Ballantyne Families Helping Neighbors in Need (BFHNIN) is a grassroots, 501c3 organization that was born out of COVID when schools shut down. Concerned for children who depend on school breakfast and lunch, one local mom led a few food drives. This led to a realization that there was a large need for food assistance and that many in our community were willing, able, and energized to give.

Since 2020, we have grown and expanded to help more Ballantyne families facing food insecurity, by providing support at Thanksgiving, Winter holidays, Spring Break, and Summer with bags of food, grocery gift cards, encouraging notes from the community, and opened our first food pantry at Community House Middle School. All of the families who we support either work or attend one of the 11 public schools* in the Ballantyne area and are identified by the school counselors/social worker. To date, we have given support to over 13,000 people by providing over 4,400 bags of groceries, $350,000 in grocery gift cards and 1000s of encouraging notes from the community.

We feel so honored to be able to give back to our local community, but there are still many families facing food insecurity who need our help! Did you know that 1 in 5 students in the 11 Ballantyne area public schools that we support are eligible for free or reduced lunch?

Whether you are an individual, family, group, neighborhood, or corporation, there are many ways that you can help and support our local Ballantyne community through BFHNIN.