Volunteers are treasured every day at Second Harvest but we take the opportunity of National Volunteer Week (April 19-25) to put a value on the time that is given to the food bank. Every month between 800 and 900 volunteer hours are logged by volunteers at Second Harvest and the Grand Rapids Food Shelf. Last year, 10,400 total hours were recorded.
According to the Independent Sector the value of volunteer time is $20.25 per hour for 2008. This value is based on the average hourly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls, as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Independent sector takes this figure and increases it by 12 percent to estimate for fringe benefits.
This huge gift of time illustrates how crucial volunteers are to the work of Second Harvest North Central Food Bank. The staff of 10 people could not distribute over 3 million pounds of food to more than 30,000 people in north central Minnesota every year without the hundreds of people who volunteer to help get the work done.
A huge Thank You goes out to all the people who volunteer to re-pack food at the food bank, stock shelves and help clients in the food shelf, drive the small delivery truck, run food and fund drives, help with the Itasca Holiday Program, distribute the MAC & NAPS boxes, work in the Plant to Plate Garden and assist with Kids Packs to Go. Thousands of people are fed by all these efforts.
The dollar value might be $20.25, but we think our volunteers are priceless.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
From the front lines at the food shelf
The numbers of people coming for food assistance are up. As unemployment rises, people who have never needed help meeting their basic needs are finding themselves in a terrible position; they need to ask for charity in order to feed their family.
The 30 plus food shelves served by Second Harvest North Central Food Bank are reporting alarming increases in the numbers of local people coming for help. These aren’t people passing through or coming here for the “good social services system.” They are people who were donating their time or money to these same food shelves last year. Try to imagine how difficult it is to walk through the door of a food shelf in your home community and ask for help…. How many people go hungry because they just can’t make themselves ask for assistance?
On Tuesday, a woman appearing confused and distraught walked in the door of the Grand Rapids food shelf, looked around, and went back out to the parking lot. A short time later she walked in and, once again, left without talking to anyone. The third time she came in, she had finally gotten enough courage to go through the process and ask for help. She was treated with kindness and respect and left with several days worth of food for her family. What a terrible situation for this person to be in; educated, formerly employed and self sufficient, but now a food shelf recipient.
This story is being repeated at every hunger relief organization in the country right now. People are hurting. Your neighborhood food shelf is providing food and hope.
The 30 plus food shelves served by Second Harvest North Central Food Bank are reporting alarming increases in the numbers of local people coming for help. These aren’t people passing through or coming here for the “good social services system.” They are people who were donating their time or money to these same food shelves last year. Try to imagine how difficult it is to walk through the door of a food shelf in your home community and ask for help…. How many people go hungry because they just can’t make themselves ask for assistance?
On Tuesday, a woman appearing confused and distraught walked in the door of the Grand Rapids food shelf, looked around, and went back out to the parking lot. A short time later she walked in and, once again, left without talking to anyone. The third time she came in, she had finally gotten enough courage to go through the process and ask for help. She was treated with kindness and respect and left with several days worth of food for her family. What a terrible situation for this person to be in; educated, formerly employed and self sufficient, but now a food shelf recipient.
This story is being repeated at every hunger relief organization in the country right now. People are hurting. Your neighborhood food shelf is providing food and hope.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Hunger Study 2009, Finding out we know what we know
Like most of the other food banks in the Feeding America network, Second Harvest North Central Food Bank is three-quarters through a comprehensive survey of hunger in America. We are conducting face to face interviews with 300 people seeking help at over 30 different places in our region where people go for food assistance. Places like the Grand Rapids Community Café, Brainerd’s Sharing Bread Soup Kitchen, Milaca Area Pantry, Pillager Family Center, Walker Food Shelf, etc.
In addition, all our member hunger relief organizations complete a thorough questionnaire covering everything from how often they are open to how many volunteers they have. The goal is to gather solid statistical information on people seeking hunger relief and the agencies that help them. The information will help Feeding America, Second Harvest and our member agencies to tell our stories; of who we are helping and why they need our help.
I’ve done a few of these face to face interviews myself. I interviewed the mother of a large family who is employed full time but can’t make ends meet on low wages. I talked to many people with big, unpaid health care bills. And not surprisingly, I’ve met several people who just lost their jobs.
The ranks of the recently un-employed are growing and adding to the mix of people who need help feeding their families. In Grand Rapids, the unemployment rate is now at 16.4%. Itasca County is over 12%. It is heartbreaking to listen to the stories of people who have never asked for help before and always thought they could take care of themselves.
The results of this national survey will be released this fall. In the meantime, we listen and gather people’s stories that validate what we already know. People in our communities are hungry. We must help them. We need your help.
In addition, all our member hunger relief organizations complete a thorough questionnaire covering everything from how often they are open to how many volunteers they have. The goal is to gather solid statistical information on people seeking hunger relief and the agencies that help them. The information will help Feeding America, Second Harvest and our member agencies to tell our stories; of who we are helping and why they need our help.
