Network News | May 2018

May 2018

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Gear Up to Garden

pring is in the Ozarks and with it comes a return to gardening. The Food Bank’s Full Circle Gardens program connects agencies to local, fresh produce as well as gardening supplies and education. Along with operating a large garden near Rogersville, the program works with area farms and giving gardens to harvest and distribute fresh produce.

Partnering organizations help with gardening support, lessons, and supplies.

“We have so many amazing businesses, organizations and people in our area that can offer up gardening assistance or even just more fresh, local produce that fits in with an agency’s distribution schedule.”

It can just take a little bit of coordinating, which program manager Alexa Poindexter is happy to help with.

For resources on how to garden, University of Missouri Extension offers materials that can be viewed online or printed as handouts. Grow Well Missouri, a project of the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Insecurity at the University of Missouri – Columbia, offers “The Garden Starter,” a great booklet to help people get started in gardening. It covers planting and maintaining a garden, composting, and includes links to information on harvesting and cooking. This booklet is free to view or print at http://foodsecurity. missouri.edu/garden-starter. In addition, local Grow Well representatives can offer gardening lessons, seeds or seedlings to your clients depending on availability.

IN THIS ISSUE

VOLUNTEERS HELP PLANT, MAINTAIN AND HARVEST FRESH PRODUCE AT THE OFH GARDEN

Local chapters of Master Gardeners (typically by county) are another great resource for those learning how to garden with Master Gardeners of Greene County offering a hotline for gardening questions: 417-874-2963. For those agencies in or near Springfield, Springfield Community Gardens sites are located throughout town and offer opportunities to learn alongside their leaders.

For gardening supplies, keep an eye on local community boards and social media for upcoming seeds swaps, which are plentiful in spring. Some area libraries even offer an heirloom seed program where library members can “check out” seeds for planting.

Donated seed packets are sometimes available from The Food Bank as well.

For pantries looking to access more fresh

OFH Advocates in Washington DC Volunteer Appreciation Week What is the U.S. Farm Bill?

Agency Conference Highlights

produce, contact your local farmers market manager to ask about developing a pickup or drop-off schedule for growers willing to donate. Be prepared to offer growers a donation receipt. Other options include gleaning, (harvesting produce that may otherwise go unharvested), operating a garden at your agency or working with area groups to be the recipients of nearby giving gardens and Plant a Row for the Hungry efforts.

We hope many of you stopped by the Full Circle Gardens table at the agency conference.

If you’re interested in learning more about how The Food Bank can help you meet your fresh produce/gardening goals, contact Alexa Poindexter at (417) 834-0674 or apoindexter@ ozarksfoodharvest.org

assistance to more than 810,000 individuals in 2016, roughly 63.6 percent of whom were children, seniors or disabled.

The House and Senate should be releasing their versions of the Farm Bill by April for analysis, but staff were told by each legislator’s office that both are looking to pass a budget neutral bill. This means federal nutrition programs would remain funded at their current levels.

Reauthorization of the Farm Bill is scheduled to be done by October 2018, and The Food Bank asks for your help to let Missouri legislators know our network supports programs like SNAP, TEFAP and CSFP.

Executive Director Bart Brown, Community Partnerships and Advocacy Coordinator Jordan Browning, Senator Roy Blunt, and Legislative Assistant Trey McKenzie discuss the upcoming Farm Bill

For more information on how to contact your legislator, please reach out to Ozarks Food Harvest’s Community Partnership and Advocacy Coordinator Jordan Browning.

OFH Advocates in Washington D.C.

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n February 26th, Ozarks Food Harvest’s staff proudly attended a lobby day in Washington D.C. with Feeding America, the Food Research and Action Center, and food banks across the country to advocate for the protection of federal nutrition programs in the upcoming Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill is the major food and farm

legislation that is revisited or reauthorized

by Congress every five years and is vital to Ozarks Food Harvest’s network due to its influence on federal nutrition program funding.

