Churches often have food collection on a continual basis besides as sponsor special collections. One successful collection project is the "Brown Bag" project. Participants are given a brown grocery bag with a list of groceries and other goods inside. Participants fill the bags with the items on the list and return them.
Instructions
1. Insure there is a occasion for an outreach aliment pantry in your local. Investigate the existing drink pantries in your district. Are there portions of your geographic globe that they bring about not serve? Are there any times of the time in which no existing bite pantry is sincere? Are their services community? Is the size of bite they feed to families requesting ease sufficient? How many times Testament they serve the corresponding family in a month, quarter or year? Posses they ever drop absent of board? Investigate the workers whether they be acquainted of specific unmet needs. The answers to these questions Testament announce if you bear an unmet charge in your field for another cookery bank.
2. Catch limited partners. Establish a incomplex, persuasive and direct presentation approximately your perceiving which can presented in workman or sent down the correspondence. Count the counsel you discovered regarding the unmet needs in the limited. Award particular examples. Purchase the resident schools involved by speaking to the PTA. Then carry the students involved by holding bread drives or collecting spending money from the cafeteria. Arrange to claim at community ecumenical church groups, Jaycees, Lions, Kiwanis and other avail clubs in your existence. For helping hand with start-up costs, chalk talk to your community district foundation. They might be able to advice with matters comparable refrigerators and freezers, shelving and other all-important Accoutrement.
3. Good buy limited volunteers. Churches are a bully put to treasure trove volunteers, nevertheless endeavor to receive volunteers from diverse contrastive churches instead of honest one vast church. Two volunteers per session is sufficient. For Everyone interval that you are agape you Testament extremity eight to 10 volunteers who each work one day per month. Their duties will include packing and distributing groceries, sorting incoming food, stocking the shelves and keeping records. You will also need a coordinator who can be in charge of everything except screening. The coordinator will arrange the volunteer schedule two months in advance, arrange for substitutes when volunteers can't work, check the food supply and serve as the liaison with local groups who provide needed items.
4. Find a suitable structure. Your patrons may not be able to mount steps, so ground floor placement is necessary. Heating and air conditioning is vital. Your location must not go below 45 degrees or above 85 degrees. Telephone service is important. The structure should be safe. It should have lockable doors and windows and security grilles on the windows if necessary. The walls and floors should be in good repair and washable. Special non-toxic paint or sealer approved for food service should be applied to them. Regular pest control service should be performed. Church kitchens work very nicely.
5. Assure suitable dry storage. Is it possible to accommodate storage of non-food items separate from food products as required? Is there enough space for storing all your items? No item can be stored directly on the floor. Are thermometers present in all dry storage areas? Is easy stock rotation possible? Are the surfaces a non-porous, washable material?
Are the surfaces washed regularly with a USDA approved disinfectant?
6. Assure proper cold storage. Will the present refrigerators and freezers be able to accommodate your anticipated cold food load? Are they large enough To admit for easy stock rotation? Do all refrigerators and freezers have working thermometers mounted inside? Do refrigerators consistently maintain no higher than 45 degree temperature? Do freezers consistently maintain no higher than 0 degree temperature?
7. Develop organizational policies. When will your hours of operation be? The more consistent you can be with days and times open the more patrons you will serve. Evening and weekend hours are especially helpful for low-income families. Who will be served? Must they be residents of your local community? Will you require proof of residency? Will their family size or income determine eligibility? How will you verify these? What other questions do you want to ask them?
8. Post your organizational policies in a place where your future patrons will see them. Also, send your hours and policies to other local community services such as the Social Security Office and local branches of the United Way, the Salvation Army and Feeding America who will be able to direct people who might need your service to your pantry.
9. Develop a method for tracking who your patrons are. Keep records of their addresses, the number of people in their families and a Social Security number or driver's license number.
10. Stock your shelves before opening. You can solicit contributions from churches or other groups.Jewel an accessible point for your regional outreach pantry.Setting up a local eatable bank can be a daunting elbow grease on the contrary with persistence and determination it can be done. You Testament demand the bed of many volunteers and resident businesses to begin your resident outreach pantry, and Testament commitment to jewel ways to hoist comestible donations and funding. Be firm you are mentally prepared to donkeywork insolvable on a sustained aligned before you found this project, as mortals Testament come to rely on your assistance. A sample list to feed a family of four for three days would consist of: 48 oz juice, 48 oz fruit, three cans soup, 13 oz tuna, two cans chili, one jar peanut butter, one box cereal, one box crackers, one box macaroni and cheese, one box powdered milk, three cans vegetables, one small package rice or noodles and one loaf of bread. Extra items might include baby food, diapers, soap, toothpaste and shampoo. As you receive the merchandise arrange it on your shelves just as the grocery store does. You should be able to see all of the inventory you have to select from. Duplicates should sit behind one another. Cycle out food that is past it's expiration date.
11. Preparing a food packages. Determine how much to pack based on family size and how long it should last. You should choose which foods to include in the package based on the family's preferences. You don't want to be giving canned spinach to people who don't like it. Be sure each package includes enough nutrition for at least three days of breakfast, lunch and dinner for each person in the family. If possible, include drinks and snacks. Check expiration dates as you pack to be sure nothing is expired. You may also include non-food items such as laundry and dishwashing detergents, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, shampoo and household cleaners. Pack these in a separate bag.
12. Send out progress reports to contributors so they know how their donations helped hungry people.
