March 23, 2001. 3:00 - 5:00 PM - Members of the executive committee: Sam Castle-Kirstein, George Hieronymus, Sara Jackson and Wendell Otness met to finalize the planning and organization of the two day meeting.

March 24, 2001. The annual meeting began at about 12:00 as most of the attending members began to arrive at the conference room. Present on Saturday were:

Marcia Briggs - Food Bank of Alaska - Anchorage
Sam Castle-Kirstein - Community Food Bank - Fairbanks
Louise Charles - Senior Services - Bethel
Ellen Northup - Juneau
Jim Fisher & Pam Olsen - Peninsula Food Bank - Kenai
George Hieronymous - Bean's Café - Anchorage
Sherry Hill - Catholic Social Services - Anchorage
Roy Hiratsuka - Bristol Bay Native Assn. - Dillingham
Sara Jackson - St. Francis House/CSS - Anchorage
Craig Johnson -Christian Partnership Program-Anchorage
Betty Mercer - Senior Services - Wasilla
Wendell Otness - Rescue Misson - Fairbanks
Juan San Miguel - Salvation Army(Elder Program) - Anchorage
Annabelle Stevens - United Way - Anchorage
Trevor Jones - Food Bank/Baptist Mission Kodiak was delayed and did not arrive until Sunday
Rosalie - Southeast Alaska Food bank volunteer

Sam opened the meeting, welcomed everyone and explained that we would go around the table and describe our individual programs (attempting to keep to 10 min. each) and we would interrupt as necessary to accommodate our guest speakers from the state who were being gracious enough to come in and work with us on their days off.

Highlights from the Program Reports

Bean's Café - 21 year old program, which has evolved into 3 components A) soup kitchen, serving breakfast and lunch 365 days a year B) a day shelter for the homeless with social services C) supervise the Kids' Kitchen program serving a hot evening meal to children at three locations in Anchorage. Between the two programs, 500 meals are provided each day. He stated that one of his biggest successes was utilizing a lot of volunteers from the military (they are enthusiastic and competent workers). His biggest problem is getting his employees to listen to him (but, he acknowledged that they do a good job on their own). And, one thing he would never change is serving at least a noon meal each day.

Bethel Senior Services - Adult daycare serving predominantly Yupik seniors(average 25 per day)meals and activities. 40 meals per day are delivered to seniors in their homes. Great progress has been made over the past year. Traditional native foods are being provided, resulting in the elders eating more. Foods rich in needed nutrients (such as calcium) are slowly being introduced and accepted. Biggest challenge is the small staff (9) although they are very dedicated. Greatest success is the Yupik immersion program which brings school children in to learn traditional ways from the elders.

Kenai Food Bank - Thirteen-year-old program that serves as a food bank to 60 community non-profit agencies, provides direct services to families on an emergency basis (once per month by referral only), and operates a soup kitchen (noon meal)five days per week. They also distribute TEFAP commodities to eligible families. Their biggest problem is that they do not have an executive director and they have no administrative funds. Positives are a dedicated board, a nice facility and good food donations. They have a very good soup kitchen. Food is excellent. They have noticed a marked increase in seniors utilizing their services.

Christian Partnership Program - Anchorage based. Supported by 16 churches. Acts as a food bank to the churches, provides direct services to 500-600 families one day per week, also mail out food to Barrow, Selawik, Gambell and Seward. They have no eligibility criteria and no sign-up. Their only operations manual is the bible. They have one paid staff person and 30 volunteers per week. Most of their volunteers are seniors. They distributed one million, two hundred thousand pounds of food in the last year. A brand new facility is being built for their work. They receive no grant funding and operate solely from private and corporate donations.

Bristol Bay Native Association - Located in Dillingham, serves 32 villages. Poor fishing has led to chronic hunger issues in this area. Distribute TEFAP. Only one, courageous, overworked employee. Biggest barrier to service is having enough food and the high cost of freight to get food to Dillingham and to the outlying villages.

Wasilla Area Seniors - This program provides activities, noon meal and home delivered meals to seniors in the Mat-Su area. It also provides affordable senior housing. They run a food bank that serves 300 families per week with 3,000 lbs of food, and they are a TEFAP distribution site. They are monitoring the hunger needs of children in the community and are advocating for a school breakfast program.

Southeast Senior Services - Juneau Senior Center serves a noon meal daily to approximately 135 people. In addition they have a meals on wheels program that serves about 68 people. They are a program of Catholic Community Services and are well funded through grants and donations. They have many fun and profitable fundraisers, most recently, a Sweetheart Dance featuring Swing/Jazz/Boogie music. Their biggest challenge is low pay causing frequent turnover in staff. The best thing is the ambiance of the lunchroom. Everyone comes to lunch dressed nicely. The lunchroom is very attractive and the food is attractively presented, nutritious and tasty.

Southeast Alaska Food Bank - This program supports agencies and individuals in the community, including the Senior Services. It is temporarily closing down the end of March while they look for a new location.

Food Bank of Alaska - Statewide non-profit that serves over 250 agencies throughout Alaska. It is very well supported by grants and donations. They are a clearinghouse for USDA Commodities, America's Second Harvest, and products donated by retail businesses and individual and corporate donors. They have been in a transition this year as they adjust to the unexpected death of Executive Director, Jack Doyle, who had been on the staff of the Food Bank for 13 years. Marcia, who was appointed interim director has had the difficult challenge of providing leadership during this time. Everything is moving along well, although she has the same complaint George has, she wishes her staff would listen to her a little more.

