February 10, 2010

CVS/Caremark assembles 5,000 Hi Five Kids Packs

Author: Sasha Hausman

CVS/Caremark kicked off their annual conference with this Kids Backpack Assembly Volunteer event where they assembled 5,000 Hi Five Kids Packs.  These packs will go home with elementary school students on Friday afternoon who don’t have access to school cafeterias during the weekend. CVS/Caremark donated $10,000 that was used to provide the food bank with the resources to serve 900 students for the rest of the school year in two schools!

Without the support of corporate partners like CVS/Caremark our job would be much harder. Volunteers help us get food into the hands of needy families quicker and more efficiently. In today’s society there is a renewed spirit in helping fellow Americans. Feeding America is glad that CVS/Caremark show their spirit of giving through involvement with our organization and member Food Banks.  

Photo Slideshow:

Sasha Hausman
Events Specialist

February 2, 2010

Behind the Scenes of Hunger in Central Florida 2010: The Process

Author: Brady Koch

Every four years, all of the Feeding America food banks participate in the Hunger in America Study. On February 8th we will be holding a press conference and reception to share the Central Florida results. Click here to RSVP >>

The Study

The study is broken up into two parts. The first part is a questionnaire mailed to each of our Partner Feeding Programs. We have 530 partner agencies and it takes quite a bit of coordination keep track of who’s completed the survey and determine if it was a paper form or online.

The second part of the survey is much more resource intensive. We have to visit a random group of our agencies and then complete an 80 question survey with a random sample of clients from the people present. Because this is more work than we can accomplish with just staff, we rely almost exclusively on volunteers for the interview.

Once all of the surveys are complete, we turn them in to Feeding America to process the results. One year later, we get a really large email with our results and put together our Hunger in Central Florida 2010 books. It is a long process, but the information learned about local hunger is invaluable.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

January 7, 2010

New Year, New Program

Author: Brady Koch

Happy New Years!

Many of us have made a commitment to live a healthier life in 2010. For me, I’ll be involved in the Pound for Pound Challenge. For the food bank, it involves hiring a Nutrition Manager.   Next week I will begin to sort through all of the applications we’ve received for the new Nutrition Manager position we’re hiring at the food bank. This blog gives me the unique opportunity to include you in our program development process from design to implementation to evaluation.

 Before we begin any new program we complete a thorough research process that includes needs analysis, best practices studies, and pilot programs. One of the greatest benefits of our membership with Feeding America is access to the nationwide network of food banks throughout America. Combining ideas from the network and listening to the needs of our own agencies we are able to take this list of possible nutritionist tasks and whittle it down to a program with a specific strategic plan and outcomes. Here’s what we’ve determined to be our areas of focus for our Nutrition Manager:

•  Nutrition Education for Program participants: The food bank’s Strategic plan has an entire section devoted to our commitment to address the Childhood Obesity challenges faced specifically by children in food insecure households. Research continues to prove that children in low-income households consistently have a high rate of obesity. One of the main reasons for this is that the foods that are the healthiest happen to also be the most expensive. If the closest food store to your house is the gas station or convenience store, then your dollar is going to stretch even thinner. 
• Nutrition Analysis of our program food: Every year, about 10% of our food is acquired through our Power Purchase Center in order to provide participating agencies menu consistency. Our Nutritionist would be able to analyze the food we purchase and determine possible alternatives to make sure the items we can select for purchase is nutritionally optimal.

Like any of our programs, the Nutrition program will evolve with the community’s needs. It’s especially exciting to get the person in the position and see them run with the program that we’ve been honing for months. I’ll be sure to fill you in with another progress report once we hire the best candidate!

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs

October 30, 2009

On the Road: Sharing our Successes

Author: Brady Koch

This week I’m attending Feeding America’s Agency Capacity, Programs and Nutrition Conference.

It is always reinvigorating to meet up with over 400 food bankers from across the nation and share notes in a face to face format. On Tuesday I got to sit in a panel for new food bankers and share our experiences on Childhood Hunger programs, Hi-Five, Summer Feeding, and Kids Café.

It feels rewarding to be able to share all of our best practices with people that were in the same position I was in a number of years ago.

