Welcome to the Client Choice Network NYC - follow up from yesterday's meeting
Hannah Lupien
Hi All,
Yesterday was a very successful City Harvest Annual Conference. The Client Choice pantries that attended had the chance to meet over lunch to discuss successes, challenges, and action steps for the client choice community. Below are my notes:
· Successes
o Compliments from clients
§ They like to get foods they enjoy
o Less food wastage
o “Take it or leave it” policy is better than no choice at all
o Local Produce Link
§ A program of Just Food and United Way
§ Connects farmers with pantries
§ Contact Stacey McCarthy or Katie Sheehan at United Way for more information
o Private in-kind donations
o On-site garden
o Variety of foods available
o ID cards
§ Holds information, empowers clients, keeps stats in computer syster
§ But there are costs associated
o Close relationships with City Harvest, Food Bank, and United Way are very positive and important
o Lots of produce, especially at this time of year
o Great relationships with clients
· Challenges
o Cyclical delays in funding (EFAP, HPNAP, Foodbank, etc.)
o Pantry is “too big” for Local Produce Link
o Unpopular items
o Not being able to choose foods from EFAP
o Tension amongst clients
o Clients who don’t qualify for service/food but who sneak in nonetheless
o Unruly clients/frustration when food runs out
o Managing inventory across programs
o Sometimes too much produce – food storage and spoilage issues
o Client choice can be labor intensive
o Budget cuts coming
o Reliance on volunteers who may be resistant to client choice
o Canned and processed food in the emergency food system
o Monotony of food
· Actions Steps
o EFAP
§ Advocate for food choices for pantries, at least six months out of the year in the way that some pantries currently do
o Send feedback to FeedNYC
§ Asking for duplicated vs. unduplicated numbers are misleading and confusing
o Create a free/low-cost and simple computer system for pantries to track clients, referrals, services, etc.
o Create joint training materials for volunteers
o Feedback to Foodbank/EFAP/TEFAP/etc.
§ Monotony of food choices
That’s all I have for now. If anyone can take a lead role on any of our action steps please reply to this e-mail. Please share your ideas, concerns, and comments by e-mailing client...@googlegroups.com (it will be sent to all of us in the group).
Best,
Hannah
Hannah Lupien, Food Policy Strategist
West Side Campaign Against Hunger
263 West 86th Street I New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-362-3662 (x 126) I Fax: 212-769-4341
Web: www.wscah.org I Like us on Facebook
St Edward Food Pantry
A big thank you to you and Doreen for this meeting. I think that trying to do this in an hour's time period was too short. I did place a suggestion that for one of next year's workshops that this might a topic to consider as a regular workshop.
Anita
St. Edward Food Pantry
Come visit our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/StEdwardFoodPantry
Follow us on Twitter: @StEdwardFoodPan
From: hlu...@wscah.org
To: client...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Client Choice] Welcome to the Client Choice Network NYC - follow up from yesterday's meeting
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:22:05 -0400
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