Behind the Scenes at Second Harvest CCL: Giving Every Day

[00:00:00] Speaker A: SA. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Hello listeners and welcome back to Just A Bite. I'm Audrey Vanzant, Director of Communications at the Ohio association of Food Banks and your host for today's episode. It's hard to believe that we've reached the end of 2024 and are deep into the holiday season. To wrap up the year, we've prepared a fun and informative episode that offers a behind the scenes look at the world of food banking and how you can get involved. I'm especially excited to be joined by my friends at Second Harvest Food bank of Champaign, Clark and Logan counties, which is where I began my food bank career back in July of 2020. Having seen the work firsthand, I can tell you how incredible this team is. Just like the many teams across Our Network, from CCL to the 12 Feeding America Food banks around Ohio, hundreds of people are working every day to collect, store and distribute food to our neighbors in need. Since we're releasing this episode, during the season of giving, we know food banks are seeing a wonderful increase in volunteers and donations, both of which we are incredibly grateful for. But the work doesn't stop when the holidays end. Our food banks operate year round, serving their communities every single day. We hope this episode gives you an inside look at the vital work of food banking and inspires you to support your local food bank, not just during the holidays, but during the year. Together we can fight hunger in Ohio. Thank you and enjoy the episode. [00:02:06] Speaker C: Hello everyone. I am sitting down with my friends here at ccl, Jennifer, Sarah and Debbie. We are going to chat with all of them today, but first off we have Jennifer. Just thank you for the time that you are spending with me today. Today I know that you have a busy life here at Second Harvest, so thank you. And can you tell us a little bit about who you are and the work that you're doing here at Second Harvest Food bank of Champaign, Clark and Logan counties. [00:02:38] Speaker D: Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for coming out. We appreciate the opportunity to be on the podcast. My name is Jennifer Brunner. I am the development Director here. I joined Second Harvest Food bank in February of 2023. In that capacity, I support fundraising. I also have the volunteer team and our marketing efforts and soon some additional outreach that we're going to be implementing to help hopefully inform more people about our SNAP efforts and how they can sign up for that program. [00:03:13] Speaker C: Very cool. So I know the listeners have heard me say it once before on this show, maybe a few times. Once on the show that I used to work here at ccl, I spent three years here as development manager and I had the privilege of working alongside Jennifer and she is the real deal when it comes to development. So I'm really excited to talk about all of the cool things that you're doing and have already mentioned, but can you talk to me a little bit about who you are? I appreciate, you know, telling me about ccl, but tell me who Jennifer is. [00:03:45] Speaker D: Sure. Well, prior to coming to Second Harvest, I spent five years working remotely for a small boutique firm in the Washington, D.C. area that actually helped nonprofits across the country and even internationally with their fundraising efforts. So that's how I kind of first got involved with nonprofits. Prior to that, I had spent the bulk of my career working in student affairs at Kent State University in Ohio. And I've also even been on the dark side of some for profit organizations, including a national home builder and a major theme park company. So I have to say though, really working in higher education, working in nonprofit and seeing impact of your work is truly rewarding. So I'm glad that I've got to spend the second half of my career doing that. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Yeah, it sounds like a little bit of a jump there, kind of moving all around. But clearly all those expertise have brought you where you're supposed to be. [00:04:46] Speaker D: It's surprising that there are transfers skills. Absolutely. From, you know, working in sales and marketing for a national home builder to what you have to do even here at the food bank. [00:04:55] Speaker C: So. [00:04:57] Speaker D: Because be surprised of what kind of work you actually have to do at a food bank. [00:05:01] Speaker C: Right. [00:05:01] Speaker D: It's a little bit of everything. [00:05:04] Speaker C: Yeah, it is surprising. And we'll talk more about that. I'm sure Sarah will have lots to say when we get over to the operations part. But my one last personal question before we dive into work. And this is kind of my fun, quirky question. This is going to be our December episode in light of the holidays and we are food bankers and we love food. So what is your favorite holiday meal snack? Something gives you nostalgia. What do you love? [00:05:33] Speaker D: You know, it's so odd, but the most memorable of holiday meals is actually something I've done as an adult and they are non traditional holiday meals. So even for Thanksgiving, we do a soup spread of different soups because I just, I just don't want to do the turkey thing. And so for, even for Christmas, it's a Christmas breakfast. [00:05:57] Speaker C: Oh. [00:05:58] Speaker D: You know, I just, it's non traditional, but for some reason those are the ones that stick out in my mind. And so that's what I like to do with my family. Now, yeah. [00:06:06] Speaker C: Isn't that. I think that's beautiful. I love traditions and I love hearing different, like, family traditions. And I think that's the beauty. And like family, right. [00:06:14] Speaker D: You gotta. [00:06:14] Speaker C: You gotta create these own little moments. [00:06:16] Speaker D: It's about the people with you, less about the food. So. [00:06:19] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love that sentiment. All right, let's talk about. Let's talk about work a little bit more now that we've got to know you and thank you for your time here at Second Harvest. So you're going to be our first guest and you are going to speak to us about the first opportunity for ways that our listeners can get involved in our food banks. So as development director, what does that look like at a food bank day to day? How does that impact the work that food banks do and how can people get involved through your services, through development channels? Sure. [00:06:54] Speaker D: Well, I think it depends on which food bank you are talking to. For our food bank, we do rely heavily on volunteers. We rely heavily on our community to provide food. So getting involved, depending on your capacity, could be to donate money. We obviously need funds to operate. It could be through your company coming in and volunteering through a corporate group, or you can volunteer individually or maybe you're able to connect us with resources that we need for food. You know, we here at Second Harvest ccl, we get about half of our food from the government and the other half is donated. So surprisingly, a lot of people don't realize in 2024, our budget did not include any funds to purchase food. So all of the food that we. That we're giving out is because of these relationships and partnerships that we have with retailers and wholesalers. So you might have that kind of connection, and that is a great way that you could also support us. [00:07:56] Speaker C: Excellent. I really appreciate you pointing out the fact that you're not using donor dollars to purchase food. So what are donor dollars going towards? What else are you doing here in development? I know my time here at ccl, we wrote a lot of grants, worked really closely with community. So, like, can you just explain a little bit more about what goes into your role as development as far as bringing monetary funds in and kind of what those dollars are then used for? [00:08:26] Speaker D: Sure. Well, we do, like you said, we have grants. We actually have a pretty robust grant program and we have a great community support. We're always looking for ways to expand that for new grantors. And I'm happy to say this year, actually, we have two new grantors that have come on board to support us. [00:08:44] Speaker C: Congratulations. [00:08:44] Speaker D: Which is fantastic. Thank you. With the dollar support is our programs. It is the way to push out food. And what I think is surprising to people when they say, well, what exactly is that? Well, that is paying for transportation and the cost of insurance and making sure the coolers and freezers are running and making. We have the staff and the technology and the programs. I would say it's not a lot of the sexy stuff that maybe people would think, but it is the crucial stuff. And so that is what we use. The support is really, if we didn't have that, there was no way to get the food out. We need the funding to cover those sorts of. Maybe people would think mundane things. Oh, you need computers or your phones to work? Well, yeah, if they don't work and we don't have them right, we're not going to be able to feed people. And that is ultimately what allows us to feed people. So our, our individual support, which is huge, which is the bulk of our funding, is what we apply to these programs. And so it's a direct impact. [00:09:52] Speaker C: I appreciate that. I think it's really interesting to just talk about the way that the economy has changed over the last few years. Right. When I started here at ccl, it was during the pandemic. We had this like, little bit of normal. And then inflation hit. And I don't. I don't even know if that little sense of normal existed or not, but we felt some relief. And then inflation has hit. And we know that it's affecting, you know, it's affecting your grocery bill, it's affecting my grocery bill, it's affecting our neighbor's grocery bill. It's also affecting the capacity at our level with state dollars, your level at food banks. When I started at CCL in 2020, using the feeding America calculations, a dollar donation here at CCL equated to six meals. And when I left in 2023, it equated to two meals. And this just isn't here at CCL, but across our entire networks, all of our food banks are seeing that a dollar is not able to equate to as many meals. Unfortunately, we're not being able to give out as many pounds. The pandemic and inflation affected the food supply chain and spending power. Can you talk to me just a little bit more? Kind of why these dollars are so critical and ways that they are impacting the work that you do here at Second Harvest. [00:11:19] Speaker D: So we, I think right now, currently $1 does equal about two meals. And we calculated that based on the pounds of food Feeding America's formula and then our actual operational budget, our in kind value of food that we get donated and that's where we still land at that we are able to make it stretch. I know a lot of people may say, well you know what if I went and spent $100 at the grocery store? Well, we know the buying power at the grocery store to buy us food and then donate it isn't as effective as that hundred dollar donation could be here. Because we do have a procurement manager and because we do have partners that we can expand those relationships, we are able to use that money to exponentially increase the value of what we get. So that's what I think. Not that we don't want people to have food drives or donate. We obviously we welcome that. But if you want to have the greatest impact. Absolutely. And you have, you know, $50 to spend, we would say don't spend it at the grocery store because we've seen that like you said personally, it's impacted your grocery budget. We know that they're not going to be able to get as much bang for their buck and help people as much as what $50 could go here at the food bank. So I think that's the message too. We want to share and especially at year end where a lot of people want to do food drives, we still encourage it, but we also, we really encourage a fund drive. And so if you're interested in a fund drive, you can reach out to us and we can set up a private kind of donation page with its own unique URL and you can kind of track that. And that's really, I think people, because there is only so many discretionary dollars that they have in their budget and then when they're looking at their giving, they want to make sure that they're making the biggest impact. Right. It's always been the case, but I think even more so now. And so we're trying to give ways to make the biggest impact and that's one of the ways they can do that. [00:13:18] Speaker C: Thank you. I appreciate you breaking it down for our listeners. Can you talk to me a little bit about the community? So you guys support Champaign, Clark and Logan counties? Are you receiving grant funding and support from foundations across all three counties? Are you guys hosting any roundtable discussions? What does community involvement? Look, I know you mentioned at the very top about groups coming in to volunteer here at ccl. Maybe you guys are going to Logan county and there's groups there. So can you just tell me a little bit more kind of about that? Public and community support. [00:13:56] Speaker D: Absolutely. That was actually the foundation of our Harvest Breakfast this year, which is an advocacy fundraising which you're very well aware. [00:14:03] Speaker A: Of because you founded that program. [00:14:06] Speaker D: And this year our theme was the power of Community. And the reason why we chose that theme this year was we really wanted to highlight how again the synergy and everyone's involvement across all three counties is crucially important. So we have great relationships with United Way of Logan County. We Second Harvest Food bank is their largest recipient of grant funding because they recognize the impact that we make in their community. We have other partners up there, we do mobile distributions and we have volunteers from Honda and other organizations that come out to support our efforts there. Same with Champaign County. Now, given the populations, of course it's a little bit different. You know, Clark county is a much larger population than the other two. So we do see sometimes more companies or people organization that come out of Clark County. But based on the number of neighbors that we serve, it's pretty proportional. But we recognize all across our three counties we need that support. Our partner agencies in Logan county have been just phenomenal. And Sarah will speak to this, I'm sure more so. But you know, we have, we're asking them to do something called agency enabled pickups, which will elaborate on those. But it's essentially them picking up the food and having it. So it is more cost effective, it's getting to their community and their neighbors more quickly. And it's within partnership and it's built on trust, it's built on having this history with them. And ultimately it's with the goal of serving our neighbors in a more efficient way. And again using the dollars that are donated to us in a smarter way. So rather than paying transportation costs to go get food from Logan county, bring it back here, warehouse it, inventory it, send it back potentially to Logan County. How can we do things smarter? So we want donors to realize too that we're looking at ways to use their investment in us in the best possible way to again make the largest impact. [00:16:18] Speaker C: Well, as a donor, I appreciate that. I think it's an important sentiment and I think it also goes to, you know, the point of this episode is ways that listeners can get involved. Right. But the root of that is because we have to all be in this together. I was just at our food supply chain summit that we were just have and we were talking about, you know, obviously the food supply chain, but we were talking about how it's farmers, it's aggregators, it's food banks, it's the School systems, it's the grocers. And it's the same here at the food banks. And with everyone that you've discussed across all three counties, it really is a fight that we all have to be in together. So thank you for your work and thank you for building those partnerships. And to anyone who's listening in those counties who support, thank you. Can you talk to me a little bit more about where these dollars for these innovative programs are going? So, yeah, we've talked about the not so sexy things about keeping the lights on, right? Like, no, no one wants to do that, but we need to keep the lights on. But I also know that you have some really cool programs that you guys have done. I know through some recent grant work, you have initiatives coming out. So the work that we do at the Ohio association of Food Banks for our listeners to kind of give it some perspective, is we work really closely with the state and federal food programs. And so we're working with things like the agriculture clearance program, lfpa, and we're bringing food in that is at surplus or unmarketable and bringing it into our food banks. This is allowing them to, again, as Jennifer had already discussed, not spend donor dollars on food through programs like the work that we do at the association in addition to the programs that they have with their incredible retailers and donors here in Clark, Champaign and Logan counties. So the dollar is. Is able to be used for keeping the lights on, transportation, all of those things that are critical. But what about some fun things? I know that you guys have some food lockers that's coming out of a grant. I know that in the past years, you guys are working towards purchasing more culturally diverse foods. So talk to me about ways that the dollar is being spent on fun things for our listeners. [00:18:49] Speaker E: Right. [00:18:49] Speaker C: Things that can get them exciting. Yes, keeping the lights on is important, but what about these food lockers? It's pretty cool. [00:18:55] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:18:55] Speaker D: Well, so I'll talk about the food lockers. First of all, the foundation for that is actually the bulk of it. To get us started, we did secure a grant from, through Feeding America through US Foods. We were one of seven food banks across the country to receive funding to have these installed. And we were really excited because it gave us another opportunity to have a choice kind of pantry situation. Because our food bank, unlike some of the larger ones, we don't have the capability for neighbors to come here and pick the items that we want. Right now, our only other program that's choice is our Order Ahead. And this food locker program will utilize the Order ahead system, the software system so that neighbors can go in and have a menu of items that they can choose. And then they will be able to pick up, schedule a time that they'll be able to access a locker which can be set to frozen, cooled, heated or ambient temperature by column, and then pick up their food. So if it's 10 at night and that's the most convenient way for them to pick up their food, they can come at 10 at night or they can come at 4 in the morning. Because we recognize and Sarah can speak to this. But Sarah's done an outstanding job of looking at what do our service times mean for our neighbors. And so soon after Sarah came on board, we're evaluating that and she's like, we're not hitting people when they need us to be available. Right. And so that's what we're continually striving to do, is be available when and where people need us. And so the food lockers will allow that convenience. So it solves two issues. It provides choice and it provides convenience. So we're excited to see how that all comes to fruition as well. We're hoping we're targeting by the end of the year, of course, we'll have some training and other things to do, but end of the year, first of the year, we should have that ready for neighbors to start to utilize. And then other ways that we're using the dollars, I don't know if it's fun ways, but I think very responsible ways is while we don't have that budget for maybe purchasing the exact food types that we want, our procurement manager is wonderful about finding those partnerships to get the different types of variety of food. But what it allows us to do is do things like invest in an accessibility tool that's now on our website. So if guests go to our website, they can click this accessibility tool and it will change the website content to, if they have poor vision, it can increase the font size. If they are ADHD and a lot of text is distracting, they can block out the text. If they have dyslexia, if they have, if they are non English speaking, they can actually have the text translated and even audio read back to them. So we're again, we're thinking of ways that we can invest the dollars to reach the most people possible, the people who need us, and make it accessible to people because we want to eliminate barriers. [00:22:10] Speaker C: Mic drop. We've always been, we've been talking on this food bank, on this food bank, on this podcast about how we have to get A. A mic drop button. Because every time we have a guest, they say something profound and then we're just like, what do you say back to that? That was so lovely. So inserts mic drop. No, really, I think that is a beautiful sentiment and a great example of ways that dollars are being spent. And I think that that's fun. I think accessibility and equitable access and being progressive is fun. It's important. Right? So I appreciate all that you guys are doing here at cco. So I guess my last thing that I'll ask with you, Jennifer, before I move on to my other friends, is talk to me about some more accessible and progressive ways that you guys have been working towards getting people to donate. I know that you have implemented a few new ways. Of course, you know you'll have to go to your local food bank to see which forms of payments they accept. But Jennifer has implemented some cool things here at Second Harvest that are more accessible to certain people. And I wanted to bring awareness to that. So please talk to me about that. [00:23:34] Speaker D: Well, in addition to not wanting to have barriers to access food, we don't want barriers for people to be able to support. As the development director, I want to break down that barrier. So when I first joined the team, the primary ways that people could donate monetarily was a check or credit card. Sometimes people would bring by cash, but it was pretty standard. We also know generationally people want to give differently. Right. So now what we have available is you can donate stock, you can donate cryptocurrency, you can donate via PayPal, Google Pay, Venmo, text to donate pretty much any way that you want to donate. We have a way to accept it. And again, it's flexibility in giving people the comfort of donating in terms of what makes sense for them. We don't want people to be in a box of this is how. These are the only ways. Take it or leave it. It's, you know, if it fits for you to give stock, then we want to be able to do that as well. So I think. Yeah. And that's been even text to donate, which we use recently at our. At our harvest breakfast. [00:24:49] Speaker C: And it was a great experience. [00:24:51] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a great thing because people have