Summer Meals News

July 31, 2012 Thanks to 161 program sponsors, summer meals and snacks are being served at 808 open sites across Washington this year.  Keep up the great work! Use the Summer Meals Search Tool for meal site locations and days of operation Summer Meal Grants awarded Congratulations to the 26 Summer Meal Programs who received grant funds through OSPI’s Meals for Kids and School’s Out Washington’s Feed Your Brain.  Meals for Kids grants support summer meals program start-ups and expansions.  Feed Your Brain grants support summer learning programs with summer meals in rural communities. To learn more about what these 2012 awardeesare doing with their grants, ask them! A few highlights of how programs used their MFK funds ..... Lake Stevens School District spread the word about their new program through a marketing campaign. Here is their outreach flyer. Methow Valley School District used new tables, coolers and outreach through newspaper advertising to launch a new program in a city park. St Leo's Food Connection in Tacoma purchased coolers, ice packs & utensils to serve additional meals for new community partner sites. Pasco School District purchased insulated carts & serving containers to transport food to a new city park site recently featured on local TV. Whidbey Island Nourishes Food Bank developed outreach materials to post in local businesses, distribute to families & promote the program. Auburn School District purchased new tables to serve more kids at each site (parks, apartments, etc.) and printed outreach flyers for community events. Strategies to boost participation in your meal program As the summer goes on, programs can experience a drop in attendance.  Listed below are a few ideas and resources to boost participation: Host a community event at a site and invite the media Ask your school to do a “robo call” to remind families about August meal programs Spread door hangers or flyers in neighborhoods near your sites Strategies to boost participation (from Oregon’s Summer Meal Program) Revisit our Outreach Toolkit for more ideas to keep kids coming to your sites Have you asked for feedback about your summer meal program? When you learn what kids, parents and caregivers think about your program, it can make the difference between a good program and a great one!  Here are some ideas and resources: Talk with parents and kids while they eat or engage in activities Ask about  favorite and least favorite foods – a change in the menu can keep kids coming back Hand out a parent survey (from Share our Strength’s Summer Meals Evaluation Toolkit) Collect feedback with a staff survey (from Share our Strength’s Summer Meals Evaluation Toolkit) Consider providing Afterschool Meals during the school year Food Research and Action Center recommends summer meal programs provide healthy meals and snacks to kids year round through the Afterschool Meal Program.  Register here to learn more about this option in an upcoming conference call on Tues. Aug. 7 at 10am. The WA Summer Meals Partnership sends periodic newsletters to keep statewide partners up-to-date on the latest information about the Summer Meals Program.  http://www.icontact-archive.com/C9ZecoQL5yw3xrxuUf8TXqcObPV0atNz?w=4

From AHNC: Take Action During the August Recess to Protect SNAP

Take Action During the August Recess to Protect SNAP

Anti-hunger advocates have a great opportunity from August 3 – September 9

to tell our Members of Congress personally that we oppose the current proposals to cut food stamps in Washington – can you help? (Read more about the harmful cuts to SNAP on this Children's Alliance blog post)

Through Labor Day, all Representatives will be home for the summer recess – this is when Members are in their districts, meeting with constituents and going to local events. Coalition members are asking organizations in three specific districts to help spread the word about devastating changes to food stamps (SNAP) proposed in the Farm Bill by the House Agriculture Committee. We are asking organizations in the districts of: Rep. Dave Reichert, Rep. Adam Smith and Rep. Jaime Herrara-Beutler to do two things to join a campaign with us:

1.     Gather cards (shown at bottom of this post-click on image to view, download and print) from constituents that tell their Congress member why food stamps are so important and to vote no on a Farm Bill that cuts SNAP.

2.     Work with us to deliver these cards to your member’s office in a way that will be coordinated, visible and memorable: our goal is to have a steady stream of quick visits delivering the same kind of messages throughout their time at home, every one of them saying “Vote No on a Farm Bill that Cuts SNAP.”

You don’t have to plan anything yourself – we can coordinate the logistics, but we do need your organization’s help gathering messages on the enclosed cards and delivering them to the local office.  Will you help? 

If your organization wants to join us, please contact Claire Lane to get started (ClaireL@WithinReachwa.org or 206-830-7642).

Many thanks from,

Anti-Hunger & Nutrition Coalition

Children’s Alliance

Faith Action Network

Food Lifeline

Northwest Harvest

Washington Food Coalition

WithinReach  

Meet Our Members: Issaquah Food Bank & Mt. Si Helping Hands Food Bank

Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank is nestled in the center of a charming community, and is meeting the needs of their neighbors in good times and when times are hard. Their facility is clean and very well organized, with ample shelf storage space. On the day we visited, they had just finished serving 82 families (data was instantly available thanks to the ClientCard FB3 software program!), with 12-15 new families arriving every day they're open. Every month, they distribute about 70,000 pounds of food to their community. They do this with 3 paid staff and about 70 regular volunteers.

Kim of Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank shows off beautiful greens donated by Full Circle Farms.

The food bank was nearly out of cereal recently, so they put out the call for help to their community and had their shelves STOCKED before they knew it! 

Avery, daughter of Washington Food Coalition's Executive Director Julie Washburn, tests the sturdiness of their crates.

Excellent storage.

This is the area where clients are served. The clients can choose what foods they want, in order to ensure it is food that will be used by their family.

