Archive for the 'Agency Partner Profiles' Category

June 23, 2010

2010 Customer Service Survey: Identifying Opportunities to Build Capacity

Author: Brady Koch

I continue to review the responses that have been returned for the Customer Service Survey and want to share more results with you.

One of the main reasons we have our ADEPT program is to provide our agencies with opportunities to learn more about building the sustainability and outreach of their agencies. In order to assess our focus areas we asked you what was your biggest barriers to distributing more food.

Here’s the results:

Question 9: What are some of the issues that limit the amount of food you receive from Second Harvest?

All the Time= 1
Sometimes = 2
Rarely= 3
Never= 4

Transportation                                     3.15

Volunteer/Staff Availability                    3.18

Fundraising/Revenue shortfalls              2.54

Lack of dry storage space                    3.01

Lack of refrigerator/freezer space          2.83

Availability of appointment times           3.28

Warehouse hours of operation              3.46

 

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

June 15, 2010

Customer Service Survey 2010: Client Frequency

Author: Brady Koch

We’ve just completed our Customer Service Survey of our 600+ partner feeding programs. We use this tool to evaluate our service to the feeding programs who access our warehouse. It helps us make certain that we’re acting as good stewards to all of the donations that the community provides to us.

There was so much participation, that the amount of data we have to sort through is amazing. Over the next couple of blog entries, I’ll share with you some of the results of our survey so that everyone can benefit from the project.

When a new agency joins the food bank they often times ask how often they should distribute food. We encourage these new feeding programs to contact some of our veteran partner agencies to find a distribution frequency that is best for them.

We would hope that all of our partners have a sustainability plan that makes certain that they are able to fight hunger in the long run. Overall we encourage them to set some kind of limit so as not to overburden your volunteers and budgets.

Here’s what the results of our survey told us:

Question 4a: How often can clients come to your pantry?

Once per month                      38%
Once per week                        23%
Twice per month                      12%
As Needed                              10%
Once every two months             4%
Other                                      13%

Look for more survey results in the coming weeks.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

June 10, 2010

My Volunteer Experience at Jewish Family Services

Author: Greg Higgerson

Today I had the privilege of getting my hands dirty and working up a sweat as a volunteer at the Dave Pearlman Food Pantry at Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando (JFS).  

To take nothing away from the fine work of the more than 600 partner feeding programs to whom our Food Bank distributes food each year in Central Florida, I have always been enormously impressed with the work of JFS.   Led by a true humanitarian, Barry Kudlowitz, this caring group of staff and volunteers provide a place where people in crisis can get some relief.   

And not just food relief.  JFS provides a wide range of services designed to help people ‘cover their bases’ on a number of important fronts.  This kind of help is very often all a person needs to get back on his/her feet and move forward in life.

I arrived not really knowing what to expect, but quickly learned the ropes from a true veteran of JFS; a 21-year old young man named Eton (say “Ay-tahn”).  Eton has been volunteering since he was 12—that’s not a typo.  He was very knowledgeable, and explained the mixture of foods I would be packing into brown paper grocery bags.  The system was very well-thought out and organized.  Together we prepared a dozen or so bags of food, and Eton’s shift came to a close.  He bid me farewell, and left me to fend for myself.  

 After only a few minutes, the first intercom buzzer went off and a voice on the wall said “I need two sets plus government.”  That meant two sets of the normal “two bag” portion for families, plus some of the USDA government commodity food they had on hand.  Each bag also contained some frozen protein (chicken or beef) and frozen bakery products.  I quickly hustled these items to the lobby in a shopping cart, where a young couple with a baby were waiting.  With many thanks from them, I helped carry their bags to the car.  

As I returned to the pantry room, I reflected how bare the shelves of the small room seemed.  JFS’s van driver, Jerry, picks up a vanload of food once a week (on Thursdays) from Second Harvest Food Bank to restock the shelves.    Around noon, the weekly bounty arrived.  I helped Jerry unpack approximately 3,000 pounds of canned vegetables, fruits, soups, stews, pastas, frozen meat and fish, noodles, cereal.   