different preferences. We know generationally looking at the way people give, their preferences are different. And so we want it. Not only do we want to meet our neighbors needs, we want to meet our supporters needs as well. And so we are continually trying to identify those ways that make it convenient for them. [00:25:13] Speaker C: Very cool. Have you seen any bitcoin or crypto? Yes, we have. [00:25:16] Speaker E: I love it. [00:25:17] Speaker D: We have. We have had cryptocurrency more donated than I even anticipated in the first year. [00:25:23] Speaker C: So, wow, that's incredible. [00:25:24] Speaker D: I think it'll grow as we get into right now. If for anybody that follows cryptocurrency, we are in a bear market, which means that cryptocurrency is not growing right now. It has a kind of a sleeping period. The bull run is coming first, second quarter of 2025. So we anticipate more cryptocurrency donations that way, you know, as people's crypto portfolio grows. And we wanted to be ready and positioned to take advantage of. [00:25:56] Speaker C: And this is why you're the development director. Exactly. You have spoke on, not only. I mean, as development director, you've spoke obviously to the monetary, but you've spoke endlessly about all the progressive ways that CCL is leading here at Second Harvest, and I appreciate that sentiment. So before I leave you, what is your current call to action? You mentioned earlier that you could possibly do a fund drive, that there was opportunities for people to do that. Is it volunteer? What does Jennifer, development director's call to action? [00:26:37] Speaker D: There are some. I think my call to action is there is no excuse not to be involved. I think, really, because we definitely need volunteers. We need groups of volunteers. We need individual volunteers. We even have right now, we have some job openings. You know, as we grow and we have these programs and serving more neighbors, we have a need for staffing. Right. So, you know, maybe you want to be involved even on a deeper way, in a more committed way. Our volunteers are absolutely incredible. I mean, we couldn't do what we do without our volunteers. I mean, they are the lifeblood. So, you know, whether you can volunteer. Like, you'll hear from Miss Debbie soon. That comes in. If miss Debbie isn't here, we have to be like, oh, wait a minute. Where's Debbie today? [00:27:22] Speaker C: I think she's here. [00:27:23] Speaker D: More than some staff. You can be as little, or maybe it's once a month or a couple times a year. It doesn't matter the involvement. We want you here, and we want you to see what we're doing and, of course, donate. We need those funds. Everybody understands that it takes funding to make a nonprofit go. So any discretionary dollars that you can give. And we welcome you to come in and see what we're doing with your money. So we come see our new floors that I'm sure some of you have heard about. We have some new floors which really allows our operations to again be effective allows us to get food out safely to neighbors. Unfortunately, my call to action is not one, it is many because the need is great, but we know the solution lies within our community. [00:28:18] Speaker C: Yeah, well I don't know if you would be a food banker if you didn't wear many hats and have many call to action. So. So I'm sure, I'm sure our Food bank network sentiments with that. So thank you. We are going to have Second Harvest Food bank of Champaign, Clark and Logan County's website in the show notes their job opportunities are on there as well as their donation link. You can check out the cool accessibility tool that Jennifer was chatting about as well as see their partners, ways that you can volunteer, etc. Etc. Etc. And I will have another reminder for you later in the episode as we move on to Ms. Sarah. So thank you Jennifer for your time. [00:29:00] Speaker D: Thank you. I appreciate the invitation. [00:29:09] Speaker C: I just had a great rundown with Jennifer on the basics of who suck a Harvest Food bank is she talked to me a little bit about some of the programs and ways that people can donate to ccl, but I wanted to switch gears and welcome our next guest, Sarah Roberts. So can you tell me a little bit, Sarah, about who you are and your role here at Second Harvest Food Bank? [00:29:32] Speaker E: Sure. So I'm Sarah Roberts. I'm the operations Director here at Second Harvest. I oversee our warehouse team, our outreach team, transportation and logistics, as well as all the programs. [00:29:47] Speaker C: Talk to me about those programs. What are, what are those programs we have? [00:29:52] Speaker E: Currently we have our direct distribution team, which we call our Ally Team and our mobile distribution. So our Ally team serves on site Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, on Tuesdays and Thursdays directly out of our alley from 9am to 6:30pm and then we run order ahead on Wednesdays. Our mobile distribution specialist kind of focuses on our rural areas because within our largest county, our most populated, which is Clark county, we have over 25 agencies that sit just directly within the city. And then our counties in Logan county and Champaign county both have less than 15 partner agencies. So our mobile distribution specialist focus is in those two counties getting to areas where they may literally be driving 45 minutes to get to a pantry. So that's our direct service. And then of course we have over 70 agency network partners and that could be your churches that have food pantries in them. We have a lot of schools that run food pantries within the schools. So those are those programs. We have the senior box program that is for our seniors under a certain income over the age of 60, and we actually do home delivery for that program. So the majority of our senior boxes, our case count each month is 900, and probably 650 to 700 of those are home delivery. So. Which we feel that's a good service to offer. Typically, you know, older people may have difficulty with transportation. We already know they're under a certain income, so we feel like that can justify that. We are have the food locker program, which is getting ready to start. We're very excited about that. Something we recently started that Jennifer had kind of touched on was our agency enabled retail pickup. [00:31:55] Speaker C: Talk to me about that. [00:31:56] Speaker E: Yes. So we are super excited. So our program lead, Austin is heading that up. But what we've done so in the past, we go to Logan county, like, we may go to Belle Fountain or Indian Lake, to Aldi and Kroger, and we pick up food that they're donating to us. Then we bring it back to Clark county, we intake it in, we receive it, we inventory it, we put it up, and lo and behold, the agency in Logan county orders it and we're driving it right back up there. So our partners are now picking up from those. So, like, our Logan county agency will pick up from our Logan county stores. And there's so many benefits to it. Waste is a big thing. So a lot of times when we get food because it's donated, it is at the end of its life. So, you know, taking the time to transport it back to Clark county, put it into inventory, then pick that product and give it back up to Logan county, there's a lot higher chance of losing food in that process because it goes bad. When our agencies pick up, they take it straight back to their pantry and they may be distributing it that day. [00:33:06] Speaker C: Or the next day. [00:33:08] Speaker E: So there's a lot less food waste. Well, then there's less cost to the agency and to us. We're not driving product literally four times back and forth. So there's transportation, there's staff. You know, it helps us save staff time because if the agencies are picking it up, then we can refocus those drivers to make deliveries to our agencies instead of picking up from stores. So we're. We're really excited about that. We have almost every store in Logan county being picked up by agencies in December. They will be. And then most of our stores in Clark county are being picked up. [00:33:48] Speaker C: That's awesome. [00:33:49] Speaker E: Yeah, it's. We are so excited about it. [00:33:51] Speaker C: That's awesome. [00:33:52] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:33:52] Speaker C: When Jennifer was saying earlier and you were saying it, and this is so off topic. But it reminds me of my mom was the postmaster here forever, and she used to talk about how if you mailed something in Springfield, I had to go to Columbus to get sorted, and people would lose stuff in the mail all the time, and you would be more likely to just take the postcard to your friend's house and hand deliver it to them because the mail from Springfield has to go to Columbus to get sorted to come back to Springfield. And so when you were talking about that. And even as someone who worked here for three years. Right. I've never logistically really thought that through. And it's so silly. That's so silly. [00:34:33] Speaker A: It is. [00:34:35] Speaker C: And maybe it wasn't silly at the time, but you guys have figured it out since then, and I appreciate that because what is the. What's the distance from, like, the most rural part of Logan that you go to if you leave from the warehouse here in Springfield? [00:34:51] Speaker E: It's. I think it's around 50 to 60 miles, but it's over an hour because it's. There's no interstate into Logan county. Like, you're taking 68, and then you're. [00:35:00] Speaker C: Talking the fuel, transportation staff, maintenance on the vehicles, all of those things kind of like Jennifer was talking about earlier, the. The operating things that, that have to keep the wheel well. [00:35:14] Speaker E: And I think, you know, for us and, and this is, you know, to your point, every food bank is different. [00:35:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:21] Speaker E: We happen to be in. We only have three counties, and I don't want to say only. But also one unique thing about our three counties is none of them are real urban. I mean, Clark county is the most urban, but it's really still considered rural. We don't have big partners. Any. We don't have sports teams. We don't even have a lot of big corporation. So sometimes we have to think outside the box, like maybe smarter, not harder, if that makes sense. And things that will work for our community. And we have a lot of smaller partners, which is great. We don't have big soup kitchens. We don't have big agencies. But even if they pick up one or two stores and, you know, it may only be 50 pounds of food for them, that's. That supplies their pantry for the whole week because they may only serve 20 people. And like, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but to those 20 families, it's everything. [00:36:17] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:36:18] Speaker E: It may be whether they eat or not. [00:36:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:20] Speaker E: So we're trying to think of things outside because we have less resources. So we're trying to think of things that will work. That. [00:36:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:29] Speaker E: To get food to people. [00:36:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:31] Speaker E: Because that's the bottom line. We want to feed people and we don't want waste. [00:36:35] Speaker C: Right. So I appreciate that. [00:36:37] Speaker E: You're welcome. [00:36:38] Speaker C: We could talk. We're going to talk all, not all day, but the next hour or so about work. So I want to rewind just a second because I didn't. I don't want to forget this. And I want to give the listeners a