Well we’ve reached October with no significant storm along our portion of the gulf coast and the weather forecasters are not predicting anything for the near future. That’s great news because beginning on October 1 we added three new Florida counties to our service area. We are now responsible for serving communities along approximately 350 miles of coastline. A quiet storm season means we can concentrate on those in need every day instead of rushing to support those suddenly homeless. It also means plans and scheduling for our warehouse expansion can continue to move forward without rain delays and that we can be operational in our new processing area by early November.
I’m writing this during a break at America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network’s annual conference. Over 100 people from the various network members and the national staff have been working for the past year on developing a new strategic plan to meet the needs of America’s working poor as the economy changes and as the food industry changes. Much of the conference time on Sunday and Monday was spent in small group information sessions look at the various portions of the plans as they have been developed. It is a complex yet vital process because it involves understanding what government programs will be providing in the coming years as well as what remains to be done. The Network goal is to increase service to the needy by 1 million people per year for the next five years through encouraging improvements in government programs and distribution of more food through the network. Along the way we are forming great national partnerships with organizations like Dunkin Donuts, The Country Music Television Network, Pampered Chef and Kraft Foods. For my part, I was involved with the Disaster Relief Task Force which gave a formal report to the over 500 people attending the conference. As a result of our report, the national office is hiring a highly experienced person to serve as disaster support director, increasing the disaster reserve funds three fold, pre-positioning loads of initial relief supplies at select locations and preparing a training course to train 10 teams of experienced people from across the nation to serve as first responders to help food banks ramp up operations following a disaster. The national conference is a fast paced four day event that helps all of us in the network see the big picture while handling our own slice of the mission day-to-day.
A quiet storm season does not mean we will have a quiet October. Agency support staff will be getting acquainted with over 20 new agencies in Bay, Holmes and Washington Counties of west Florida. The food coordinators will be working with the Mobile County School System on a week long fund drive in recognition of World Hunger Day. The communications staff will be working to set up a ribbon cutting event for our warehouse addition as well as a ground breaking for our new Milton facility construction. And, throughout the process the distribution staff will be going about the core task of unloading, sorting and then distributing about 25 tractor trailer loads of food as they do every month.
I’m writing this during a break at America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network’s annual conference. Over 100 people from the various network members and the national staff have been working for the past year on developing a new strategic plan to meet the needs of America’s working poor as the economy changes and as the food industry changes. Much of the conference time on Sunday and Monday was spent in small group information sessions look at the various portions of the plans as they have been developed. It is a complex yet vital process because it involves understanding what government programs will be providing in the coming years as well as what remains to be done. The Network goal is to increase service to the needy by 1 million people per year for the next five years through encouraging improvements in government programs and distribution of more food through the network. Along the way we are forming great national partnerships with organizations like Dunkin Donuts, The Country Music Television Network, Pampered Chef and Kraft Foods. For my part, I was involved with the Disaster Relief Task Force which gave a formal report to the over 500 people attending the conference. As a result of our report, the national office is hiring a highly experienced person to serve as disaster support director, increasing the disaster reserve funds three fold, pre-positioning loads of initial relief supplies at select locations and preparing a training course to train 10 teams of experienced people from across the nation to serve as first responders to help food banks ramp up operations following a disaster. The national conference is a fast paced four day event that helps all of us in the network see the big picture while handling our own slice of the mission day-to-day.
A quiet storm season does not mean we will have a quiet October. Agency support staff will be getting acquainted with over 20 new agencies in Bay, Holmes and Washington Counties of west Florida. The food coordinators will be working with the Mobile County School System on a week long fund drive in recognition of World Hunger Day. The communications staff will be working to set up a ribbon cutting event for our warehouse addition as well as a ground breaking for our new Milton facility construction. And, throughout the process the distribution staff will be going about the core task of unloading, sorting and then distributing about 25 tractor trailer loads of food as they do every month.