While he worked to re-stock, I was called upon several more times for bags to the lobby.  I was struck by how “normal” and everyday folks the people who received the food were.  And also by how grateful they were to receive the help.

I went back to packing more bags.  Remembering what Eton had taught me about packing each bag earlier in the day, I found myself almost desperate in my temptation to break the rules and add a few more cans, a few more boxes, a little more meat to each of the bags I was packing.  In my head I knew that doing so would deplete the pantry more quickly than they could replenish it, but my heart wanted to do it just the same.  I decided to respect the rules so that the food could last.   (Note to self:  This community needs LOTS MORE donated food!)

I walked away appropriately tired, and greatly moved.  I was grateful to experience a small part of the incredible work that happens at JFS on a daily basis. My sincere thanks to Barry Kudlowitz, Adrienne Cooperman, Marni Chepenik, Es Cohen, Karen Broussard, Jerry the driver, Eton, and all the JFS staff for their caring work and for making me feel valuable today. 

Keep up the good work, guys!

Greg Higgerson
VP of Development

May 26, 2010

Volunteer Day

Author: Sasha Hausman

One of the many things I love about working at Second Harvest is that every employee is given a day to volunteer at one of our amazing partner agencies. A couple weeks ago Maria Diestro and I had the pleasure of visiting the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida to take a tour, learn more about the organization, and of course to help out!

Marty Vevera, the Coalition’s Director of Volunteer Services, showed us around the different facilities and told us more about who they serve and how they do it. We learned that the folks at the Coalition are not only providing a safe place to sleep at night for Central Florida’s homeless … but they also provide  job training, counseling, and learning skills for the little ones. Of course they are also supplying hot meals that either come from gracious volunteer groups, or straight from Second Harvest Food Bank’s distribution center!

After the great tour, Maria and I were put to work … if you could call it that. We had the pleasure of playing with the most adorable children at the Coalition’s Day Care. These children live at the Coalition while Mom or Dad are either busy learning new vocational skills, or working. Maria took the toddlers out to the playground and had a great time playing gas station attendant to all the kids in their play cars. While she was running around outside, I was hanging out with a beautiful 3 month old baby who was just born at the Coalition.

I couldn’t believe how many kids live at the Coalition. When you think about who is homeless, I definitely would not have pictured a sweet and innocent 3 month old baby girl. The average child at the Coalition is 6 years old. It is important to know that these children and their families receive help from the Coalition each and every day. I am proud and honored to say that Second Harvest Food Bank is able to provide food and other resources so the Coalition can spend money on other things like beds, diapers, and new toys for that awesome day care!

Maria and I also finished putting the last minute touches on their successful golf fundraiser and called it a day. Believe me … we were tired! But so happy that we were able to see the good work the Coalition is doing!

Want to know more ways you can help not only the Coalition, but all of our 600 partner agencies? Click here to learn more about ways to get involved.

pictures:

 
Talk to you soon!

Sasha Hausman
Events Specialist

May 3, 2010

Second Harvest Holds First Agency ADEPT Conference

Author: Erin Gray

Last week we held our first ever Agency ADEPT Conference and we had it located in Volusia County at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, we had about 30 people in attendance. 

I thought I would give my perspective of the day.  There were 9 different classes offered by the staff at Second Harvest.  The classes I had taught were Perfect Pantry and Non Profit Ethics. 

I had about a dozen people in each class and we talked about how to run a pantry and what we look for when we are monitoring and when we accept new agencies.  In the ethics class we talked about general ethics and then I went over our Memorandum of Agreement (which is our contract for our partner agencies) to help them understand it and helped relate it to the topic of ethics.  

In addition to my classes we offered two nutrition courses and even a class on how our agencies can start their own blogs and Twitter accounts.

The entire day was a lot of fun and filled of so much energy with the staff members from Second Harvest and from the volunteers and staff from our Partner Agencies.  From talking to the different agencies and staff it seemed like it was a huge success and we look forward to bringing this concept to the different agencies that we work with in the different Counties in the future.  I was happy to be a part of the very first one that we had.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager