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

March 22, 2010

Agency Spotlight – Calvary Outreach Center

Author: Erin Gray

We couldn’t accomplish our mission of fighting hunger in Central Florida without our partner agencies. The majority of our partners are food pantries of various types and sizes.

Calvary Outreach Center in Winter Park is one of our larger Food Pantries that serve around 2000 people a month.  Recently Calvary Outreach Center moved their location to the church grounds at Calvary Assembly.

The new location gives them a lot more room for their pantry and counseling services. They have also built a class room attached to the building, which they plan on using to teach their clients that use the pantry’s services.

Calvary is hosting the “Money for Food” course that the ADEPT program is offering.  Hosting the classes for his clients is helping them develop the new ways to stretch their food dollar even further.

It is great that Calvary is so willing to partner with us in new ways, beyond distributing food to the clients.

 

Every time we visit Calvary, Pastor Clint Wallace has some new data to share with us. Here’s his latest update:

“From 2005 thru 2009, thanks to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, Calvary’s Outreach Center and Transitions Ministry distributed 12,464 family bags of food, 13,494 homeless bag lunches, 9,177 hot lunches, and 1,982 thanksgiving turkeys .

With the average meal weighing 1.5 pounds, we estimate that in those 5 years, Calvary’s Outreach Center & Transitions Ministry distributed 74,505 pounds of food, translating to over 37 tons. Without Second Harvest we would have only distributed around 9 tons of food.”

Calvary Outreach Center, and all of our Partner Agencies are doing such a wonderful job in the fight against hunger in Central Florida.

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager

March 12, 2010

From the Food Bank to the Moon (and back!)

Author: Brady Koch

Last week managers in our operations department met offsite to review our progress for the year. Responsibly distributing food to all of our partner agencies is a sophisticated process and it’s important that we have these check-ups between staff occasionally.

One statistic that surprised me was the amount of product our Power Purchase Center has provided to agencies since 2005.  Power Purchase provides nonprofit feeding programs with access to needed food and other items that are rarely donated by our corporate food donors. 

Second Harvest Food Bank purchases these items in volume, and passes the savings along to our partners. Having these products available as an option helps to save our agencies a little more money, while eliminating their need to leave our facility and go to wholesale clubs or other sources to get the items they need.

15% of the 21 million lbs we distributed last year came from the Power Purchase Center. In addition to food, we carry non-food items that are difficult for our agencies to get donated for their clients.

Since 2005, our purchase program has distributed enough toilet paper, that if you unrolled it, it would go to the moon and back. I’m sure NASA would appreciate our analogy.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

March 9, 2010

Safe Food Handling

Author: Brady Koch

Nothing is more important at Second Harvest than ensuring that the food we provide is safe for consumption.  There are numerous ways that food can become unsafe throughout its life including improper storage, handling of food and contamination.

In an effort to combat these risk factors, each of our Partner Agencies is required to attend a Safe Staff Food Handler Certification Program. This training is developed by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and is the same training that is required by Florida law for public food service workers to complete.

The training is administered by a Florida Certified Professional Food Manager, who is also a staff member. The contents of the training address such topics as cleaning and sanitizing, controlling pests, food borne illnesses and the importance of personal hygiene.

The certification is valid for three years at which time the course must be repeated. By providing our Partner Agencies with basic food safety training we hope to provide them with as many preventative techniques as possible to minimize food safety risks and ensure the health and safety of the clientele receiving our food.

written by:
Whitney James, ADEPT & Special Projects Manager

February 24, 2010

Produce to the People

Author: Erin Gray

On January 30th, Second Harvest Food Bank and New Covenant Church participated in our Produce to the People Program. Through this partnership with New Covenant Church, we were able to provide more food to individuals in Orange County on this day. Since the church is located in a part of East Orange County where there are few food pantries, the food distributed was made available to many that normally would not receive it.

This was our sixth Produce to the People mobile drop that we have enlisted our partner agencies to be a part of. With this program, Second Harvest Food Bank drops off ten pallets of fruits, vegetables and bakery items at a mobile location. These items usually have a short shelve life span or are perishable. 

The majority of the produce we received was from the gleaning that the Society of St. Andrews volunteers collected. New Covenant Church received two pallets of potatoes and three pallets of oranges that were recently gleaned from farms. The remaining pallets for the agency’s distribution were two pallets of bottled juice and four pallets of assorted bread and bakery products.  

700+ families showed up at New Covenant for the normal Saturday distribution only to find that there were an additional 11 pallets of fresh items waiting for them to take home. Both New Covenant Church and its clients were extremely happy to be receiving this additional food.

Because of our Partnership with our Partner Agencies, donors and people like Society of St. Andrews, we were able be a part of the Fight to End Hunger.

Slideshow:

Erin Gray
Agency Relations Manager