Food Bank of the Southern Tier



Food Bank of the Southern Tier

Agency Advisory Board

Minutes

August 12, 2016

Present: Kathy Greene, Addison Community Food Pantry; Nancy Myers, Lansing Food Pantry; Ruth Williams, Tompkins Community Action; Laurie Ellis, CC Tioga/Tioga Outreach; Mike Leahey, CHOW; Tina Sauter, Christian Hope Center; Kelly Cook, Fidelis; Kerm Bossard, TOI Spencer VanEtten Community Food Cupboard; Matt Griffin, FBST; Lyndsey Lyman, FBST; Vickie Steck, FBST; Bethany Britton, FBST; Elisa Bernardo, FBST; Brittany Popovich, FBST/JSY intern

Welcome

The meeting was called to order at 11:09 am

• Review & approval of June meeting minutes- Motion for approval Kerm B.; Ruth W. seconded, all in favor. Motion carried.

Review & Updates

• Warehouse/Food Acquisition –

• Dave and Missy unable to attend meeting due to vacations and being short-staffed in the warehouse. Lyndsey reported no updates from Dave/Tim.

• Lyndsey: How is produce distribution going? Most members agreed they are seeing an increase in produce and majority of clients appreciate more produce. Some reported needing to be extremely generous due to large tote sizes, which the Food Bank encourages. Cold storage was identified as a barrier to taking as much produce as some pantries would like to. Some agencies are also getting produce from local farmers outside of the Food Bank. Preservation was raised and Elisa has provided preservation resources (see handout: Preserving Food, Freezing Vegetables). In addition, Matt provided the USDA Preserving Food fact sheet.

• Advocacy & Education-

• Lyndsey: Randi on vacation; Jen Bertron’s update on summer food- every county will have a debrief meeting sometime in the Fall (Sept-Nov); if anyone is interested in attending, FBST can connect you; the meeting will be about 2 hours. Laurie: Tioga County meeting is August 24th. Lyndsey: Agencies can use meeting information to start planning for Summer 2017; groups will start meeting every month from January to June.

• Matt: funds come from grants for FBST to pay for parents to eat with children at Chemung County summer food sites, since Chemung County does not pay for adults to participate in children programs. Lyndsey: Folks facilitating SFSP in Chemung County may start a parent advisory board to make decisions about feeding parents that come with children to SFSP sites. A question was raised about funding meals for parents in other counties. Mike L. and Kerm B. both mentioned approaching local financial institutions provide financial assistance for these programs. Kelly suggested Fidelis might be able to sponsor some of the adult meals, will get representative in touch with Tioga County Anti-Hunger Task Force. Kristine suggested working with Head Start to help write grants. Matt: went to child meal sites in Whitney Point which gave him perspective on how important program is in Broome County, where they have seen 50% increase in children served (see handout: Executive Summary of Regional Summer Food Efforts, Food and Health Network of SCNY)

• Lyndsey: we had visit from Tom Reed at Katy Leary on Tuesday, August 9th. Kerm: met Leslie Burke at fair, running against Tom O’Mara, she’d be a good advocate for hunger awareness.

• Agency Services & Nutrition:

• Matt: client data-tracking- a lot of traction in food bank community to better serve our communities. FBST exploring different software options and had a Cornell student look into options. He found PantryTrak developed by the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. FBST has plans for 2017 rollout for a system that can centralize information and plans on sharing with agencies as process continues. Major benefits- unduplicated counts to better serve our population; secure, safe, and respectful of clients; may eliminate paper trail. Kris: will the software discourage multiple pantry visits or limit clients to receiving help from only one pantry? Matt: “policing” is not our intention; we’ve worked with Cornell to dispel some of the myths surrounding data tracking; agencies will still be able to “serve and refer”; more details will be forthcoming; we want to pilot software with MFPs; more details to follow.

• Lyndsey: Hunger Action Month (HAM) packet; HAM Client Survey Toolkit: includes a cover sheet (see handout: HAM Cover Sheet), collection form (see handout: HAM Client Survey), and consent form (see handout: HAM Consent Form); survey takers can remain anonymous or can fill out consent form if they want to possibly be featured in FBST media; any questions, contact Lyndsey. Any client who is interested in sharing their story should be interviewed; have volunteers work with clients to fill out survey; Survey Toolkit will also go out in newsletter. Story collection is the priority; we want people to get involved as much as possible. If anyone wants to be more involved in HAM, check out HAM calendar. HAM calendar for agencies (see handout HAM Calendar); there is one that will be going out to public, but this one is different and intended for agency reps; will be going out in Agency Services newsletter. Kristine: are there any goals on how many stories should be collected? Lyndsey will get back to Kristine. Laurie: Rosemary benefited from story sharing; the process of sharing your story can be transformative; one of main missions at FBST is to combat stereotypes.

