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MINNIES FOOD PANTRY

Diego Loredo, Alexander Kelly, Haley Kilman, Joshua


Knopp, and Ashlyn Levesque

JOUR 3410
Communications Audit

Organizational Goal
Minnies Food Pantrys goal is to buy food at subsidized rates to provide healthy, nutritious
meals and the red carpet treatment to every person served in the community.

The solution is obvious; If you cant feed 100 people, then feed just ONE. It is the
slogan of Minnies Food Pantry.

Mission
One of the few food pantries in the suburbs of Dallas, Minnies Food Pantry is driven to
continually help those in need in any way they can. Minnies partners with local churches in the
area by doing food drives that will be donated to the pantry. Every Saturday, they have a food
drive with volunteers where citizens are asked to bring in any food they can donate. Yet, their
biggest event happens around Thanksgiving. The food pantry has 150 volunteers who help
citizens get the necessary food and trimmings for a Thanksgiving dinner that they would not
normally have. But, at the end of the day, the goal for Minnies Food Pantry is to provide healthy
free food to needy families in the community.

History
In 2008, Cheryl Jackson decided that she wanted to be a part of the solution for hunger in
America, and she wanted to emulate her mother in the process. Growing up, Jacksons mother,
Minnie Ewing, was a strong member in the community, always helping by distributing food and
clothes to those less fortunate. Yet, it was almost laughable to open a food pantry in the City of
Plano, one of the most affluent cities in Texas. Yet, Jacksons attitude then is now the rallying

cry and slogan for Minnies Food Pantry (founded on April 1, 2008), which is If you cant feed
100 people, then Feed just ONE. On their first day of operation, they were only able to serve
three families. Through one month, they had helped feed 52 families. But through hard work and
determination and a drive to help, they have helped feed 165,000 Texans and have distributed
over 3.9 million meals. They now provide food to nearly 4,000 people per month. Along the
way, they have garnered celebrity help and attention from stars such as Super Bowl champion
Emmitt Smith and celebrities Martha Stewart and Kevin Bacon. Minnies is now one of the
leading food pantries in Collin County. Having helped the community through a tough recession,
Jackson and Minnies Food Pantry are ready to go into the future with a full head of steam.
Board of Directors include:
Steve Kemp Chairman
Pastor Bryan Stamper Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church
Joe Eiffer Welchs Corporation
Cheryl Jackson Founder
Tom Chambers President, Surfacing Products International
Kathy Light President of Kathy Light International
Kristina Riley Treasurer, Senior Director, Strategic Sourcing, Carlson Restaurants
Awards:

Minnies Food Pantry featured on the national entertainment show OMG!Insider


Minnies Food Pantry featured on the Food Network Channel Hunger Hits Home
documentary
Minnies Food Pantry appears on The Steve Harvey Show and Hillshire Farm donates
$25,000 in products
President Cheryl Jackson receives FOX4 Clarice Tinsleys Hometown Hero Award
Minnies Food Pantry receives $15,000 from Martha Stewart
Minnies Food Pantry is voted #1 Charity in DFW by Dallascityvoter.com
Minnies Food Pantry receives award from U.S. House of Representatives by U.S.
Congressman Sam Johnson.
Cheryl Jackson receives Plano Community Forum 2012 Civic Award for outstanding
service in the community.
Cheryl Jackson receives Chris Bosh Recognition Award Allstar weekend courtesy of
Chris Bosh, P. Diddy, and others.
Huffington Post: Cheryl Action Jackson chosen as Greatest person of the day

Minnies Food Pantry appears on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer
Cheryl Action Jackson, President of Minnies Food Pantry Television Appearances:
o Dr. Oz
o Good Morning America
o Good Morning Texas
o The Marriage Ref
o The TALK
o DEAL OR NO DEAL
o WFAA Fox 4
o CBS news

Target Audiences

Donors: Needed to donate money, healthy and non-perishable food, and time through
volunteering

Potential Families: Brand awareness to increase donations and volunteers

Media: Brand awareness/Easy and secure access to make donations

Education Reformers: Brand awareness/Donations/Volunteers

Business Leaders: Potential partnerships or sponsorship through donations

Community Leaders: Potential partnerships or sponsorships through donations

Local and surrounding ISDs: Potential partnerships/Donations

Key Messages
The key message of Minnies Food Pantry seems to be one about raising awareness for hunger,
and that one out of six children in America are malnourished. Their programs and manner also
have themes of individual importance they have a red carpet at the pantry for those receiving
help to walk on, and one of their programs focuses on bringing special food in for Thanksgiving.

Channels
Minnies Twitter page is one that does not tweet regularly and any tweets that do show up is
from their Facebook page. The Twitter page is bland and does not show much, like it is being

operated by a robot. The Facebook page is much better, featuring plenty of images and posts that
are actually unique and tied to the time they were posted, but posts are rather infrequent.
Minnies also has a newsletter and a blog tied to their website, though this is updated
inconsistently. Minnies hired an outside firm to do a PR audit for them recently, though their
assessment is unknown and it is unclear whether Minnies has followed their advice.

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)


Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Clear message and goal

Very weak Twitter page

Shows that it clearly helps the community

Lack of social media knowledge

Has won numerous awards

Not much interaction online

Opportunities:

Threats:

Educate schools about hunger in America and

Similar food pantries

getting students involved

Unhappy donors

Hire social media manager


Get more sponsors in Plano and DFW area
Expanding volunteer base
Getting city involved as a whole

List of Competitors

Gods Food Pantry

Seven Loaves Community

A Christian Food Pantry & Thrift Store

Allen Food Pantry

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