June 2021: CEO Message - Leonard O. Hansen Ph.D

The heat is on this June! Walk outside, even before noon, and you can see heat radiating off the carts and the pavement during distribution, but everyone worked hard (and carefully) in the heat to provide food to those in need.

Happy to share that our staff member, Jimmy, has saved us some money by coordinating a donation of 12,000 free cardboard boxes. That donation has saved the cost of the heavy-mil plastic bags! Big thank you to Jimmy and the donor! 

Ready, Set, TV! We had Fox 40 TV volunteers here as a group Thursday, including their General Manager.  It is a developing partnership as Fox 40 is a major sponsor for the upcoming Run Against Hunger. How incredible to not only support us from afar by providing coverage on the tv waves, but also to come to our facility and give time and muscle to our distribution process! Thank you Fox 40 TV!

We have several projects we are working on in Admin: Monday Alex and Emily were part of a large group ZOOM meeting with the Los Angeles Food Bank as they are exploring how to create and operate the Health RX programs. Alex and Emily have key roles in two Health RX Programs and are backed by Jimmy, the MFM crew, and the warehouse staff: the Abbott Fund Diabetes Treatment Program and the Health Net Blood Pressure Treatment Program, (Round 2 coming up). Pleased that we’re on the cutting edge of Program development for Food Banks and that both our Nutrition Educators are recognized for their developing expertise. I noted in a couple of Non-Profit meetings, including the Emergency Food & Shelter Board, that we have the EFB firmly in place in three sharing networks: (1) the Connected Community Network, (2) the UniteUs network, and we’re now in the Continuum of Care HMIS Clarity network as we are building our Street Outreach to the Homeless Program. The networks are people, agencies, and electronic systems including two provided laptops from the CCN network; we can send and receive referrals through each of the systems. The Street Outreach will begin on July21 (we had a successful run in a COVID-19 funded program in December and January).  The more sharing and connections that we build creates superior distribution and service to our clients.

Speaking of the Emergency Food & Shelter Program, staff member Kathy completed Phase 37 work netted the second half of that Phase’s payments into the bank account: one for $28,928.59 and one for $41,059.00. 

Let's talk golf! The 45^th Annual NAIFA Charity Golf Tournament meetings and work are reaching a culmination: we have 136 golfers and a host of sponsors paid.  The insurance group is a terrific partner for the EFB and we’re looking forward to a great day of golf, lunch & dinner, raffles, a silent auction, and awards to golf foursomes at the Stockton Golf & Country Club on July 12.  Kathy is coordinating many items such as shirts, tickets, auction prizes, and food with the key members of the NAIFA group.

Speaking of fundraisers, do remember, also, that Run Against Hunger 2021 work is already underway with Tim Pasisz from our Board as the Lead and his group of merry warriors from the Visit Stockton group contributing mightily toward a successful event in the Post Pandemic world.

Back to Jimmy again. I should mention how adaptable he is! We receive a lot of donations, not every donation fits the needs of our party or partnering pantries uses. But we don't say "No" do donations because Jimmy finds a way to "Yes"; it's one of Jimmy’s talents. For example, Amazon’s donations continue from two of their Distribution Centers nearby but we receive pet foods and other items in their shipments that we have to sort and move to recipients such as the Humane Society. Sharing feels good and does good. 

As for our EFB office space, glad to report we did some adjusting in the warehouse and by moving things around a bit, we created a new office location for the Scale operation in the warehouse; the extra space this created has been appreciated!

Be Well.

Leonard