Mobile Loaves & Fishes: A Case Study in Companion Marketing

In the summer of 1998, six parishioners of Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin, Texas founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called Mobile Loaves & Fishes. The idea was to form a social-outreach ministry by using trucks to distribute food to the homeless and indigent working poor. Now in its 11th year, the organization has grown from six members distributing 75 sack lunches one day a month in Austin to more than 10,000 volunteers providing food and clothing via 12 catering trucks in Austin, San Antonio, New Orleans, Providence, R.I. and Nashville, Tenn. every night of the week.