community partners and social service agencies). “When new people came in, they brought new ideas and were willing to challenge the status quo. Before the restructure, we were losing our insight by not having other community members point of view,” Hildebrandt says.
Tim Barnes, who was hired as EFN’s Executive Director during the board restructure, saw the change as one of the driving forces behind EFN’s subsequent growth. “I believe that much of the growth we’ve experienced since then is a result of the restructure. The board has made sound business decisions and has been willing to take risks for the good of the organization and its members,” he says.
While still headquartered in Northeast Minneapolis, EFN made one of the largest strategic decisions in its history. In 1996, EFN opened up its service area outside Hennepin County for the first time. Many foodshelves beyond the borders of Hennepin County were struggling to make it on their own. “We were receiving so many calls from foodshelves outside Hennepin (County) requesting applications for membership to the EFN network. They needed the same services that we were already providing to the foodshelves in Hennepin County,” recalls Barnes. This significant expansion initially met with some resistance by EFN member agencies and their representative board members. “In discussing the move with our stakeholders, there were some foodshelves in Hennepin who thought they would receive less food. But our donors knew that there were hungry people in other surrounding counties that needed our help just as much. I added the necessary staff and expanded because it was the right thing to do,” says Barnes.
In order to support these new foodshelves with more than just free food, EFN again increased the number of foods available through its bulk-purchasing program. This expansion, in turn, spurred the need to purchase of another truck and hire more staff. Once EFN expanded outside Hennepin County, it quickly outgrew its Northeast Minneapolis facility. Plans were readily assembled to move to an even larger building.
EFN moved into a 20,700-square foot building in St. Louis Park, Min