 On Wednesday, I had a presentation about the cutting edge practices we use in our Benefits Connection food stamp outreach program. This program has been an overwhelming success for us and after nonstop consultations with other food bankers; I’m down to my last business card.

Thursday Nitza Colon, our Benefits Connection Manager, had another presentation about our outreach program that instructed other food banks how to start their own food stamp programs. At the general session that afternoon the speaker from Feeding America said that “Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida has turned food stamp outreach into an art form.” I feel like Picasso now.

Our Childhood Hunger manager, Santos Maldonado, and I received a plaque thanking us for our work as mentors for the Hi-five Kids pack program.

Accolades like this and being asked to speak at events such as this remind me how great Second Harvest is and how many other hunger relief agencies nationwide look to us as leaders in our field.

There is a lot more to our work than a warehouse full of food. Each of our programs strategically tackles a specific facet of hunger that may otherwise not be addressed. Now that our batteries are recharged, we can’t wait to come back to Orlando and implement some of the new ideas we’re learning about.

Holiday season’s one of the busiest times at Second Harvest and we’re ready to hit the ground running. If you’re interested in learning about any of our programs please feel free to contact me or anyone on my team.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs
bkoch@foodbankcentralflorida.org

October 13, 2009

Feeding the Community One Day at a Time

Author: Maria Diestro

I would like to share a testimony written by Andy Kimpel. I hope his story inspires you as much as it did me!

Maria Diestro
Online Services and Communications Manager  

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Feeding the Community One Day at a Time by Andy Kimpel

I work for a pallet company based in Orlando called CHEP. Why is that important you ask? Well, it’s where My Story really begins. I got involved with food banking a few years ago when I was asked to coordinate our company’s interaction with the national food bank organization called Feeding America.

At CHEP, our pallets help transport millions of pounds of food products every day and the link to food banking was, and is, a very logical one. However, I had no idea what food banking was or how it worked. I had even less knowledge about who was getting food assistance or how prevalent hunger was in my own community.

Literally hundreds of volunteer hours later, I now have a much deeper understanding of food banking and how necessary it is, especially in times like these. I have gone from relatively zero engagement to almost daily activity locally with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and nationally with the Feeding America team in Chicago.

I’ve found that the more I help, the more I want to help. SHFB of Central Florida is a member of the Feeding America network that includes 200 other food banks around the country. This insight at multiple levels is rare for someone outside of food banking operations and a better knowledge of the entire food bank supply chain gives me the ability to help even more effectively.

The local work I am doing has a direct impact on our community’s future. I have recruited friends and family into this effort and we know we are changing lives every day. Food helps people perform better in school and work, create new opportunities and provide hope in tough times. Food is a basic requirement for our survival and I believe we all need to work to ensure that everyone gets their fair share. It’s not about being righteous or moral or political or even having a higher purpose. Sometimes it is simply about helping someone to survive until tomorrow. That’s as basic as it gets. Helping people right here in Orlando is a big plus for my family and I. For us, this cannot be more of a win-win situation. By helping locally, I am actually improving my family’s quality of life by improving conditions in our schools and supporting our local economy.

At the national level, I am able to help coordinate truckload shipments of food into various food banks. I help food manufacturers and distributors understand how easy it is to donate and how we can all work to end hunger across the U.S. I also help numerous food banks across the country with the flow of goods and provide suggestions on how they can work most efficiently with food donors and with CHEP.

Most people reading this will never have to worry about where their next meal will come from. But thousands of people in our area will. And do. The current economy has boosted local food assistance needs up by 400 percent in some areas and I feel compelled to help. I’m not a banker, but maybe food assistance helped someone get their bills paid this month. I’m not a teacher, but maybe I helped someone pass the FCAT last spring. I’m not a doctor, but maybe I helped save a life today. All those maybes drive my efforts at the food bank.

Volunteering with SHFB of Central Florida has opened my eyes and made me aware that hunger is right here in our backyard. It has shown me that 24 percent of the people getting food assistance are children who need it to grow and thrive and keep our community moving forward. I have been given the opportunity to help solve the hunger problem and it is a really good feeling. That’s why I keep going back for seconds.

Article by Andy Kimpel
Posted by InsightMagazine