chance to get to know Sarah. So before, because obviously we could talk about second harvest and food banking forever. And we will, but just rewind a little bit. You're the operations director, but who are you? Who, Sarah? Rob Roberts, tell our listeners. [00:37:02] Speaker E: Oh, that's a good question. So first and foremost, I'm a mom. I have three sons. They are everything. So that's first and foremost who I am. I think my, I think the whole purpose in life is to raise decent human beings because if your kids hate you, nothing else matters. It doesn't matter how successful you are. But I actually, yeah, I ended up here in a roundabout way, kind of like Jennifer, the first half of my life I spent 25 years in healthcare, 16 of those as a nurse, the other doing administration. Worked in a large hospital system during COVID got burned out. I think like a lot of healthcare workers was looking for something different. Knew I wanted to still help people. Kind of saw this, the program manager position here open up and I was like, well, I'll try that. Like, you know, that'll be something good to do for a few years. A little different. Got it. I was absolutely shocked. I got it, to be honest, because like, yeah, they're two different things, healthcare and. Or at least that's what you think, right? That those are two opposite things. And then came here and actually have absolutely felt in love with it. I love it. And it also ties into my love of health care because at the end of the day, I love people. I'm a people person. But, you know, we have a lot of initiatives with, you know, the Ohio, the association, the Ohio association of Food Banks about, you know, getting people prescription boxes, trying to petition, you know, our managed care organizations in Ohio because we know now from research, I'm getting off on the sideways here. This isn't anything about me. But you know that it's important because if you're hungry, what else matters? And you know, people forget that, you know, if you have a lot of health issues and you also have poverty, then you're less likely to eat right, which can leaves your medical conditions Your health conditions in worse shape, then you might also skip days of medication because you're making a choice whether to buy medicine or food. And we both know that they contribute greatly to people's health outcomes. So it's just been a good way for me to combine all those things. I love people helping people, taking care of their bodies, and that's what food does. So that's me in a nutshell. [00:39:36] Speaker C: I love it. My last personal question is, what is your favorite holiday snack meal tradition? [00:39:43] Speaker E: This is a good question. I. So my family only lets me cook twice a year. [00:39:50] Speaker C: Okay. Is it Thanksgiving and Christmas? [00:39:51] Speaker E: Well, no, it's Christmas morning and Easter morning. We're kind of like Jennifer. We're a little different. But my husband's the cook in our house, so. But on Christmas morning and Easter morning, I am responsible for brunch. We do brunch. Brunch is our thing, so. And I'll be honest, I hate the holidays. They've always been something I've dreaded. Last year, we started a new tradition of we leave town for Christmas now because my kids are older, so we go war. It's warm. We're like, all right, everybody needs a break. We don't. Like, we had steak for Christmas dinner last year. But the brunches are because that's our tradition. So, like, each year, mom makes breakfast. The only two meals in the whole year she'll make. But I'll make breakfast for everybody. So that's my favorite. But my favorite food is ham and green bean casserole for the holidays. I'm a ham person, too. Yeah, I saw you're a ham person. [00:40:45] Speaker C: Oh, man, I love a good ham. Yeah, there's something about a Christmas ham. And it's also like. And I do this every year at Thanksgiving, I eat the food, and I have the same realization that I'm capable of cooking this food throughout the year, that I don't just have to do it at Thanksgiving. And then, you know, a month or so later, I'll celebrate Christmas. And I have the same, like, realization with Christmas and the ham. And then nine months pass, and I don't eat it when, like, I'm fully capable of, like, buying a ham year round and having a Christmas ham or having, like, stuffing. But, like, you just don't think to. [00:41:21] Speaker E: Take away from what you have to look forward to for nine months. No, but I agree with you. I do that, too. I could eat this other times. [00:41:31] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much for indulging me and all of the questions about who you are. We can. We can get back to ccl. I know that just listening to you talk about it, clearly you're passionate and I know that you've implemented a lot of new things here at Second Harvest Food Bank. So, again, this episode is in light of the holiday season or the giving season, depending on how you celebrate. And we know this time of year is when groups want to volunteer and schools want to host food drives. I know Jennifer kind of already touched about how we are so grateful for those things. We will always encourage them and celebrate them. Getting food in the doors, getting people in the door, getting funds in the door, it's important. And so I don't by any means want to diminish that. Thank you for everyone who does it throughout the holiday season. But can you talk to us a little bit about the ways that it extends far beyond this holiday season? Jennifer's mentioned a little bit, but, you know, her role as development director is really bringing funds in the door. What other ways can people get involved at Second Harvest Food Bank? Whether that's here in Clark County, Champaign County, Logan County? Is it hosting a food drive? Is it volunteering? Talk to me about that. [00:42:46] Speaker E: So, of course we need the two things people don't have enough of, ever money and time. So volunteering is the biggest way people contribute. 85 to 90% of the work that we do is done by our volunteer volunteers. We have a very small staff. So, I mean, we're talking. We pack around a thousand boxes a month for our senior program. That is not done by staff, that's done by volunteers. So that is like even just coming in for a few hours and packing boxes or helping with direct distributions. You know, if you're a smaller group and there's only four or five of you and you want to help and you have two hours a month or a week, you know, give us a call. We do mobile distributions in Champaign and Logan County. Like if you're a small doctor's office or a small dentist office and you guys want to give back, like we can one of our healthcare providers in Champaign and Logan county, they volunteer and do a mobile distribution on site community health and wellness. And they go back and forth. So one month they'll do Logan county, one month they'll do champagne, and the nurses and doctors and the staff all come out and do the distribution with us. So that those are big ways. You know, if you're in a rural area or even if you're here in Springfield and you're, you know, maybe you're a small church or an office somewhere. And you know, you deal with people and you know there's hungry families and you're like, well, we could help out. We could have a small pantry that helps. Like even if you're only serving five families a month to, again, to those five families, that's everything. And it may be families that can't get to us or we can't get to them. So those are big, really big ways. Is time, you know, just giving us some of your time. [00:44:37] Speaker C: Yeah, that, that reminds me of when I was, when I was writing the script for this and I was thinking about my time here at ccl and I was thinking about how like we all have to be in it together. I had this memory and I don't remember if you were here for this or not, but we had this nine year old boy and I think that this has been done in like years previous with Second Harvest. And I'm sure other food banks experience this too. But this boy asked for donations to Second Harvest Food Bank CCL instead of gifts for his ninth birthday. And he brought his. He brought in a palette worth of. I don't even recall what it was now, but they were just, they were what people had given to him in lieu of gifts. And I just thought how wonderful that this. Hey, how wonderful that this child was raised to be right. Like the way that you were talking about raising good people right and then that he, he wanted to give. And that wasn't during the holidays, that was just during the year on his birthday. And he was just being a sweet boy. And again, back to the point that we have to all be in it together. But I think that's an example of ways people can get involved. [00:45:57] Speaker E: That actually made me think, when you brought that up, I wasn't here for that. But that's amazing. We recently had a county commissioner reach out and she runs a 4H group and they were wanting to donate their meat. You know, like they have raised. [00:46:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:13] Speaker E: For fair. And now they're going to sell them. They watch it through the whole process and they wanted to get it butchered and packaged. And Tony, our procurement manager, does a wonderful job with those kind of things. She let them know our requirements like that it has to be USDA inspected. And they're like, well, we want to come pass it out to you. [00:46:34] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. [00:46:36] Speaker E: Like then you've watched the whole process. Like you raise this animal, you know, you. It's giving back now to its community and then you can be there for that process as well and see how all that Work you did is helping maybe somebody who otherwise can't afford it. So we're very excited about that. But yes, those are great ways to. [00:46:56] Speaker C: Y to get involved year round. [00:46:59] Speaker E: And our gardens here in Clark County. Yeah, our gardens here in Clark county do that as well. So we have a couple of large gardens that are volunteer ran and they. We've even got them now. Some of them are taking the produce directly to our agencies in our pantries. So, you know, so nothing's going to waste. We don't want things to go to waste. And again, the quicker we can get them into people's hands. So, yeah, even little things like that. [00:47:25] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:47:26] Speaker E: It's everything. [00:47:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. And I think you guys have. