2010 and a new year at the Food Hamper Hamper Program

January is almost over, and it is still hard to get used to the idea that we are now well into 2011 and 2010 is soon to be ancient history.  The end of  2010 was business as usual for us here – full of donations, volunteers and people in need of our help.  And, the first bit of 2011 is no different!

We’re still in the process of finalizing our end of year program statistics, but I can say now that we distributed 32,041 boxes of emergency food between January and December 2010.   This is less than the previous year, but not by a very large margin.

Volunteer Spotlight: Willard

Willard has been volunteering with our program for just over a year now. Over the course of the last year he has faithfully served over 170 hours. During his time here you’ll always find him ready to pack a hamper when we call it out to the warehouse, or keeping busy by stocking shelves or re-packaging food and other items.

I often joke with Willard when I’m writing down the quotas for the hamper audit that I’m also filling out his performance review. So while he’s packing the hamper we’ll share a few laughs and playful criticisms. Then it dawned on me, that when I asked him to do a spotlight on him, I should phrase it to him that this is the performance review that we’ve joked about so many times but for real. So I’ll tell you the answers to the questions that he shared with me and then my overall opinion of his performance at the end.

Volunteer Spotlight: Sherry

It’s my pleasure to talk about this great volunteer. She’s given us over 2 100 hours of help over her seven years of volunteering at our program. With over 300 hours this year alone, let’s all give it up for Sherry!

You’ll often find Sherry traveling from one side of the warehouse to the other with bags after bags of potatoes. On one end she diligently sorts and packs potatoes into bags, and then brings them across the warehouse to keep our hamper aisles full. On her way she’ll often stop for a brief conversation, as she’s full of different ideas to talk about! So today I’m here to share a more “formal” conversation I had with her so I knew more specific details about her that I could share.

Volunteer Spotlight: Edmer

This January sparks the beginning of a new year for our program and also the one year anniversary for Edmer as a volunteer here! Over the last year we’ve had a good chance to get to know a few things about Edmer, since he’s put in over 275 hours by coming in twice a week. He’s a reliable and hard-working volunteer that helps out in the warehouse during the morning by bagging various food items. Each day we usually have a different food item for Edmer to bag, and today I happened to catch him bagging mushrooms. While he was hard at work I took a few minutes to ask him some specific questions about his volunteer experiences to this point.

Story from a program patron

What I have to share today is based on a conversation that I had with a patron in need of specialized food assistance. When patrons are in need of specialized assistance intake staff try to collect specific details by reading through the food list with them to determine what type of accommodations we can make with the resources we have available.

She needs special items, like soft foods and meal replacements (ensure or boost) to help her maintain a reasonable level of nutrition following her upcoming surgery. This detail is just one of the many that she shared with me during our conversation; so with her permission, here are the some of the experiences she had to share: