I’ve heard it said many times that no two food banks are exactly the same. This phrase didn’t really seem true until recently. I had the opportunity to attend the Agency Capacity, Programs and Nutrition Learning Conference sponsored by Feeding America in Chicago. The conference was great, the weather was great, and the company was also great! There were about 400 other food bankers from all over the nation looking for the opportunity to network and share great ideas.
It was especially exciting getting to attend various sessions about childhood hunger programs. Programs such as the Backpack Program, Kids Cafe, and School Pantries were heavily discussed. I have been working rather closely with the School Pantry program here at the Regional Food Bank, so any session that discussed some aspect of that program, I was there! So many food banks are attempting to embrace this new program as a way to reach different child populations. I was excited to hear about all the various models of the program. Food banks in the network offer mobile pantries, temporary in-school set up, or permanent in-school set up. Regardless of the model, one thing that remains the same among all of the food banks is that our main goal is to provide hunger relief.
At the conference, there were several break-out sessions that addressed the importance of raising hunger awareness. From Sesame Street educating the younger population, to making changes in Capitol Hill, the issue remains that hunger truly exists and it is our responsibility to make sure everyone is informed about the issue. It was very reassuring knowing that there are so many organizations around the nation seeking to provide assistance to those in need. While each food bank in the Feeding America network may vary in size, capacity, and even the number of child hunger programs they have, we are all advocates for ending hunger.
Traci Simmons
Childhood Hunger Corps
Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
20
Jan
Cardboard Robots Invade Volunteer Center to Help Fight Hunger
5:07 PM on Friday, January 20th, 2012No Comments
What do you think this is? A place where people come to have fun? Well, yes. Yes, it is! We love to have fun while we work at the Regional Food Bank Volunteer Center. Above are two OU students. They were pumped up to volunteer, and they really enjoyed themselves. I know hunger in Oklahoma is a serious issue, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time while working hard to fight it. Not only did this group have a blast that morning, but they set a new record for packing for the Food for Kids Backpack Program. They worked hard and played hard, and that’s the idea we try to put across to our volunteers. We try to provide an environment where they can have a good time and feel productive.
And don’t tell me you don’t like to sing. I know by now you have probably heard we have karaoke once a month for Rock ’n Box on Thursday nights. And I know most people are too shy to get up and sing in front of strangers, but you never know until you try. You probably like to sing while you’re driving around in your car with the windows rolled up, listening to your favorite song or maybe sometimes in the shower. Well just picture yourself doing the same thing when you grab that microphone. Ask someone who has sung karaoke a few times and they’ll tell you, “It feels so liberating; it can be addictive!” So that’s another way you can have fun and help fight hunger. The more fun you have while volunteering makes the whole experience better for everyone. More people will want to volunteer to pack and sort food, which means more food will distributed to Oklahomans in need!
I have always been fascinated by our global society and the people in it and that’s why I chose to pursue a degree in International Studies from the University of Oklahoma. Now a junior, I have had the opportunity to learn about many different issues that affect us locally and internationally. From human rights to ending poverty, I have cultivated a yearning to make a difference in the world by solving problems that seem simple enough, but actually require complex answers. This yearning is what led me to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.
To put it simply, what the Regional Food Bank does works. From the Food for Kids programs to the Senior Feeding programs, the Regional Food Bank works on the local level with many different groups of people to provide the aid and the education that are needed to eradicate hunger in our state. Reaching close to 100,000 Oklahomans every week, the success of the Food Bank and its programs has truly impacted the state and its citizens while providing the programming and the education to be effective in the long-term.
This all ties into why I, an International Studies Major, wanted to be a marketing intern at the Regional Food Bank. Because on an international scale, solving things like hunger and providing aid are difficult and often ineffective in the long-term; and, unfortunately, the efforts to help do not always reach the people that need it the most. My goals while I am here are to learn how to effectively promote the programs and the work of the Regional Food Bank while also learning ways to apply and promote their programs on an international scale. If we hope to solve hunger on an international scale, we need to start by promoting, helping, and learning from organizations, like the Regional Food Bank, that have effectively reached, educated, and impacted our own communities.