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have a pretty good array of volunteer opportunities. What can you talk to me? Just some examples for those. I know in past, even administration work, it's not necessarily packing boxes, although we always encourage that. Can you talk to me more about all those opportunities? [00:47:49] Speaker E: So again, we're a small food bank, so one opportunity we have is we don't have anybody at our front desk full time. So if there's someone at our front desk, it's typically a volunteer. And then they just sit there and kind of answer questions as people come in. That's one way to volunteer. On Mondays, we have volunteers that come in and help stock in preparation for our alley distributions. Because people forget like, yeah, if you have 400 people coming through in a day, like, you need to have things stocked up. So we have a few volunteers that come in, even just for an hour or two. Again, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, people come in and they'll hand out food. But then on Wednesdays or even earlier in the week, we have people come in and help build orders. So those order ahead orders, people can pick what they want. They'll help build those. And then on Fridays, we have the dream team. Or on Wednesdays they come in and pack boxes. But we also need people to file paperwork. We need people that could even meet with our agencies when they come in to pick up orders. So if you like customer service, that's something you can help with. Yes, all kinds of volunteers. [00:49:02] Speaker C: Great, great. Those sounds like great opportunities that you can do on your own time, maybe with a friend. What about bigger groups? Do you guys ever do any partnerships for wraparound services? And do you work with any other foundations or organizations? Maybe some listeners I know recently at oaf, we had someone reach out who does a like, annual shoe drive. [00:49:28] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:49:28] Speaker C: And they were Wanting for the shoeless? Yeah, yeah. And they were wanting to see if there was someone in their county food bank or one of our partner agencies they could, you know, work with. Does CCL ever do that? Is there any opportunities for that kind of stuff? [00:49:43] Speaker E: Actually, we have usually two to three times a week in our parking lot. One of our local Rocking Horse Community Health center, they have a bus that they take around to different areas that. So people can get to them. Like, people may not be able to get to their main center, but they could get to the bus. So they come and sit in our parking lot and see people a few times a week. We have some relationships with the local hospitals where they will go there and help. You know, if they need something done, we welcome them and then they'll come here. I'm trying to think of what other wraparound services we work with. Currently we're working with United Senior Services. Our outreach team does cooking classes. So even things like that. Yes. So we take, like, a lot of the things that'll come in the senior box and teach people how to make recipes out of those senior boxes. We have people who will then help volunteer there. Like Debbie's helped volunteer for the cooking class. We've had other volunteers go and help with the cooking class, so all kinds of things. We recently partnered with our hospital and our health district, our Clark county combined health district. We're going to do a voucher program for formula. [00:51:03] Speaker C: Oh, wonderful. [00:51:04] Speaker E: For I need babies. So it's families who have been struggling to get WIC appointments. So until they can get into those WIC appointments, they'll get a voucher for formula and then they'll come here and pick it up. So just little ways we can partner. Yep. Anything we can do to get people fed or get them the services they need, we're looking at hopefully next year being able to expand into our outreach team and possibly look at helping with Medicaid applications or other things like that. [00:51:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that because at the very top, top of the conversation, you had listed all of the programs, which is very, again, expansive and very impressive. But we keep referring to outreach and wraparound services. As a food banker, I know what that means, but maybe some of our listeners don't. [00:52:00] Speaker E: Absolutely. [00:52:01] Speaker C: And so I know that especially when you came on, you had a huge part in our outreach team. Can you talk. Talk to the extent of what they're doing and how those programs and the work that they're doing is not necessarily. I mean, some of it's food related, but it's also kind of getting more into those social determinants of health. Let's talk about that. [00:52:22] Speaker E: Yes. So a large part of what our outreach team does is SNAP applications. So they help with assistance for people to get food stamps. Now, sometimes there are barriers with that because each county is different in what they're allowed to do. So in bigger counties, like maybe Cuyahoga and Hamilton and Franklin county, they can actually assist with the application. Their outreach teams can help people do the applications. Unfortunately, in our three counties, we are not allowed to do that. So we're more there for support and guidance is kind of how I like to look at it. But we knew there was a big gap in our counties, so we were trying to think of ways like how do we get more people? Because at the end of the day, the idea is to what we call in food banking, shorten the line. So it's not. We're always going to have people that have needs, but how do we help them reach them needs, get them what they need, but then also help elevate them so that in the future they'll be able to help somebody and may not necessarily need us. And how we do that is through these wraparound services like snap, because we know that single mom who's going back to school, if she knows her kids are fed, can maybe concentrate and get herself through school so that she doesn't need to use the food stamps. So things like that and then just connecting them to different services. So we get a lot of calls about, you know, my heat got shut off or, and it's cold and my kids are cold. So connecting them with resources like HEAP that can help help them get their bill paid for or even some housing assistance. One thing our outreach team started doing last year is because we also know for our senior box program that those seniors who qualify for that senior box are most likely going to qualify for SNAP as well. So tying those two together. And now our outreach team does our CSFP so that they can look at every application and then also assess that person for snap. And then when they call them about their senior box, they will say, hey, just so you know, I notice that your income, your eligible, eligible for SNAP as well. Is that something that you're interested in just to try to tie us? Because we don't want our seniors having to pick between food and medication. So if we can help fill that food gap, then maybe they can get the medicine they need. So a big part of our outreach team's job is literally just connecting people within their Community, whether it be with United Way, with Heap, with the local Housing Housing Authority, with their local Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and WIC teams. Because those are a lot of the calls we get, like, hey, I applied, but I haven't heard anything. And it's been six weeks. Kind of navigating that for them and getting them in contact with the right person. [00:55:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I wanted to. While you were talking, I pulled up our recent hunger study because I kind of wanted to kind of put some numbers to it. When you were talking about the trade off people are seeing with food and medicine. The Ohio association of Food bank released a hunger study in August of this year and it'll be linked in our show notes. But of the 2300 people that we surveyed across the state of Ohio, we found that more than half, 57.8% of our food pantry visitors are choosing between affording food and affording met medical care. [00:56:01] Speaker E: Absolutely. And it's, it's, it's absolutely heartbreaking because that's not a new problem. I mean, years ago, I haven't been a nurse in over 10 years, but even as a nurse, we knew people were doing that 15 years ago. [00:56:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:13] Speaker E: You know, and it, it is about, like, how does the diabetic get better if they can't afford the food they need that is not full of processed food, not full of chemicals, not full of processed sugars or even regular sugars. And then on top of that, they can't afford the food they need to help control their health condition. They can't afford the medicine either. So it's a, it's a double whammy for them. And it's been an ongoing issue. And then we do like, to me, that is our. It's not just about feeding people, but it's about making sure what we're feeding people is helping them and not harming them. [00:56:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:54] Speaker E: Like, I get that we want people to be fed and. Absolutely. But we also want to make sure now that we know better, that we do better and aren't making their health conditions worse. So. Yeah, it's heartbreaking. [00:57:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure it, it hits a different type of home, especially when you've been in the medical field and you've seen it. But I appreciate you guys being part of the work. Work that the association is doing with food is medicine. I don't know if you guys experience this, but living here in Springfield, I always get like, I'm such a nerd. But I always get really, like, giddy when I go in for like my, either like my annual at my OB or I go in for my, like check in with my normal doctor and I do my annual like questionnaire through Mercy Health Network, which is here in Springfield. And they always ask me about my food security and I'm always like, that's like a harvest food bank. Like, that's the partnership. And as listeners maybe don't understand that, but as someone who lives in this community, who works in this network, who's kind of a nerd when it comes to these things, it's really important. And I think that's, that's a prime example of partnership, community. Right. Is the work that Mercy Health and you guys are doing. You've talked about rocking horse SNAP outreach again, kind of of it all goes back to the social determinants of health. We can go on and on and on about food is fuel, food is. [00:58:18] Speaker E: Medicine, and people aren't going to get better till we do this. Like, things aren't. [00:58:24] Speaker C: No. [00:58:24] Speaker E: I'm glad you brought that up because it does. Like, and it unfortunately took health care a long time to get on board with that. You know, like, if people are hungry and they can't. Right. They're choosing between they're never going to get better. [00:58:36] Speaker C: Right. [00:58:37] Speaker E: And it is heartwarming. And if we think about it, even just as a human being, if you're hungry, even if it's not on a regular basis, if you haven't ate all day, you're grumpy. [00:58:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:50] Speaker E: Like, and then we want people to get better on top of that. [00:58:53] Speaker C: Like, right? Yeah. [00:58:54] Speaker E: No, no, it's, yeah, it is, it is all, it's the, it takes the community. [00:58:59] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'm glad that we're starting to come around and rework things, be more progressive and be better with the language. I learned real quick when I joined the Food Bank Network that you just don't know what someone's going through. [00:59:15] Speaker E: No, you don't. And I think the other thing is we actually had this conversation this morning. I was meeting with a new agency there, a school and we were talking to the nurse and not understanding and understanding that people can go through bad periods in their life that I didn't even realize food banking was a thing in healthcare, you know. And Audrey, I know you know this story. I have a son that went through cancer treatment when he was five and we went from a two income family to a one income family in a matter of a day. And I can remember being so worried about how we were going to feel our kids because we had literally Spent over a thousand dollars the first week he was in treatment on CO base. I can remember staying up at night and crying and like, if I had known that I could do this, that I could go to a food bank. [01:00:09] Speaker C: Right. [01:00:10] Speaker E: And get enough food for two or three days. Because at that point in time we did meet the criteria. But like, if you'd