Staff met with Senator Roy Blunt as well as Congresswoman Hartzler’s legislative staff to discuss the importance of federal programs in the bill like SNAP that provided food

United States Capitol, home to Congress and The seat of the legislative branch of the federal government

Volunteer Appreciation Week

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zarks Food Harvest is grateful to have a committed family of volunteers who share their gift of time and talent to help us feed those in need in our service area.

While we thank and appreciate our volunteers daily, April’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Week (April 15-21, 2018) is an

opportunity to celebrate their many hours of service and highlight the impact they make.

How do you recognize volunteer service?

Appreciation doesn’t have to be costly. A thoughtful note, phone call, email, text, Facebook post, or donuts and coffee is meaningful to the volunteer. Volunteers who feel valued will more likely return to volunteer

again and be your best ambassador within your community.

Don’t underestimate the power of a “thank you, I appreciate you” -it’s priceless!

Did you know the current value of volunteer time is $21.57 per hour?

DID YOU KNOW? The Food Bank conducts inventory and is closed to pick up appointments the last three days of the month. Occasionally other days and times are unavailable depending on events and activities. Closed times are always listed on the home ordering page.

15 million Americans have a food allergy and 1 in 13 is a child.

TEFAP corner

Reminders: By now, all TEFAP (USDA) agencies should have received the new income guidelines for 2018 and be using them. The state office sent each agency (directly) the new guidelines in early March. The Food Bank also followed up with an email informing everyone of this change, along with the guidelines. The signature form (FD-15A-Part 2) remains the same; however, you should have received additional copies at the agency conference on April 10. If you were unable to attend, and are needing copies, please notify Member Services and we will either deliver them or have them available for you during your next scheduled pickup appointment.

Also, The Food Bank had a limited amount of signs created that advertise “Food Pantry Open” and “Emergency Food Assistance Available”. It also includes The OFH logo, and has the required “equal opportunity provider” clause on it. The signs are similar to a real-estate sign and can be displayed in the yard or a window. If your agency would like a sign, please notify Member Services. At this time, the signs are only available to agencies distributing USDA.

CONTACT US Ozarks Food Harvest Member Services 2810 N. Cedarbrook Ave. Springfield, Mo., 65803 memberservices@ ozarksfoodharvest.org (417) 380-5007 ozarksfoodharvest.org

Director Q & A

Bryan Stallings

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ow do you go from being a small business owner to launching one of the most dynamic organizations in the Ozarks? In Bryan Stallings’ case, it resulted from a simple desire.

Bryan grew up in the Kansas City metro area. Working for his father’s small business started him down the path of entrepreneurship. He moved to Branson in 1987 and opened a karaoke recording studio.

Bryan soon launched a variety of enterprises: an ice cream shop, old-time photo studio, a pizzeria (whose marketing line “Free box with every pizza” was mentioned by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show), a gift wrap operation and others.

Then, Thanksgiving, 2008, Bryan and wife Amy organized a special dinner to help people living in Branson’s weekly and monthly extended stay motels. Because of the success and their desire, Jesus Was Homeless was born.

Q: What is your most memorable moment at JWH? A: There are so many, but moving into our new 17,000 sq. ft. campus has to be one of the highlights.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: Spend time with our five granddaughters and ride the motorcycle with Amy

Q: What part of your job do you personally find most satisfying?

A: Seeing the life transformation in others.

Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

A: Get a tattoo live, on stage, during a Sunday church service while teaching the message

Q: What part of this job do you find most challenging?

A: Raising money and balancing tasks that have to get done while staying connected in relationships with others.

Q: When do you not want to be interrupted?

A: When I’m watching a good movie

What is the U.S. Farm Bill?

The Farm Bill is the major food and farm legislation reauthorized by Congress every five years and is vital to Ozarks Food Harvest’s network due to its effect on federal nutrition program funding.

U.S food and farm priorities are set with the Farm Bill by developing policies that provide a safety-net for agricultural producers and for low-income Americans. Around 80% of Farm Bill funding goes to nutrition programs such as TEFAP and SNAP, which are two of the most effective programs for solving the issue of food insecurity in southwest Missouri.