I also hope to periodically link to interesting articles and programs that are effectively working to end world hunger. Essentially, informing readers of news and programs similar to those at the Regional Food Bank but on an international level. In honor of my first blog post, I would like to link to Freerice.com. Free Rice is sponsored by the World Food Programme and is a fun way to help alleviate world hunger by answering trivia questions. For each question answered right, ten grains of rice are donated to the World Food Programme. Sounds easy right? With each right answer, the questions get harder. Trust me, it’s addicting. Go to www.freerice.com, answer some questions, and then comment on this post with how many grains of rice you donated to the World Food Programme and your longest streak of correct questions. So far, Free Rice has donated almost 92 billion grains of rice, how many more will you contribute?
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go with one of our drivers, Dennis, on his morning route. Naturally, being a technically minded person, I asked Dennis a litany of questions related to the technicalities, the truck, the process, and the amount of food that went to each organization that we would be delivering to that day. Our time that day took us to Yukon for 3 deliveries and 2 pickups. At the first site, I stood back and watched all of the things I had just asked Dennis, basically in an effort to see in action what he had just answered a few minutes ago. It wasn’t probably 3 minutes into my observation and I had an epiphany. Dennis was off doing his thing, and what I realized is that his job is much less related to the technicalities than it is the relationships. Dennis, in doing his job, had developed a relationship and rapport that was undeniable. They looked forward to him being there and he looked forward to seeing them. It was a first name basis, how’s your family, is there anything I can help you with type of occasion—a relationship.
From that point I realized that what we do here at the Food Bank is much less dependent on the technicalities than it is the relationships. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the technical things each of us do are very important, but at the end of the day NONE of what we do would be possible without the amazing relationships we have with the community and more so that the community has with us.
I am truly grateful for the opportunity I was given to work at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. My hope is that we all realize that our lives, our purpose, our mission are only accomplished by those with whom we have relationships. Whether at the Food Bank or life in general, it is these incredible relationships that allow everything necessary to be accomplished.
Believe it or not, when kids are given an opportunity to choose what they eat, there is a good chance that they will choose a healthier option. A few days ago I was at a local grocery store with two kids that my girlfriend watches – a nanny job of sorts. While at the grocery store in proper non-parental fashion, we bribed them with one selection from the store so long as they behaved during our visit. As we tooted around making our grocery selections, we came to the cookie aisle. Their selection was soon made—a HUGE bag of frosted animal crackers with sprinkles! So, naturally I asked them why they chose that bag of cookies out of the endless selection they were given. Their response, “We don’t have these at home.” I thought that answer to be fair enough; I mean after all, they are six and four years old. On our way to check out, my girlfriend wanted to get an assortment of fruit that she could snack on in days to come. As she was making her selections, the kids did something that absolutely surprised me. They said they “want(ed) some of these,” referring to a pile of nectarines. The fact that they wanted something else is not the surprise, but what followed should be a wakeup call. My girlfriend responded that if they wanted those they would have to put back the animal crackers. Strangely, the kids were so pumped on nectarines that, to them, it was seemingly a no-brainer. With each of them holding the nectarine they had selected, the kids and I ran (yeah, I’m a big kid too) back to the cookie aisle to replace the demoted selection.
On the drive home, I asked them a blanket question, “Why did you choose the nectarines instead of the cookies?” One hollered, “Because they taste better!” And the other chimed in, “and they are better for you.”
This short grocery store trip became a reminder and lesson to me that it is not always necessary to dictate what a child will and will not eat. Given a fair chance to taste and choose what they do or don’t like, a child’s choice may indeed be the exact opposite of what we assume. I assumed they would take the big bag of cookies and devour them as kids do. I never expected the HUGE bag of cookies to be trumped by nectarines.
At the Regional Food Bank we have recognized the need, but more so, the want of more healthy options. In response we have made a conscious decision to ramp up the amount of fresh produce we will offer to our partner agencies and, in turn, to the clients they serve. By the end of June 2012, we hope to have placed more than 10 million pounds of fruits and vegetable into the hands of Oklahomans who may have never been given an alternate choice. If the clients choose not to take or eat any fruits or vegetables that is their prerogative, but at least they will have the opportunity. In other words, if cookies are the only option there is a good chance the cookies will be taken, but if the option is cookies or nectarines, someone (maybe just one) may choose nectarines instead of cookies…but at least they had the choice.
