About Gilman's
State Food Bank

Irvin Gilman founded his food bank in the fall of 1970. A social science major in college at the time, Irvin's summer job at the local grocery supermarket served as the inspiration to create a food bank. Witnessing the amount of food simply discarded at the end of a day in the modern grocery industry, spurred him into action, trying to salvage the food for people in need rather than waste it. The idea of a food bank was first put to use in Arizona a few years earlier. When Irvin came across an article describing the innovation in Arizona as part of his studies, he was enthused to implement a similar solution in his hometown as well.

After graduation, Irvin devoted all of his energies to turning his food bank into a reality. He fought for government grants and solicited corporate donations until he had the capital needed to open the operation. Starting modestly, Gilman's initially focused on connecting the bread, milk, and other perishables left on the shelf at the end of the day with soup kitchens and other charitable causes.

With the completion of the warehouse in the spring of 1973, Gilman's Food Bank became a trail blazer in the local charity world. Utilizing the warehouse to perfect a system of networking and distributing, Gilman's now stands strong at the core of the state's non-profit anti-hunger work. By working with grocery chains, organizing food drives, securing substantial sponsorships for overhead costs, and coordinating the transfer of goods, Gilman's supplies food distributors and soup kitchens across the state.

Irvin Gilman invested his time and energy in this project as pure volunteer work and never took a penny for his services. He did, however, use his experiences in the non-profit field to author his book The Science of Fighting Hunger, and eventually earn a tenured position as the head of the Social Sciences department at the local university. Irvin, his wife Sandra, their two sons Alex and Stephen, along with grandchildren, come to the food warehouse regularly; volunteering to help this successful charity continue its invaluable work.