High fuel prices ate up more of food banks' revenue.

Something unexpected happened when Larry Jones, president and founder of Feed the Children (FTC), went to pay after filling up one of the charity's semi-tractor trailers. The bill, in excess of $1,000, astounded the station owner, and as Jones would say, the owner notched up his compassion gauge.

"He said, 'It's on me,' and he gave me the fill-up," said Jones, at the station that day in 2005 to shoot a promotional television spot for FTC. "He didn't understand the impact on us until he saw it, even though he sold gasoline for a living."

High fuel prices were largely to blame during 2005 for the skyrocketing expenses at food relief charities--organizations that rely heavily on transportation.

The tsunami in Asia during late 2004 routed millions of pounds of goods overseas. An increase in the number of jobless Americans meant more hungry people in the United States. And for charities with fiscal years than ran into late 2005, there were hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

Still, Oklahoma City-based FTC, along with America's Second Harvest (ASH) and Food for the Poor, managed to bring in substantial funds during FY 05, each earning a spot in this year's NPT Top 100.

According to Jones--whose fleet of 55 trucks consumed nearly $2.5 million in fuel during FY 05, up by $665,907 compared to FY 04--cost increases hit FTC hard. "That's money we could have used to feed hungry children," said Jones. FTC owns and operates one of the largest charity-run, for-profit trucking companies in the U.S., FTC Transportation, Inc.

The charity's combined FY 05 revenue dropped considerably from the year prior, from $960 million in FY 04 to $850 million. While cash donations were up, gifts in-kind fell from $866 million to $745 million.

Three of FTC's major corporate contributors pulled out during FY 05. Jones, who would only say that the companies were dealing with financial difficulties, estimated FTC was out $107 million in food donations from that loss. FTC lost another $200 million in food and medical supplies, said Jones. "We're forever out there doing what we do, and then sometimes it just doesn't happen."

ASH, the nation's largest food bank, saw continued growth during FY 05. The charity's revenue grew from $489 million in FY 04 to nearly $551 million. Its in-kind grew from $452 million to surpass $507 million.

Michael Halligan, senior vice president, food sourcing and logistics, attributed the growth to the organization's nationwide network of 208 food relief organizations. Said Halligan, "When donations are down in one part of the country, we can help offset that because they might be up in another part. Of course, we have to do that in the context of donor stewardship."

According to Halligan, fuel price increases impacted ASH, along with other changes within the transportation industry and greater insurance costs due to bio-terrorism concerns. "It made our job a little bit more complicated and a little bit more expensive to deal with," said Halligan, who said transportation and processing costs increased by $900,000 to hit $8.7 million in FY'05. A2H hires commercially or utilizes trucks owned by network members.

The charity's disaster response increased from 4 million pounds distributed to more than 7 million pounds. Halligan said the increase was in response to the rash of hurricanes that hit Florida in the fall of 2004. The charity would see its disaster response increase eightfold during the next year, due to Hurricane Katrina. Those numbers factor into FY 06.

Overall, ASH has seen continued growth. The charity hired new staff, ramped up its fundraising, and witnessed an average 7 percent compounded growth rate in product donations during each of the last four fiscal years, said Halligan.

"The problems that we have (in the U.S.) tend to be magnified in the developing nations," said Angel Aloma, executive director of Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based Food for the Poor (FFP), which works mainly in the Caribbean and Latin America. "So yes, the people are hungrier. Yes, the poverty level has gone down in almost all the countries that we deal with--gone down in a negative sense."

FFP grew significantly during FY 05 (Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 30, 2005)."The whole mood of the country was, of course, to help our own neighbors, and our donors responded with beautiful generosity," said Aloma, who said Hurricane Katrina showed Americans, both directly and via media coverage, "what it felt like to live as a Third World person."

FFP reported revenue of $782 million during FY 05, up from $643 million, and received in excess of $703 million in Gifts in-kind, up by $130 million over FY 04. But just as the charity was given, the charity doled out in the form of 217 containers for tsunami relief, valued at $66 million. To aid victims of hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, FFP sent 220 containers, or $16 million.

The charity shipped 5,852 containers in 2004 at a cost of $10,395,497. In 2005, the cost to ship approximately 5,000 containers was nearly $15 million, meaning that per container there was a 65-percent cost increase.

"We had to get really efficient in our buying to be able to counter that," said Aloma. "Even though our cash income has increased over last year, because of the increase in gas prices and how it affected shipping and distribution we tended to see more need for cash this year than before."