Have you ever stood in a grocery store wondering how you were going to provide enough food for your family on $30 a month? Have you ever traveled all the way to a soup kitchen that wasn’t even open, or lost precious time in a waiting room to find out that you don’t qualify for SNAP benefits?
I’m lucky; I haven’t. But, I know a lot of students who have. That’s because we’ve had a lot of students come to the Regional Food Bank to participate in our 15-minute hunger simulation over the last few weeks.
Though a hunger simulation may sound like an act of deprivation, it’s really more an exercise in frustration. That’s the way I like it. I greet classes that have decided to come to the Food Bank for this excellent field trip experience and I smile big and tell them how happy I am that they came. It’s true, too. I am happy that they came. And I am happy that they are about to be frustrated.
I don’t want it to seem like I take general pleasure in other people’s stress and anxiety because normally I don’t. I make an exception for the students participating in our hunger simulation because while they are brooding over budgets, sweating in the SNAP office, and anguishing over the mock month that is quickly ticking to a close, I know that they are experiencing something important. They are experiencing the reality of hunger.
And I hope that when we finish the exercise and I tell them that over 600,000 Oklahomans live with food insecurity, they know what that means and what it feels like. I hope they make the connection that many of those Oklahomans are very like the personas they took on for the hunger simulation – regular people just trying their best to get by.
That’s why I feel a small surge of satisfaction every time I see a student throw his or her hands up in front of our fake soup kitchen’s closed sign because I hope that frustrated student understands, at least a little, what it’s like to live with hunger every day.
02
Dec
Kids Have Better Things To Think About Than Hunger
1:40 PM on Friday, December 2nd, 2011No Comments
Sitting on my desk is a coaster with a picture of two children playing, and above the picture it reads: “Because kids have better things to think about than hunger.” What a great daily reminder of why I do what I do here at the Food Bank. As a new AmeriCorps Member serving in the position of Programs Outreach Coordinator at the Regional Food Bank, I have the opportunity to work closely with two of our Childhood Hunger programs – the Kids Café program and the Backpack Program. Each of these programs is designed to provide nutritious food to children who might otherwise go without an evening or weekend meal.
True hunger is a concept to which I was virtually oblivious to as a child. I am sure there were times it was not easy for my parents to make ends meet, but not having enough food to eat was never even a thought that crossed my mind. I had some awareness (thanks to occasional missionary slideshows at church) that there were hungry children far away in some other part of the world, but in my own country – let alone my own school? Not a chance.
Of course, throughout my young adult years, I have become more aware of issues that exist here at home, but I really had no concept of the magnitude of child hunger in our state before I began working at the Food Bank. The figures are staggering: over 240,000 of Oklahoma’s children (that’s one in four!) suffer from food insecurity – meaning they have inconsistent or inadequate access to nutritious food at home. The Backpack Program alone provides weekend meals to over 10,000 children each week throughout central and western Oklahoma – and the program is still expanding. That figure floors me: 10,000 plus children are at risk of going without food to eat each weekend in our service area alone!
I occasionally take time to read through some of the stories that school coordinators of the Backpack Program pass along to us, which is both heartbreaking and reaffirming simultaneously. The problems these children have to deal with are often so astronomical that a backpack full of snacks seems insignificant at best. However, reports of the joy and gratitude with which both children and parents receive this food remind me of the importance of what this program does – it eliminates one worry for these children, so that regardless of what other circumstances they face at home, at least there is security and peace of mind in knowing that this basic physical need is met. This frees children to focus more energy on learning, growing, exploring, and imagining, as elementary aged children should be able to do…because kids really do have better things to think about than hunger.
Erin Cox
AmeriCorps Member
Programs Outreach Coordinator
As a vegetarian, laying bags’ worth of raw chicken legs on giant cookie sheets was not my idea of a fun Thursday morning activity. Pulling on the plastic gloves and apron, though, I tried to shove that thought aside and focus on the task at hand. Fellow Food Bank employees Traci, Joe, Tim and I were taking the morning to volunteer at City Rescue Mission in order to get a better look at the impact the Regional Food Bank’s partner agencies have on real people’s lives. And for us, that started in the kitchen, prepping chicken for dinner.
