| Form 990, Part VI, Line 11b: Form 990 Review Process |
The Form 990 is drafted by an outside CPA, and then reviewed and approved by management, in consultation with their outside bookkeeper, and by the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors. Before the return is filed, a copy is made available to each board member. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 12c: Explanation of Monitoring and Enforcement of Conflicts |
Officers, Directors, and staff are required to complete a Conflict-of-Interest disclosure form each year. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 15a: Compensation Review & Approval Process - CEO, Top Management |
The Executive compensation review and approval is based on research of comparable compensation and duties, is reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors, and their deliberation is contemporaneously documented in a semi-private log of the minutes of the Board of Directors. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 15b: Compensation Review and Approval Process for Officers and Key Employees |
Compensation for other officers and key employees is determined by the President/CEO using, among other objective criteria, a comprehensive survey and comparison of similar positions in other nonprofit organizations. |
| Form 990, Part VI, Line 19: Other Organization Documents Publicly Available |
Governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are maintained at the organization's corporate office and are available to the general public upon request. In addition, the audited financial statements are available at www.mazon.org. |
| Form 990, Part XII, Line 2: Change of Oversight or Selection Process |
The process has not changed from the prior year. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 1 - Organization's Mission (Continued) |
For more than 30 years, MAZON has been committed to ensuring that vulnerable people have access to the resources they need to be able to put food on the table. MAZON is a leading voice in the United States and in Israel, on anti-hunger issues, especially those that involve populations or problems that have been previously overlooked or ignored.MAZON recognized the importance of ensuring that food insecure Americans and Israelis have access to nutritious food now, while also working to develop and advance long-term solutions to hunger. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4a-Program Service Accomplishments(Continued) |
MAZON uses a number of strategies to accomplish its mission, including spotlighting overlooked issues. Working with and listening to its broad network of anti-hunger, social justice, and Jewish community partners, MAZON identifies overlooked issues and vulnerable populations and offers policy solutions that meet unmet needs. We spotlight these issues, elevating them to the level of national conversation and placing them on the national policy agenda.Education: MAZON works to educate key stakeholders, such as policymakers, partners, the public, and media, building new partnerships and coalitions where necessary and valuable to build awareness about hunger in America and Israel, bolster understanding about overlooked issues and populations, and engage the Jewish and anti-hunger communities in policy change work to address hunger.Advocacy: MAZON practices and promotes advocacy as a means for ensuring that all Americans have access to food in the short term, and that our nation adopts policies and practices that offer long term solutions to hunger. Our bipartisan advocacy work, through policymaker education and shaping legislation on the Federal and State levels, helps to ensure that government programs are responsive to every person in need of food assistance and to the unique barriers underserved populations face.Capacity building: MAZON provides funding, technical assistance, trainings, and other resources to nonprofit organizations in some of the most food insecure states in America, and throughout Israel, building leadership capacity within the anti- hunger and Jewish communities to participate in advocacy. MAZON's partners work at the local, state, and national levels to remove barriers to participation in food assistance programs and champion responsible government policies to prevent widespread hunger in the future.FY 2021 Highlights: Currently-Serving Military Families: For several years, MAZON has been leading the national effort to address hunger among currently serving military families on multiple fronts: pushing for data so that we can better understand the prevalence of the problem, proposing policy solutions to break down barriers and exploring ways that families can connect with available benefits. In December 2020, the New York Times covered the issue, quoting MAZON staff and research. Drawing on our decades-long expertise on this issue, MAZON released a new report this year, Hungry in the Military: Food Insecurity Among Military Families in the U.S. The report outlines key findings and makes recommendations for solutions to end hunger among currently serving military families, and has garnered significant media, policymaker, and philanthropic attention. For example, on May 27, 2021, Chairman Jim McGovern of the House Rules Committee held a member roundtable entitled Examining the Hunger Crisis Among Veterans and Military Families. Abby J. Leibman, MAZONs President & CEO, provided witness testimony. The Leading Voices in Food podcast out of Duke University recently featured a discussion about military hunger with MAZON Vice President of Public Policy, Josh Protas. And a recent Bloomberg article cited MAZONs military hunger report in its coverage of the issue. Advancing Food Security and Food Sovereignty in Indian Country: MAZONs third annual Jewish Clergy Justice Mission held virtually in November 2020 brought more than 75 members of the Jewish clergy from dozens of states together for learning and advocacy. One of the four main sessions was focused on our work and partnerships in Indian Country. From Erasure to Resilience: Food Security and Food Sovereignty in Indian Country featured Colby Duren, Director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, Crystal Echo Hawk, Executive Director of IllumiNative, and Maria Givens of the Native American Agriculture Fund, and was moderated by Mia Hubbard, MAZONs Vice President of Programs. In addition, as a part of Repair the Worlds Serve the Moment virtual volunteer initiative, MAZON staff led a three part training for participating Fellows on hunger in America. One of these three trainings was focused exclusively on Indian Country food security and sovereignty, introducing a new generation of Jewish volunteers to the unique needs and opportunities in Indian Country. The Biden Administration has made several historic appointments important to the visibility of Native communities chief among them Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), the first-ever Native cabinet official. In addition, also appointed are Zach Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Sioux) Administrator at USDAs Farm Service Agency, former Executive Director at the Intertribal Agriculture Council and, pending confirmation, Janie Simms Hipp, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, to serve as USDAs General Counsel. Ms. Hipp is a longtime partner and friend of MAZON, through her prior roles in the Obama administration, the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas, and the Native American Agriculture Fund. Among several others, these appointments signal an opportunity: MAZON has spent nearly a decade building trusted relationships with leaders in the fight to advance food security and food sovereignty in Indian Country. These leaders are now themselves in positions of power and influence and we have the opportunity, together, to consider proactive, systemic change. This shift applies not only to our Native partners who find themselves now in positions of power, but to other partners as well. MAZONs longtime partner, Stacy Dean, has been appointed by President Biden to serve as the Deputy Under Secretary for USDAs Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. In just the last few weeks, MAZON leadership staff held a high-level call with Ms. Dean and her staff, and elevated the priorities set by our Native partners priorities for which she had not had much visibility previously. Our position as a trusted partner to her carries significant weight, and so increases our capacity to add an issue to her, and USDAs, agenda. LGBT Seniors: In June of 2020, the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law released their study on the lived experiences of LGBTQ adults experiencing food insecurity, Were Still Hungry. MAZON funded a special section of the report focused on LGBTQ older adults age 50 plus. We are working now to build upon this research to build awareness of, and advance policy solutions to the unique barriers LGBTQ seniors experience in accessing food assistance. During 2020-21, MAZON Vice President of Programs Mia Hubbard was featured on CLEARs Finance Chat podcast about food insecurity in the LGBTQ community, as we work to build awareness of this particular population and the unique barriers its members experience in accessing food. Veterans: We continue our outreach and distribution of a PsychArmor training module on food insecurity, both through MAZONs robust networks and through our partner, PsychArmor Institute (PAI), whose training modules reach more than one million veteran service providers each year. In addition, we are working directly with the VA on a long-standing priority to ensure that information about food insecurity and safety net programs that can help alleviate it is included in the resources provided to service members transitioning into civilian life, including the Transition Assistance Program and the VA Welcome Kit. MAZON is further exploring partnership with the VA on a co-branded brochure aimed at veterans and service providers about SNAP, and potentially conducting further training on food insecurity and federal nutrition assistance programs for VA staff. In the wake of the pandemic in March 2020, MAZON quickly adapted its educational programming to a digital format, and has been offering a virtual, facilitated This Is Hunger experience to educators and communities across the nation. MAZON aimed to deepen these existing relationships and expand this reach in 2021. In the last year, MAZON has presented its facilitated, digital This Is Hunger experience to more than 40 synagogue, day school, and religious school groups, as well as established partnerships with organizations such as Repair the World. In November 2020, MAZON held its third annual Jewish Clergy Justice Mission, virtually. More than 75 Jewish clergy members joined MAZON for three days of learning and advocacy, including public events with Congressman Jim McGovern (MA) and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL), and more than 50 virtual meetings with Members of Congress and their staff to advance our anti-hunger priorities. In addition, MAZON is moving forward on building its Virtual Museum on Hunger (final name TBA). The content that will make up each exhibit has been researched and completed, and we have developed the format our virtual museum will take. |