looked at our previous tax returns. No, but on that day, in that six month time period, we needed it. And like, I don't ever want another parent to feel like I know my husband and I felt like if it wasn't for his coworkers, we, I don't know what we would have done. But I don't want other families to go through that. I want them then to be able to use that money, maybe not to feed their kids, but to buy the medication. And to me, you know, it's about educating. Like, that's my thing. [01:00:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:52] Speaker E: You know, it's, it's about educating people that these opportunities are here, help is here. You don't have to be poor. I think that's also how people look at it is like you've got to be homeless or you've got to be. No, you could just hit a rough patch in your life. You could have had an unexpected medical, medical, you know, condition that you had to take a month off work. And we all know. [01:01:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:16] Speaker E: I mean, at least from my world, most people I know and myself included live paycheck to paycheck. A month out of work is devastating. So just letting people know, resources are available. [01:01:28] Speaker C: Yeah. I appreciate you sharing your voice. You know, we at the association and here at the food bank are big on amplifying the, the voice of people. And I think this goes into my next question, which is your call to action. Yes, but before I ask for the call to action, although I think I know what the answer is, I'm sure it's educational. Something is just. Thank you for sharing your story and being vulnerable. I think it's, you know, that's the point of the podcast, is to engage and inform. And if you were informed and you would have known, maybe there could have been help out there for you. And I really appreciate you just bringing the dignity to it. I know, you know, Ms. Debbie knows people in the food bank world know that it's not just people who are unhoused or a lot of. [01:02:16] Speaker E: Right. [01:02:16] Speaker C: I mean, I know a lot of the neighbors when I was here, and I'm sure it may be still the same, if not worse. More than half were working, if not Two to three jobs. [01:02:26] Speaker E: Right. [01:02:27] Speaker C: That's the thing. Yeah. Again, so then talk about accessibility and talk about having lockers available at 10pm because when you're working two to three jobs. [01:02:34] Speaker E: Right. [01:02:34] Speaker C: Where do you find the time to get the food? [01:02:37] Speaker E: Exactly. [01:02:37] Speaker C: And we can spiral all day long and it's just knowing that the help is out there. So thank you for bringing awareness to it. I again, for our listeners, the show notes for will include Second Harvest Food bank of Clark, Champaign and Logan counties. Obviously, we can only speak for the programs that are being run here, but we do have a food bank, 12 food banks across the state serving all 88 counties. So for our listeners, please go onto our website again, we'll be in the show notes to find your local food bank because a lot of them have resources, opportunities and can help your family during a time. So what's your call to action, Sarah? What you got? [01:03:18] Speaker E: For me, it is education and awareness. Yeah. It's because I think the more people know, the better we do. Like sometimes people don't know to your point, like and. But we all know somebody who's went through a rough patch. [01:03:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:32] Speaker E: You know, so it's about just making people aware. [01:03:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:36] Speaker E: And educating them on the resources and when they can use those resources. [01:03:40] Speaker C: Yeah. And the more you talk about anything, the more listeners can't see me, quote, unquote, normal things become. [01:03:48] Speaker E: Right. [01:03:50] Speaker C: And how many people, and I've heard it firsthand, working in the network, are nervous to come or embarrassed to come or uncomfortable to come. And so I think by bringing your story and bringing the education and the awareness also brings dignity that we need so greatly in this network. There is nothing to be ashamed of. So many of us are living paycheck to paycheck. We're all experiencing this economy. We're all experiencing these hardships. You don't know what someone's going through. You don't know if there was a fire last night. It's frankly not our business. And if they need to come and get the resources, we are proud to be the network. Again, our website will be in the show notes. We serve all 88 counties. So I just want to close, Sarah, by saying thank you for all the work you're doing for Clark, Champaign and Logan counties. And thank you for being an advocate. Your voice really matters. [01:04:47] Speaker E: No, thank you. I appreciate all you do for us because without people like you, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. [01:04:53] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:04:54] Speaker E: You're welcome. [01:05:05] Speaker C: I am sitting down with last but not least, Mrs. Debbie. Ms. Debbie. Thank you for being here. I was so excited to see you when I walked in. It's been a long time. So thank you for being here. [01:05:20] Speaker A: Thank you for inviting me. I love. I'm always here, but I have to come for this. [01:05:24] Speaker C: I know. So you are always here at Second Harvest. So, Second home, tell our listeners who you are and why. Why are you always here at Second Harvest? [01:05:35] Speaker A: Well, I guess I'd start out with the fact that for 35 years, I was a teacher, an elementary school teacher. Loved the job, didn't want to leave the job. But 35 was enough for my husband in particular. So I am definitely a people person. [01:05:50] Speaker C: Okay. [01:05:50] Speaker A: So I can't help that I have to be around people. And once I figured out that I could go to the United Senior center, there was my next group of people. So I'm at the fitness center all the time down there. And it still wasn't enough because I needed the people. I needed that volunteer work. And it just happens that another teacher was down there, and she works with Ridgewood School, and she invited me to come down when they were packing one day. And that's. I only needed to get in the door because I had come by here one other time with my granddaughter. I wanted to donate some things, and there was a real long line out that front, and, you know, I didn't know how to get in, and I got. I just got nervous about it and went home and didn't get here. Well, once I got inside the building, that was all it was going to take because the whole story unfolded from there. I saw so many opportunities here. The people here are just welcoming. They're here for others. I want that same positive energy around me. [01:06:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:56] Speaker A: So here I am. I've been here, what, maybe three years. I got. I came every day when I could come every day. And then on Fridays, they changed it from the outdoor distribution. So I was doing the Sheehan packing and the distribution on Mondays and so forth and so on. But once I got here, it was the easiest two hours of my life. And they actually told me to not stay longer than that. We have other, other things to do. When I first started coming, two hours is enough. I said okay, and I would leave, but I think I could have spent another hour. I just like to be busy, and I like to be around people. And it's just my husband and I at this point at home, and he's with his people and I'm with mine, and we'll get together later in the day. [01:07:39] Speaker C: You know, it all works out that sounds ideal. [01:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it is ideal. Everybody. [01:07:45] Speaker C: Everybody is happy. [01:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it was just get me in this door and it's all I'm gonna need because it's a perfect place for me. Perfect place to volunteer. [01:07:56] Speaker C: Well, I say we like. I still work here. But they love having you. I love having you. Were you a teacher in Clark County? [01:08:05] Speaker A: Yes, I taught in Northeastern school district. I was at south Vienna for 35 years and just saw there also why you need to take care of food insecurity. That's probably going to come up here in a minute again. But our children had a lot of the free and reduced lunch. [01:08:25] Speaker C: Okay. [01:08:25] Speaker A: And they came without food in their bellies. [01:08:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:29] Speaker A: So it's always been important. [01:08:31] Speaker C: So you're Clark county born and raised yourself? [01:08:33] Speaker A: No, I am from Lima, Ohio, but grew up in a very similar situation to where I ended up teaching that country school. We had the, what, 130, 160 kids in a class small enough and in the rural community just outside of Lima. Lima Bath was not huge. But it's funny how you get there and I didn't know I was there until I was teaching there. And it was always home. It felt natural. [01:09:03] Speaker C: Well, let's talk more about it. Talk to me about your time as a teacher, as an educator, and. And what you saw with, as you had mentioned, the food insecurity with students. What have you seen over, you know, 35 years teaching in the state of Ohio? [01:09:19] Speaker A: Constant change. Yeah, but constant change, you know, curriculum, what you're teaching, state testing, all of that stuff. It went from, you know, I went in able to just enjoy teaching to having to teach to these certain, you know, standards of things that they wanted that took a little bit of that joy out of it, but it certainly didn't change how much I wanted to affect change in these children. We did not have a lot of wealth. I'll say we had the farming community, and that's not true of all Northeastern. We spread all over, so. But we had the farmers and we had a lot of children that just had needs and they would come in wanting to do what you asked, but the homework wasn't done or there was no lunchbox with them and other things. I saw the big change from families and parents being able to guide their children to value education. They were still trying to feed their children. They were trying to work long hours and so forth. So we talked about children taking care of children. That was happening. I taught families where I taught their children, I taught their parents, I taught the children. Unfortunately, there Might have been a grandchild come in there somewhere. I was there so long. But they came in wanting to learn, but without my side drawer with the food in it, the peanut butter and the apples and the stuff you needed to keep feeding them. So it starts. Well, before you get to a food bank situation here, you've got to. You've got to get them focused, and food is a key issue. When I came here, they asked me to help a little bit with the summer feeding program, which was important also because we had communities coming in here that. And they weren't even speaking English. That was hard for me to try to get them signed up and so forth. But going to the schools and helping them get lunches, all of that, you just have to feed these children so that we can educate them so that they will be in a better position when they become the young adults out there working. [01:11:39] Speaker C: And I imagine. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but were you the one paying to keep the snacks in that drawer? [01:11:46] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. [01:11:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:48] Speaker A: Well, I paid for the snacks. I went to the homes, I took them clothes, I took them shopping. I did what was necessary because some of the kids didn't have anybody. You know, they had a parent and that parent was working and they needed more. [01:12:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Educators really are superheroes. [01:12:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We're social workers. We're nurses. [01:12:07] Speaker C: We're all. [01:12:08] Speaker A: We're all of it. And then you'd get the ones that there could have been some abuse and that breaks your heart and you have to work through that. And yes, I worked with families to get them some heat. Work through the families. We had horrible life situations, as you can imagine. So there were just lots of issues that are beyond teaching. [01:12:28] Speaker C: Yeah. Were there any programs or do you recall of any programs, like after school programs that provided snacks or did you guys have free and reduced lunch during your time? [01:12:39] Speaker A: We had the free and reduced lunch and then it got to where we could do the breakfast also. [01:12:43] Speaker C: Right, okay. [01:12:43] Speaker A: Which so wonderful when that came in. And, well, our guidance counselors were outstanding. All I'd have to do is go to them and, you know, they would help. [01:12:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:12:54] Speaker A: So we. We had resources, but I was there during those hours that I got to get them to focus right now. So food important, right? Important. Right, Right. [01:13:08] Speaker C: Well, thank you for giving us a little bit of background on who you are. I've known you for a while and I didn't even know that about you. So thank you for informing me before we talk a little bit about why you have chose. Well, you've Already talked about Ridgewood and your. And your friends there and. And why you've come to Second Harvest, but why you continue to show up to Second Harvest. My last question is, what is your favorite holiday food? [01:13:36] Speaker A: And at first I thought you were asking them about meals. I thought anything that people cook for me, that is my. Okay, okay. [01:13:42] Speaker C: Just as long as someone else. [01:13:45] Speaker A: Because that has shifted to my daughter to do that cooking. And I love anything she's making. But I do know there's something that my older sister still does for me. Growing up, we would make cookies for Christmas. You know, mom and the sisters, and we made cookies. But the ones that, you know, you get that little silver press out and you squeeze that and you make those butter cookies. Do you ever make those? Do you ladies know about butter cookies? Oh, the best use of flour and butter and sugar you could ever have. They're just small. They call them spritz cookies. A lot of times if you add eggs in. But these are butter cookies, and all you need is that press and you make those out and then sugar sprinkles on the top. And they're just little. So my sister knows that I try to not eat a lot of cookies, but if it's Christmas time, she'll make me a whole bag of those, though. I can put them in the freezer and pretend I'm not going to eat more than one or two at a time. I just get me a handful and sit down and eat them. Oh, the little butter cookies. [01:14:46] Speaker C: I love that. I've never heard of. [01:14:48] Speaker A: Memories right there. [01:14:50] Speaker C: I bet you've had it. [01:14:51] Speaker A: The cookie pressure. It's a cookie press, and you twirl it and it squirts out. It can be a Christmas tree or it can be a little butterfly shape. It can be a flower shape. The flower shapes are good. And don't let anybody tell you that the red hot in the middle is important because I didn't like that I wanted the sugar crystals, not that little red hot. [01:15:09] Speaker C: It sounds like maybe we can see these in the dessert auction. [01:15:14] Speaker A: If I talk to my sister, I'm making other things. [01:15:20] Speaker C: Okay, well, remind me. We'll come back to that at the end. We can. We can plug that for our listeners. Okay, cool. Thank you for that. I'm excited to talk now about all that you've done here at Second Harvest. So you mentioned that you came around, you know, about three years ago. Sounds like through a. Through a friend. Through the senior center in Ridgewood schools is a great, Wonderful partner of CCOs. So you've been here for three years. Why do you keep coming back? And can you talk to me about the different opportunities that you've done over the three years? [01:15:57] Speaker A: Yes, yes. And I actually made some notes on these because that's how many opportunities are here. I'm a person that likes a lot of variety in my life. I do a lot of things during the day. Somebody say you just are never home. But it's just I'm a couple hours here. [01:16:12] Speaker C: Is it your husband who says that? [01:16:14] Speaker A: Well, he's not there either till I get there. We're just busy. But some of the jobs here, I think that packing of those monthly food boxes, we do that for the senior group. And, well, we're doing it right now back there, so there's some more of that going on. I enjoy doing that. And plus some I work with a nursing home. [01:16:32] Speaker C: Also. [01:16:33] Speaker A: I do volunteer work there mostly because I love to play games. Okay. And so I take them food and we play games every Thursday afternoon. So some of my friends that are now in assisted living are getting these monthly food boxes because I said, this is a way that we can still help you. [01:16:51] Speaker C: Nice. [01:16:51] Speaker A: So I know that you take some to them. And right now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm filling the box for the alley drive through with our grocery carts, and we get them all filled up, and they're filling up. I've been very pleased lately with the amount of fresh produce, fresh vegetables, you know, we need that fresh stuff, too. Cans are great for winter, but we've had more meat, we've had more fresh produce. That's really. That's inspiring to me. I like that. I go to the parking district parking lot distributions. We've changed the one. I really preferred the one that we did here on Fridays outside. But I know there were different things that we had to do, and we changed it to Clark State and some other places. Now, I like that because I like to get to the people. I want to say, have a great day, you know, whatever. I like the interaction when I'm doing it. Right now, I'm filling the carts and then other people are pushing them out and so forth. But I like that donating for the auctions and things like that. I like to bake. I don't want to eat what I bake, so I give it to other people. But I'm getting things ready for that. So when they are doing their auctions and so forth, I like to donate to that stuff. The summer lunch program I mentioned I'd helped with that. Just when we first started coming, we did a lot of just sorting. We had all our bins because we get a lot of volunteer food in. We'd sort it, then we'd have to stock it. We'd have to weigh it. You know, I've been here through a couple different ways, but it's always worked. And it's. It really is whatever is needed. I love that variety. So when you are thinking about coming in a food bank, you don't have to do one thing. Just say, what do you want me to do? And they will hook you up. There will be things to do. And I'd add it on. And the cooking class was fun because Ms. Maggie said, do you want to help while I'm down at the senior center most of the time, in between walking and doing other things, I said, well, yeah, you know, let's. Let's do that. So we can use our boxes, you know, the nuts when we have the apples that. Oh, so many things that you can use in cooking. [01:19:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:04] Speaker A: And use it. So I go down there and help her. I'm supposed to help tonight now that when I'm in town. One more of those. I do that, too. Did I answer everything? [01:19:14] Speaker E: You did. [01:19:15] Speaker C: And it also. It also brings up a really great point. And Jennifer, I don't know if you have any thoughts on this, but you've brought up the. The fundraisers that Second Harvest Food bank does. The harvest breakfast Jennifer had previously mentioned, you're referring to the dessert auction. They also do the empty bowls. That's another way people can get involved by coming to the fundraisers. I know empty bowls is typically during the spring, and they're always looking for soup donations. The November. Somebody help me here. The bake, the dessert auction. Thank you. In November that Ms. Debbie's talking about. [01:19:53] Speaker A: Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Come on out and support us. [01:19:58] Speaker C: There you go. They do that annually, and you can always bake a dessert for that. So there's. There's tons of opportunities. And I appreciate you bringing it up because that's one which I should have thought about, but I didn't think about a ways that people can get involved. So you listed a lot of things. I just talked about the fundraisers that I know that you have supported. What's your favorite, favorite thing to do for Second Harvest? [01:20:25] Speaker A: All of it. My favorite thing, I like to be happy. Every day I come in here, I'm happy. So my favorite thing is coming in here to be happy. I give out smiles, I give out hugs. And, you know, when you do that what happens? [01:20:37] Speaker C: Smile. [01:20:38] Speaker D: They come right back at you. [01:20:40] Speaker A: So the more I can make other people happy, the happier I get. So there it is. I love all of it. I love being out among people. That's what I love. Well, clearly. [01:20:54] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:20:55] Speaker C: I mean, I think that's wonderful. And you've already mentioned it, but clearly you are very involved in the community. You've mentioned a couple places that you're also volunteering at. So can you talk to me a little bit about what you've seen changes over the year, whether that be volunteerism in general, Specifically here at Second Harvest. You're involved in organizations at Clark County. Yeah. What does that, what does that look like over the years? [01:21:24] Speaker A: The changes here I've seen is how much more efficient we are getting. The numbers are increasing dramatically. We do not stop during those drive through hours. And I've been coming anywhere from a half hour to 15 minutes earlier than when they're going to open those doors just to help. And there's another young lady back there with me that we're just trying to get those carts filled so that when that 9:00 comes, we can actually open that door. It's going to be all the way around the block and I won't leave till 11 or 11:30 and it will still be all the way around the block. Like we hadn't done anything. So the need is great, but we're filling it. You know, there were times when we didn't have what I wanted on the shelves. You know, it's like I wanted to give them more, but this was all we had. We're getting more donations in here. It's getting stocked better. You guys have added more of the refrigerators. The organization of it, it's flowing. We have got a lot of volunteers back there and Kurt has worked on trying to spread us a little bit more around. So we've got a lot of people coming. We know what we have to do and we're getting it done. And that's a rewarding feeling that it's really happening. But the biggest change is just that we have such need. [01:22:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:54] Speaker A: Which is why we still need those volunteers. Yeah, we need