I’ve done a few of these face to face interviews myself. I interviewed the mother of a large family who is employed full time but can’t make ends meet on low wages. I talked to many people with big, unpaid health care bills. And not surprisingly, I’ve met several people who just lost their jobs.
The ranks of the recently un-employed are growing and adding to the mix of people who need help feeding their families. In Grand Rapids, the unemployment rate is now at 16.4%. Itasca County is over 12%. It is heartbreaking to listen to the stories of people who have never asked for help before and always thought they could take care of themselves.
The results of this national survey will be released this fall. In the meantime, we listen and gather people’s stories that validate what we already know. People in our communities are hungry. We must help them. We need your help.
Friday, March 20, 2009
FoodShare Campaign Struggles
From Ellen Christmas, Second Harvest Program Manager
Sadly ,our annual efforts to raise pounds and dollars for the Grand Rapids Food Shelf lags far behind where we were last year at this time. In fact, our totals to date hover around $26,000, compared to about $41,000 collected by this time last year. We are not sure what all the factors are but the most obvious is the state of the economy. Donor fatigue and smaller gifts to charitable organizations likely play a part as well. The difficulty lies in that we know demand will continue to rise as we hear of more and more people being laid off from all levels of employment. Already we have seen many first time visits to the food shelf by families who not only ever thought they would need such a service, but in the past were donors themselves.
My request to each and every one of you is to keep the conversation going among your friends, and within your congregations, businesses and organizations about the need to support the safety net the food shelf provides to so many of our local people. Hunger hurts everyone in our community. We need to stand strong and keep working together to find the resources needed to continue feeding as many people as we can - many of them, children.
An interesting parallel to the March Campaign is the Hunger in America Study we are currently involved with. Trained volunteers have been traveling to many of our agencies to conduct face to face interviews with clients. Our goal is to achieve close to 300 surveys. Within the questions people are asked what they would do if the food pantry/shelf they currently use did not exist. Almost all surveyed indicate it would be a major problem for them and they would have nowhere else to turn for help.
So, in conclusion, if you can help or know anyone who has not given a donation, big or small, to the March Campaign, now is the time to ask…
We thank all of our wonderful friends and volunteers who not only support us with their financial gifts, but with their valuable time as well. You are such an important part of everything we do here at Second Harvest Food Bank.
Sadly ,our annual efforts to raise pounds and dollars for the Grand Rapids Food Shelf lags far behind where we were last year at this time. In fact, our totals to date hover around $26,000, compared to about $41,000 collected by this time last year. We are not sure what all the factors are but the most obvious is the state of the economy. Donor fatigue and smaller gifts to charitable organizations likely play a part as well. The difficulty lies in that we know demand will continue to rise as we hear of more and more people being laid off from all levels of employment. Already we have seen many first time visits to the food shelf by families who not only ever thought they would need such a service, but in the past were donors themselves.
My request to each and every one of you is to keep the conversation going among your friends, and within your congregations, businesses and organizations about the need to support the safety net the food shelf provides to so many of our local people. Hunger hurts everyone in our community. We need to stand strong and keep working together to find the resources needed to continue feeding as many people as we can - many of them, children.
An interesting parallel to the March Campaign is the Hunger in America Study we are currently involved with. Trained volunteers have been traveling to many of our agencies to conduct face to face interviews with clients. Our goal is to achieve close to 300 surveys. Within the questions people are asked what they would do if the food pantry/shelf they currently use did not exist. Almost all surveyed indicate it would be a major problem for them and they would have nowhere else to turn for help.
So, in conclusion, if you can help or know anyone who has not given a donation, big or small, to the March Campaign, now is the time to ask…
We thank all of our wonderful friends and volunteers who not only support us with their financial gifts, but with their valuable time as well. You are such an important part of everything we do here at Second Harvest Food Bank.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Good News for a Change
Amid all the gloom and doom of the economic crisis, it’s important to remember that although the need is increasing, we are helping many people. Last year Second Harvest North Central Food Bank distributed more than 3.3 million pounds of food to directly to low income people and through 145 hunger relief agencies in this region.
Total number of people served by Second Harvest North Central Food Bank entire region in 2008:
· 40,621 household visits to food shelves
· 137,106 individuals served by food shelves including 52,302 children
· MAC & NAPS- 25,048 commodity boxes distributed to children and seniors
· Itasca Holiday Program- 1,700 families received Christmas food baskets
· Kids Café - 1,827 meals fed to children at after school program
· Kids Packs to Go – 12,221 backpack meal sacks distributed to elementary school children
In January of this year, we were able to acquire more donated food than any other non-holiday month in our history. This is great news, considering the increasing need we are experiencing due to the economic downturn. The food shelves, soup kitchens, shelters and other hunger relief agencies striving to help our neighbors are doing the best they can to provide emergency food assistance in these difficult times. Many people are stepping up to help. This is good news for a change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)