| Form 990, Part III, Line 4a-Program Service Accomplishments(Continued) |
Military Hunger: The MAZON-crafted Military Family Basic Needs Allowance, a legislative solution to the long-ignored problem of military hunger, makes up the basis of the Military Hunger Prevention Act of 2021, bipartisan legislation introduced in both the House and Senate this year. MAZON is leading the charge with military service partners and anti-hunger advocates to build support for the inclusion of the bipartisan Military Family Basic Needs Allowance provision in the FY22 NDAA bill to provide temporary and targeted assistance to struggling military families. MAZONs advocacy is focused on ensuring that President Biden includes funding for the Military Family Basic Needs Allowance in his FY22 Budget Request, and that the House and Senate Armed Service Committees prioritize this provision in their FY22 NDAA bills. This targeted and temporary assistance program will be structured in a streamlined and efficient manner to eliminate common barriers to nutrition assistance including shame, stigma, and fear of retribution. In addition, MAZON is working to urge President Biden and USDA Secretary Vilsack to take administrative action to exclude the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) as income for all federal nutrition programs including SNAP, WIC, and free and reduced-price school meals, an oversight in the regulations that currently disqualifies thousands of struggling currently serving military families from food assistance. This would ensure that military families are not put at a disadvantage to civilian families, and they are not prevented from qualifying for assistance. Veterans: Early on, MAZONs veteran food insecurity work revealed a significant gap within the VA system: veterans were not routinely being screened for indicators of food insecurity, nor educated about benefits available to them, through the VA system. Because of MAZON advocacy, the VA committed to initiating a pilot program aimed at identifying food insecurity among veterans but limited the screening to only one question that is asked of all veterans at intake and included in those veterans electronic records. The pilot was initiated in 6 VA facilities, and the food insecurity screening tool was later integrated throughout VHA as part of the clinical reminder system. Results and data from these screenings have not yet been made publicly available, and there continue to be concerns that the single screening question might be leading to artificially low food insecurity data. MAZON now continues its focus to persuade the VA to expand the current one-question food insecurity survey to the two-question Hunger Vital Signs screening tool that has been validated as an instrument in a clinical setting and is actively utilized by the American Academy of Pediatrics. MAZON will continue to urge that it be used at all VA facilities, and that veterans identified as food insecure are appropriately referred to the correct support systems to receive assistance in applying to those programs for which they may be eligible ideally through on-site SNAP eligibility screening and application support. MAZON has been pleased to recently learn that VHA is planning to utilize the two-question Hunger Vital Signs screening tool in the clinical reminder system, which should help to more accurately identify veterans at risk of food insecurity. Work remains to be done for VA to adopt systemwide interventions most significantly, on-site SNAP eligibility screening and application assistance in response to veterans who screen positive for food insecurity. Capacity Building: By the end of our fiscal year, MAZON invested a total of $2.5 million in Emerging Advocacy Fund (EAF) grants, significantly exceeding our original capacity building goal. We are expanding our grantmaking this year to include organizations in two new states, Kansas and Oklahoma, thus bringing the EAF program's presence to 13 of the 15 most food insecure states in the nation. We provided an extra year of funding to 16 organizations that were scheduled to roll off the 3-year grantmaking program in June 2021. The additional funding is due to the lasting uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery. While these partners have sustainability plans, and many of those plans are close to fruition, EAF organizations tend to be primarily institutionally funded. As such, these groups did not see the same financial boost as hunger-fighting organizations with robust individual giving programs, even as they were an essential part of the effort to increase and maintain the public visibility of rising hunger in the pandemic. MAZON also made 8 grants through its Quick Reaction Fund to support unique and urgent policy change efforts in states across the U.S. |
Attach to Form 990 or 990-EZ.