Beautiful quilts were hand-made for homeless clients.

Triple X Restaurant donates toys for children to receive as birthday presents.

BEST PRACTICE ALERT! Employees and volunteers save their empty water bottles. Costco then donates large quantities of cleaning liquids, and the food bank repacks them into these water bottles. Great idea!

Every family has the opportunity to shop through the clothing bank on their visit.

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Mount Si Food Bank in North Bend makes the most of its well organized little space in order to meet the growing needs of its community. They serve around 400 families a week, and all of them are served on Wednesdays when the food bank is open all day. They usually see 10-15 new families every day that they are open. Since food donations are down in recent times, they have had to purchase a large amount of food to keep their shelves stocked for families in need. 

There are many different programs and services being provided at this location besides simply weekly food service. Last summer they started their Summer Cupboard program, where families with children are given additional breakfast and lunch food when they visit the food bank for their regular groceries.

A happy volunteer distributed the Summer Cupboard items.

A BBQ event is one of many additional services provided to families in need in the area.

Sandy happily greets clients as they arrive and signs them in through their ClientCard software program, which allows for a quick and easy entry for clients.

Clients receive color coded clothespins upon arrival based on their family size, which guides them in their shopping on how much food they're able to take.

Milk is regularly purchased, in order to ensure plenty is available.

Families are able to take plenty of fruits and vegetables.

FRAC Statement: House Agriculture Committee Passes Farm Bill Proposal

FRAC Statement: House Agriculture Committee Passes Farm Bill Proposal Washington, D.C. – July 12, 2012 – The Farm Bill proposal passed early this morning by the House Agriculture Committee slashes funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $16 billion over ten years. It does this mainly by restricting states’ ability to coordinate SNAP with two other low-income programs. Specifically, the cuts would restrict the broad-based Categorical Eligibility (Cat El) option that allows states to coordinate SNAP gross income and asset rules for participants enrolled in other programs, and limit states’ options to operate “heat and eat” policies. The cuts particularly target seniors and working poor families. The proposed cuts would have the following consequences: Limiting Cat-El would result in millions of people each year losing benefits –1.8 million according to the CBO, or from 2 to 3 million, according to the Administration. The CBO also estimates that approximately 280,000 school-age children in those low-income households would no longer be deemed eligible for free school meals through their receipt of SNAP benefits. Limiting “Heat and Eat” would result in an additional 500,000 SNAP participating households losing $90 a month in benefits, according to CBO. Every cut to SNAP means less food in the refrigerators and the cupboards of the hungriest people in America – children, seniors, working families, unemployed workers, people with disabilities and others. And such cuts have been rejected by the American public. Seventy-seven percent of voters say that cutting SNAP would be the wrong way to reduce government spending. “These cuts mean lost meals for hungry households,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “These cuts are at odds with every bipartisan deficit proposal discussed over the past year – Simpson-Bowles, Gang of Six, and others – as well as the Budget Control Act, which protected SNAP from cuts. We urge the House of Representatives to reject these cuts and pass a Farm Bill that preserves the strong structure of SNAP.” About Us: The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition. Visit our Web site (www.frac.org) to learn more.

Spokane Members (mini)Van Tour!

Modeled after Seattle Food Committee's Van Tour, Washington Food Coalition partnered with several of our members in Spokane to coordinate a small tour of different emergency food provider agencies in the area.

Our first stop was House of Charity. Tami Rossi runs the kitchen there, where she feeds hundreds daily on an astoundingly tiny purchasing budget of $500 per month (!!) The kitchen serves about 70,000 meals annually, and works closely with other services provided at this location.

The men who stay overnight at the shelter on the second floor each receive their own locker (with special ventilation systems built into the lockers), showers, clean pajamas and laundry service.

The sleeping room is incredibly clean at this facility, where they provide 108 beds every night to homeless men.

Volunteer doctors and nurses regularly provide checkups and basic health services to clients.

A chapel is at the center of the first floor of the facility.

Stuffed avocados were the menu item on the day of our visit. Tami's background is in the commercial food industry for 30 years, so the quality of the menu here is impressive.

This is where the meals are served.

The second stop on the tour was Serve Spokane, a volunteer-run food bank just a few miles form downtown Spokane. Susan Kokkinen is the Director of the food bank and showed the group their facility where they serve 650 families every month. They are open on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month.

On days when the food bank is open, this area is full of donated food and grateful clients.

Toiletries and baby food are kept stocked for those who need it.

Multiple ministries besides the food bank operate out of Serve Spokane, including this clothing bank.
More about all their services:
Food PantryCelebrate RecoveryCity Reach Clothing Ministry Project Hope Special Needs 

 

Shopping carts help clients bring their food out to their vehicles.

Faithful volunteers are critical to this agency.

The final stop on our tour was at the SNAP Northeast Food Pantry. Cara Kowalski serves as the Food Bank Coordinator there as part of JVC Northwest/AmeriCorps. 

This food bank accomplishes a lot with a little-they serve 600-700 families per month out of an extremely small space. Families can make appointments to come pick up food, and the food bank is open every day.

One of the fun aspects to the program that Cara shared is how they have partnered with Cakes for Kids to provides birthday cakes for children who visit the food bank.

The food bank operates out of 2 small rooms.

Helpful resources and information for volunteers is posted around the food bank.

Volunteers sort through food for clients.

Cara and her wonderful volunteer Sheila.