Our target in every community we serve is to grow program access to 25% of the local workforce. That number isn't arbitrary. Once a market reaches that level of saturation, something important happens. The program stops depending on constant outreach and relationship building from our team, and instead becomes a self sustaining part of the local financial landscape.

What happens in the gap between a paycheck and an emergency? For a lot of workers, that gap gets filled with credit card debt, a payday loan, or a missed bill. Rhino Foods Foundation had two recent conversations centered on that question and the work we are doing to support employees through it: a podcast conversation and a feature article, both focused on the Income Advance Program.

Every market we've grown into, we've gotten there because local champions did the work of making the program fit. They know the community's needs, hold the relationships, and open doors so the program gets designed with intention rather than dropped in from outside. Chicago is the clearest example yet of that model at work.