• Lyndsey: starting to think about Annual Agency Celebration, which may be in late April; considering forming an ad-hoc committee consisting of a few AAB board members. Action Item: AAB members who are interested in serving on this committee should contact Lyndsey.

• Lyndsey: update on pantry Peer Group pilot- two groups have met so far; Kerm, Kristine, and Larry have participated. 1) The “Peas” group: small service area, mostly rural, all volunteers, Eastern section; “Peas” met at Bread of Life in Candor, there were 12 attendees, Lyndsey received positive feedback, and group is interested in meeting again in October. The “Zucchini” group: mostly urban, paid staff; met at Schuyler County Outreach: there were 9 attendees and they want to meet again in October. Overall, people have been very interested in different ways to share best practices.

• County Hunger Coalition reports to AAB

• No items to review from June meeting

• Items from July coalition meetings:

▪ Tioga County- Laurie: as a result of the Anti-Hunger Task Force, there were four (4) new summer lunch sites, a mobile bus delivering meals to mobile home sites and others; Task Force had help with advertising costs. Kerm: Summer Food Program has been going very well this year, especially with the lunchbox program. Kerm: agencies are excited about possibility of purchasing toilet paper through FBST. Action Item: FBST Staff will follow up on toilet paper option for next meeting

▪ Chemung County- Darlene: Jodi had meeting notes (not in attendance); Walgreens offers flu shot clinic on site in Elmira and almost half of pantries at Chemung County Coalition meeting signed up; Walgreens will bill the individual’s insurance, and if a balance remains, Walgreens has vouchers that will cover the balance; Action Item: Darlene suggested that other counties should contact local Walgreens to see if they offer something similar

▪ Steuben County- Kathy: Coalition did not have any items to bring back to AAB; excited about possibility of purchasing toilet paper

▪ Schuyler County- Kristine: Coalition discussed water/drought and the people who have wells going dry; was identified as a problem. Kristine emailed Missy (FBST) and working on possible solutions such as ordering bottled water through FBST. HAM- Kristine jumping on board with local Crop Walk, has contacted the woman who does it in Schuyler County (Betty), and she’s excited for more participants; Kristine wants to be able to allocate the 25% of funds from the event to all agencies in Schuyler County

▪ Broome County- (from Larry’s email): Coalition has not met since May and next meeting is September 21st. E-Mail survey regarding the ordering of toilet paper was sent out – agencies that responded would like to order from the FBST.

 

Discussion & Decisions

• Fidelis Presentation given by Kelly Cook

• Today’s Agency Spotlight: Schuyler Outreach’s Advocacy Efforts (Kris M.)

▪ Schuyler Outreach won the Advocacy Award at the Annual Agency Celebration. The “Zucchini” peer group met at Schuyler Outreach and talked about the large amount of space as its best asset, as it’s more accommodating to clients. The focus is on enhancing client experience. They have the gym at St. Mary’s where clients can grab a number, mingle, and get coffee. Recently, the pantry took advantage of the powdered milk from FBST, and cookies from the Watkins Glen International donation, to have a “cookies and milk tasting” for its clients. Schuyler Outreach always has informational displays. Clients love when community organizations come to table. Clients can come in and socialize. Kristine wants it to feel more like a café instead of a sterile environment.

▪ Clients are called in one by one and volunteers spend about 10 minutes with each client. This is an opportunity to see how clients are doing personally, to get client updates, volunteers can give clients referrals. This is an effort to try to empower clients. Volunteers always ask if clients have SNAP benefits, and there is a SNAP Outreach worker on site to see if clients may be eligible. Volunteers always ask if clients have healthcare because they have facilitated enrollers that they can get clients in contact with or meet with on site. They also ask if a client is a victim of domestic violence; Catholic Charities has a strong duty program to help.

▪ An example of the beneficial environment at Schuyler County: a person from the FBST strategic planning client focus group had an illness/injury. He had been rather well-off, suddenly became poor, and had no idea how to live in poverty. He learned a lot from the Schuyler pantry environment and staff. He needed resources and advocates. Until recently, Schuyler County has not done a good job of informing those who really needed resources. The pantry is trying to provide more information to its clients.

▪ Before coming to Schuyler Outreach, Kristine was a teacher, and came into the emergency food sector later on. It comes naturally to her to help people understand and learn about resources and advocates. Kristine: “I would love to work myself out of a job”.

▪ Kristine partners with the local school where students are required to participate in adventure-based learning, where they spend half a day doing community service. Many of these children had no idea about people struggling with poverty. It’s an eye-opening experience and lets impoverished children be more open about seeking help at food pantries. Also, some children are involved in paper plate project.

▪ Throughout the year, she works with PINS (People In Need of Supervision) people. She knew one PINS child who started off in adventure based learning and is now working as a hunger advocate.

▪ Matt: What are you most proud of at your organization? Kristine: the waiting room; sometimes we play educational videos, my plates are on the wall, and we have a display about meal planning. We also tack up meal flyers, different food ideas for the week, and recipes.

Agency Capacity Building Discussion (Lyndsey)

• FBST partner agency education proposal (see handout “FBST Partner Agency Education Plan”): There are two categories of trainings

1) Peer Groups & Coalition Meetings: Topics and actual training facilitators are all in house. Examples: Kathy’s sensitivity training at Steuben County Coalition meeting. This happened organically; Kathy brought up sensitivity trainings at a coalition meeting and coalition chair suggested that conduct the training at their next meeting.

One goal for peer groups is for those groups to co-create the education opportunities.

2) Network Trainings: Topics chosen by FBST staff and facilitated by FBST staff or outside facilitator hired by FBST. (Example: Advocacy 201, offered by FBST’s Advocacy & Education Manager in conjunction with the Agency Services staff). These trainings would cover topics that FBST thinks would benefit whole network and will therefore be offered network-wide, not just in a specific county or Peer Group.

• Feedback and Discussion:

▪ Ruth: good idea but volunteers may question why they have to participate. Darlene: we should address an element in the volunteer base that feel that clients should only go to one pantry per month and volunteers judging clients based on appearances. Matt: it would be beneficial to see those who have shared their initial bias and how they have developed sensitivity and shared their story, along the lines of Bridges Out of Poverty training. Laurie suggested poverty studies; Tompkins Community Action offers poverty simulation.

▪ Lyndsey: we should be thinking about education for volunteers, i.e. “train the trainer” approach where pantry leaders/coordinators learn how to train others at these trainings

▪ Kerm: there is a lot of power in peer group discussions and you wind up with people coming to meetings who want to improve, but what about those who aren’t willing to go to these Peer Groups? What about those that are not participating in trainings or going to coalition meetings?

▪ Lyndsey is trying to see if there is a way to spread things out evenly and avoid times when people are less likely to show up, like in November and December, but summer also a difficult time. Not everyone can make it to everything so we’ll encourage sending different people to different trainings. Ruth suggested proving more details and plan topic well in advance. Lyndsey working on ideas about what to offer next year for Network Trainings. May be able to combine trainings with Agency Celebration in April

▪ Matt likes “train the trainer” idea because those who attend can quickly convey messages to those who did not attend

▪ Matt: to what degree could the Speaker’s Bureau play a role and impact volunteers?

▪ What if FBST does not do shut down week? Darlene: FBST should keep it. Kerm: the only negative impact was with the MFPs because they fell at off-times. FBST should consider holiday dates when scheduling MFPs around July 4th weekend.

Closing

• Three Key Items to Share at County Hunger Coalitions in September,

1) HAM resources: Story Collection Toolkit and calendar; Lyndsey will bring limited number of copies in case people didn’t receive it electronically; Ask- have they done this yet? How did it go?

2) Preservation resources (see handouts)

3) Client data-tracking/maximizing client data: share the benefits (less paperwork, more accurate, where’s the need?/identifying need and devoting our resources towards those needs); priority is to communicate info/data

4) Education framework

• Meeting adjourned at 1:08pm

Our next meeting is October 14, 2016

11 am – 1 pm

Handouts: August Agenda; June Meeting Minutes; HAM Client Survey Toolkit (HAM Client Survey, HAM cover sheet, HAM client consent form); HAM Calendar; FBST Partner Agency Education Proposal; Preserving Food: Freezing Vegetables; Executive Summary of Regional Summer Food Efforts, Food and Health Network of SCNY

Links:

Taste of Chemung 2016

USDA Preserving Food fact sheet

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