City Rescue Mission, at its most basic, is a homeless shelter, providing warm beds and three square meals a day to some of Oklahoma City’s neediest people—almost 400 people a day last year. Their goal, though, is to help people turn their lives around. Residents have the option to enroll in the Bridge to Life program where they get anger management counseling, addiction treatment and support finding a job, housing or going back to school. People in this program can stay up to two years, as long as they are working toward those goals.
City Rescue Mission partners with approximately 30 outside agencies, bringing everything from literacy classes to dental extractions under one roof for easy access. Additionally, they are partnering with the Regional Food Bank to build a Food Resource Center, which will be a best-practice food pantry that could distribute millions of pounds of food annually. The hope is that this new mode of intervention will help prevent homelessness in the first place; giving people the means to safely ride out bad days and hard times that otherwise might have turned them out on the streets.
Abby, one of City Rescue Mission’s few employees, is a bubbly, energetic woman who tutors resident children, among other things. Nice enough to conduct a tour for us, she gave us some insight into her experiences working at City Rescue Mission. Her obvious affection for their clients came through when she told us with a smile, “Don’t even think about feeling sorry for these women. They have sass.” Though residents obviously face an uphill battle, Abby was quick to talk about her favorite success stories. She teared up as she told us about visiting a family who had recently moved out of the Mission into a real home, with a yard and a living room. She also mentioned a woman who was living at City Rescue Mission as she finished up studying to be a pastry chef. As we walked, residents were diligently repairing some flooring; others were sweeping stairs.
And that’s why I was happy to be there, slimy raw chicken and all. Because prepping a dinner that could be a person’s only food for the day, or that gives people the energy they need to turn their lives around, is an honor. And as we moved into the cafeteria, taking trays from women after their meal, their faces—so many different races, different ages, different backgrounds—reminded me why the Regional Food Bank’s work is so important. Hunger can affect anyone. Heading back to the office, I was grateful for my renewed sense of perspective. Getting a chance to see the Regional Food Bank’s resources in action brought the meaning of “Fighting Hunger…Feeding Hope” to life.
Emily Windahl
Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
Childhood Hunger Programs Coordinator
Each year, millions of people will consume a food that is not safe to eat resulting in serious illness, and sometimes death. Serious outbreaks of foodborne disease have been documented on every continent in the past decade, and in many countries rates of illnesses are increasing significantly.
“In the United States, around 76 million cases of foodborne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.”
Check out the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “Ten Facts on Food Safety.”
http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/food_safety/facts/en/index9.html
A new city, a new job, and new opportunities, I’m so excited that I have the opportunity to begin working at the Regional Food Bank. It’s been quite a journey. I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated from Clemson University in 2010 with a degree in Biological Sciences and Spanish. After graduating, I had the opportunity to teach English in Chile for a few months. I had a blast traveling and seeing different sites throughout South America. After my experience in Chile, I moved to Houston, TX for a year where I interned with a nonprofit organization that assists abused, neglected, or HIV positive children. My experiences traveling and living in different places have opened my eyes to the true issues that exist within the lives of many children in the world. Hunger is real!
I have always had a passion for helping others. Seeing hungry children in third world countries is disappointing. However, what is more disappointing is to know that our fellow community members may also be struggling with hunger. It’s upsetting knowing that such a huge issue like hunger even exists in America- the land of opportunity, right? Well, the exciting news is that despite the reality of hunger, we can all make a difference. As a Child Hunger Corps Member through Feeding America, I will be working directly to help increase the capacity and capability of child hunger programs throughout our service areas. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue pursuing my passions to alleviate child hunger and am excited to work directly with the staff at the Regional Food Bank. When I first visited, I was in awe at the size of the facility and encouraged by the level of community commitment. I’ve noticed that the food bank not only provides food for those in need, but it also serves to build lasting relationships with individuals in the community. It’s so comforting knowing that I get to be a part of such a strong network that seeks to change the lives of those in need. It has been such a warm welcome and I am looking forward to the exciting things that will happen in the next few years!
Traci Simmons
Childhood Hunger Corps