SAVE THE DATE

For example, SNAP provided food assistance to more than 760,000 individuals in Missouri last year. More than 72 percent of those individuals are in families with children.

The farm bill is scheduled to be reauthorized by October 2018, and we ask for your help to let Missouri legislators know our network supports programs like SNAP, TEFAP and CSFP to ensure no one in Missouri or any other state goes hungry.

Please reach out to Comm. Partnerships and Advocacy Coordinator Jordan Browning for more info on how your agency can help.

The Ozarks Food Harvest Agency Conference ANNOUNCEMENT FOR 2019 COMING SOON!

Agency representatives spin the wheel for prizes with OFH Warehouse Manager Teresa Dixon

Agency Conference Highlights

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s soon as the doors opened at this year’s Agency Conference, attendees quickly registered, then began spinning the wheel and dropping the plinko chip for a chance to win various prizes. Some took quickly to guessing the weight of a pallet of food for a chance to win a $200 credit for their agency, while others enjoyed buying items from past conferences or visiting MU’s Power Up Your Pantry and OFH’s Garden Resource table . All a good sign that the conference was off to a great start!

Once settled in, Bart Brown, President/ CEO kicked off this year’s conference theme, “Honoring the Past-Shaping the Future”, by sharing past, present and future pictures of

the food bank, while telling the history of how the food bank started and highlighting some long-standing food bank members and giving some agencies a chance to celebrate a story of their own.

Kurt Welz, who works on The Feeding America Retail Product Sourcing team, was guest speaker and shared the latest trends in industry donations and how new product streams may effect the way agencies receive and distribute product in the future. Kurt also shared Feeding America’s strategies to adapt to these changes. Kurt also lead a morning breakout session which gave agencies a full circle view of the Retail Pickup Program. This session gave agencies a chance to learn the

Good news at The Food Bank Garden Party!

OFH Warehouse Update

The Ozarks Food Harvest Garden hosted its Second Annual Garden Open House to thank the volunteers, donors and community partners that continue to make the Full Circle Gardens Program such a success. Over 65 people attended the gathering to celebrate spring and kick off yet another start to the growing season. The group also celebrated a new solar powered water catchment and irrigation system – one of the first in the state! This system solves a drainage problem in one area of the garden and provides a sustainable water source for another. For more on the garden program and how to benefit from fresh, local produce, please contact Alexa Poindexter at (417) 834-0674.

The new OFH warehouse is quickly coming along and agencies will soon have a new location and entrance when picking up product at The Food Bank!

If you attended the Agency Conference on April 9, you were given a sneak peak of the building and a quick look at the layout of the new agency pickup area. For quickest entry to The Food Bank, we suggest you now exit north on to Packer Road, off Kearney Street.

New signage will be displayed north of the warehouse sometime at the end of the summer, but, until then, we hope you enjoy the new expansion- built with you in mind!

overall mechanics of the program and hear firsthand about donor relationships.

Following the morning general sessions, agencies broke into one of four sessions where they chose to either sharpen their CSFP skills, learn how to deconstruct a cake into a whole new recipe, gain or expand their knowledge on the retail pickup program or experience an interactive “Jeopardy” session on agency compliance.

After a fiesta lunch, a final general session was presented by Tammy Flippin, Funding Network Librarian with the Springfield Greene-County Library District. Tammy offered her expertise on planning and grant research to help agencies accomplish their missions and reach their goals.

Final business of the day had Scott Boggs, Operations Director, revealing Ozarks Food Harvest’s new warehouse space and where agencies will be redirected when picking up product at The Food Bank once the building is complete. The date will be announced soon!

As always, we ended the day with agency prizes. Congratulations to all of our agency winners: Senior Age-Houston, Texas County Food Pantry, Carthage Crisis Center, and Harvest Food Pantry.

Harvest Food Pantry

Thanks to all who completed the conference survey! We had a lot of great suggestions and feedback for next year. We hope to announce next year’s conference date soon!

LOOKING AHEAD...

Food Bank closed Monday, May 28 Food Safety classes- May 15 and June 27 from 1-3 pm Food Bank closed Wednesday, July 4