our volunteers. We need all the things you ladies are doing to get that food in here because the need is increasing rapidly. [01:23:06] Speaker C: Would you, would you say that speaks just for the three years that you've been here? Like every day you're seeing more and more. Like you're seeing more now, that map now today in October 2024, than when you started two years ago? [01:23:20] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. There is absolutely no comparison. And the way it was set up back then because I've seen several people come through as far as our alley work and how it's being organized. We have some. An excellent young lady, I have to say this though, but I did teach her. An excellent young lady running things back there at the moment with helpers. We've had so much change, but we have grown in it. We're getting better and better at serving more in a very organized fashion. Yeah, that's what I guess it is. [01:23:57] Speaker C: Are you, are you seeing more? And I'm just curious and it's okay if you don't know, but just interacting with neighbors and having so much face time. Are you seeing the demographics of neighbors changing? Are you seeing like more parents in line with their kids? Are you seeing more people who are in work uniforms because they just got off and they still. Or maybe you haven't noticed anything. [01:24:19] Speaker A: Well, I'm not at. Like I said, right now, I don't get to be out as much. Like on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm indoors. The Monday distributions, when we're outside, we've got every age group is what it is. Food insecurity is not just young people or just older people or just ones with children and so forth. I know one lady had come through probably a good year ago and she says, I feel so embarrassed to have to be here, but my husband is left to me, you know, I have no food right now and so forth. And it's like, yeah, like you were speaking of, you know, you just have that rough patch. There's no embarrassment here. We are here to supplement, to help, you know, we're here to help you. So don't come in feeling like you shouldn't be allowed to have this food. Everybody has those situations, you know, that you need. So I've seen all age groups and they all deserve the food. So I don't judge. I'm here to serve. [01:25:22] Speaker C: Absolutely. I appreciate that. I know that you spend a lot of time here at Second Harvest. It sounds like maybe a little less than what you were, but that's also because you're greatly involved in other organizations. You have a servant heart, a very kind hearted. How do you feel supporting your community and why do you keep doing it? [01:25:45] Speaker A: Volunteering is the easiest way there is to spread happiness. It's so easy. You don't have to. You don't have to have money, you don't have to have. You don't have to have anything but a good heart. That, that's really all it takes. I really believe in the importance of daily giving, daily happiness, just daily opportunities to make somebody else's life better. Because every time you do that, you're making your own better. So you can't. You can't go wrong with volunteering. I also volunteer at the animal Welfare league. Oh, my gosh. You know, those little kitties, I just. How lovely is that? Sit there and just stroke that little kitty cat and, you know, just talk to them. I talk to the animals, too. It. It doesn't take anything but wanting to give of yourself. So I keep coming back because it's such an easy place to give. I volunteer down at the senior center. I work out in that fitness room. When I'm not out hiking, I plan all the events for them. I do a bulletin board down there because I just plain enjoy being around people. So when you volunteer, you're around people. It works. It just works so well together. The only way that you really limit yourself is when you don't go out. If you stay to yourself and you sit in that house and you watch TV all day, then that's. That's the happiness. You'll get happiness with just yourself. But if you get out with other people, the more I am making other people happy, the happier I will be. [01:27:22] Speaker C: So I really. Yeah. Mic drop Right. Inserts MIC drop well, it starts with you. [01:27:27] Speaker A: If you want. You want to make that change in the world, then it starts with you. [01:27:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:32] Speaker A: You know. [01:27:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:34] Speaker A: Make the change you want to see. I want to see people happy and smiling and hugging and all that. So that's what I do. And it all comes back. [01:27:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I appreciate that. And. And it's not to say that what I'm about to say is not to say that any nonprofit is lesser than the other. I love nonprofits. I have a master's degree in it. It's, like, my favorite thing ever. But I think there's something just special about that at Second Harvest or at a social service. And that's not to say that kindness doesn't get you far at your local art museum or, you know, any of your local nonprofits. But when you think about people, and I think it was Sarah who mentioned it earlier, that when they're here at Second Harvest, we have to assume that they're, you know, maybe in a difficult spot they're here for. We don't. Again, we don't know what's going on. And so I think the kindness aspect is so important to a neighbor. Coming here, coming to any of our food banks in Fact, I'll go ahead and reference the hunger study again. When we interviewed people, 78 point found value in friendly, kind and welcoming staff and volunteers at their food bank. And I think that in itself speaks to. Again, I don't mean to diminish it at any, anywhere else, but when you are in a social service sector, when it's coming to your basic human rights, when you don't know if you have food in your belly or a roof over your head, that smile does go a little extra way. And, and I, I appreciate that and I know that our neighbors appreciate that. And, and clearly, you know, so do you and that's why you keep coming back. And again, I've said it once during this podcast, I'll say it again, like we have to all be in it together. And I think someone coming here, obviously they're going to get food, but little do they know they're going to get a smile from Miss Debbie too. [01:29:29] Speaker E: Right. [01:29:29] Speaker C: And that, that really can impact someone. Like kindness goes so far. And when you're here and you're either that young woman who's embarrassed or you just got off an 8 hour, 12 hour shift, or you have to go home to care for X, Y and Z, getting food and having someone smile, maybe that's the smile you're going to get all day, the kindness you're going to get all day. And, and it's important. So thank you, thank you so much. [01:29:56] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. [01:29:57] Speaker C: Yeah, course. I have one more last comment question. Yada, yada, yada. You know, this is ways that our listeners can support our food banks. And volunteerism is so critical. When I started at Second Harvest. When did you start? What year? [01:30:18] Speaker A: I started in 2021, probably right after the Guard. Right after Covid. [01:30:24] Speaker C: Okay. Was the National Guard here? [01:30:26] Speaker A: Yes, they were. [01:30:27] Speaker C: Okay. So when I started second harvest in September 2020, it was like what, six months after the pandemic hit and we had like over 40 National Guardsmen here. And I could not for the life of me wrap my head around how Second Harvest was going to run without the National Guard. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't, like, I could not because I, I didn't know any better. Right. Like, I couldn't fathom. I came in here every day and there was just rows of tables out there and just people. And, and they were on forklifts, they were loading trucks, they were doing all the things. And I was like, how the hell did they do this before the National Guard? And it is volunteers, it is the people who did it before the National Guard, that I was ignorant to the people who did it, even with did it while the National Guard was here, the people who are still doing it. And Sarah mentioned this, Jennifer's mentioned it, you mentioned it. Volunteers really make this place go around. And so I had a really hard time trying to understand. You mean to tell me these 40 to 50, you know, guards, people are going to just up and leave and then. And then what? Well, then you get 40 to 50 really great volunteers and you get really great Ms. Debbies and you get, you know, they come and they show up and, and they make it happen. So again, I would just ask for kind of your last call to action to people. Why should people want to volunteer? I guess in general, but not just during the holiday seasons, right? A lot of us, and we all love the magic of the holiday season, right? There's, there's, there's more love in the air, there's more giving in the air. And again, I don't want to diminish that by any means, but what about March? What about April? What about May? What about June? What is your call to action for people to keep volunteering year round? [01:32:23] Speaker A: Hunger isn't a holiday seasonal thing. Hunger is every day. I saw that every day when I was teaching. Know that you have to, you have to go for the common good. And the common good is feed the people. You know, feed those children. They can focus, they can learn. So you just have to, you have to work with common sense that how do I fix the problem is I get their bellies full and then they can fix their problems. They'll be able to learn, they'll be able to focus, they'll be able to go to work. You know, there's just that little common thread there of get their bellies full and then the other things will tend to take care of themselves. And that's every day. You eat every day or you hope to. Some children don't know that you eat every day. So yeah, no, you need, you need food every day. You need to nourish your body every day. And then your brain will work, your body will work and all the other things are going to come together. So it's just important to make sure that we don't forget that hunger is not just at Thanksgiving and at Christmas and when we're enjoying little butter cookies. You know, hunger is every day. And so we're here to feed the people and service the people and give them smiles and hugs while you do it. [01:33:42] Speaker C: You heard it from Ms. Debbie. Thank you Debbie, Jennifer, Sarah for your time today. I think it was a great episode and I'm excited for our listeners to get involved. The show notes will include Second Harvest Food bank of Clark, Champagne and Logan County's website as well as the Ohio association of Food Banks website where you can find your food bank if it does not happen to be ccl. So thank you listeners. Thank you ladies for your time and happy holiday season. [01:34:15] Speaker A: Thank you. [01:34:26] Speaker B: I want to thank Jennifer, Sarah and Debbie for their time today. A big shout out to Second Harvest Food bank of Champaign, Clark and Logan Counties for all the work they are doing year round. All 12 of our incredible food banks can be found on our website linked in the show notes where you can find more information on how to support your local food bank, whether that is through donations or volunteerism. On behalf of the entire Ohio association of Food Banks, I want to sincerely thank all of our supporters who advocate, donate, volunteer and support our food banks in every capacity. We are grateful to have you in this fight against hunger. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next time.