Fairbanks Rescue Mission - This 27 year old program realized the answer to many prayers this year with the opening of a beautiful, brand new donated facility. This building is tailor made to meet the many needs of Fairbanks' homeless and transient population. They now have separate accommodations for men, women, women with small children, women with older male children, men with children, and families. No one must be turned away. They provide basic food and shelter, job skill training, basic education, drug and alcohol treatment programs, transitional support for working mothers and spiritual ministry. The mission is not grant funded and receives the majority of is support from individual donations. They feel that God is indeed smiling upon this important work that they do and they are most grateful!

Fairbanks Community Food Bank - Located right across the street from the Rescue Mission in another beautiful facility provided a year earlier by the same generous benefactor, is the Fairbanks Food Bank. They are both grant and donor funded. They also give God the glory for the abundance and give back to the community ten-fold. They distribute 2,900 pounds per day in emergency food boxes to individual families and 1700 pounds a day to other agencies. There is no handling charge to anyone for the food. They rent space (at a very reasonable rate) to a senior volunteer program and an alternative high school program. This facilitates a mentoring program between the seniors and the students, and also creates a source for in house volunteers from both programs. Sweet! Additionally, the food bank has worked to involve the entire community in its mission, and enjoys participation in some manner from every school, and local legislator, and most churches, and civic club in town.

Salvation Army Older Alaskans Program - This Anchorage program provides nutritious meals and social interaction once a day to seniors via three convenient food sites and home delivery. There is also light housekeeping for the disabled, escorted transportation, and a senior employment component. The biggest challenge they report is attracting and keeping good staff on very low wages.

Catholic Social Services St. Francis House - Forty-one year old Anchorage program presently provides a food pantry, clothing room, household goods, furniture, rent & utility assistance and information and referral. A two day supply of food is available once per month and the average number of individuals served is 3500+. 52% of our client population are children. We have noticed an increase this year in the number of elders served and in large families. We serve many immigrant families. 63% of our clients are unemployed, 34% have less than a high school education, and 35% have some type of disability. We are both grant and donor funded and benefit from being under the umbrella of a larger agency. Our greatest challenge is the same as most programs have mentioned "GREAT BIG WORK, little tiny staff." Our greatest strength is our holy and dedicated volunteers.

Kodiak Baptist Mission Food Bank - Just over a year old, this food bank is serving more than 135 households in their area. They are a TEFAP distributor and are enjoying good community support, although, so far that support has been unsolicited. They have been fully funded by the Baptist Mission for the first year, wanting to establish themselves as a viable program before asking for outside donations. They distributed 46 tons of food during their first year. Their typical client is an under-employed cannery worker. Largest ethnic group is Hispanic 40%, followed by Asian 31%. One barrier to TEFAP service is getting the client to produce all of the necessary paperwork. They would like to be allowed to get the client to sign a waiver so that the food bank could contact the unemployment office for work records or tax records. Transportation is also a barrier for many of their potential clients. They have 14 volunteers and a paid volunteer coordinator. They need a bigger facility and are looking forward to expanding their service to outlying areas by boat. Acquiring food donations has not been a problem for them. They credit the knowledge gained through association with the Food Coalition as having contributed to their successful beginning.

Homework

At the end of the day Saturday, Sam shared some wonderful materials with us that she has collected through various trainings and research. She talked with us about how most funding sources are asking programs to provide some type of outcome measurement to prove the value of their work. She provided suggestions as to how short term, emergency programs can respond to this requirement. She gave us homework to help us evaluate the social ROI (return on investment) of our programs, how to defend them and how to get off a dead horse if we are riding one. The first step is to recognize that the horse is dead. She went over the people in our communities that we need to be communicating with in order to maximize the effectiveness of our efforts. She gave us handouts on the various type of income sources available and a worksheet on how to assess which ones we are utilizing and which ones we are neglecting. The idea is to use all of them in balance, so that if one goes away, the program will not disappear. We all went back to our hotel rooms to study up for the next day.

Highlights from Our Presenters

Bernice Joseph/Dept. of Commerce & Economic Development - Spoke to us about the fish disaster in western Alaska. There is a poor projection for the coming season for Bristol Bay and Kuskokwim area. USDA survey worked well in Nome. Operation Renew Hope is researching alternative employment opportunities, possible voc rehabilitation to prepare fishermen for jobs on rural construction projects. Roy said that families in Port Haidon were unable to get sufficient fuel or food assistance from the state this winter. There will be a meeting on these issues in St. Mary's April 25 and 26. Wendell suggested that the state communicate with the Tananna Chiefs who are developing a similar strategy.

Jayne Andreen/Community Health & Emergency Medical Services - Using the anti-smoking campaign as a successful model, Jayne spoke to about “social marketing.” We must know what are cause is and why we believe it to be socially beneficial to our audience. What is the cost to our audience? How can we remove barriers? Where do we go to reach our audience? Who and what approach will have credibility for our target audience?

Elmer Lindstrom/Legislative Liason - Gave us an update on hot legislative issues. Two bills are pending that we might be able to impact positively when we speak to our representatives: 1. alcohol tax - we can testify to the degree that alcohol abuse impacts the people we serve and how essential it is that any money raised by such a tax be used solely for substance abuse prevention education and treatment programs 2. HB142/SB116 which would change the formula to increase the number of families eligible for exemption from the 60-month welfare limit. Elmer told us that there is work being done to try to develop a certain type of ID that would identify drunk drivers. Craig Johnson talked about faith based drug treatment programs that are very successful and would like to be recognized as meeting state requirements. Elmer encouraged him to talk to the department, that the current administration was very receptive to collaboration with faith-based organizations.

Jim Dalman, Chief, Program Support/DHSS - Talked to us about ATAP 60 month time limit issues and budget issues. The 20% exemption as it is will not be adequate to number of families projected to need it because it will be based on 20% of a greatly reduced caseload. The 20% should be based on the original caseload and there is legislation currently pending to adjust that. He talked about the Families Work initiative that will provide intensive case management to families with multiple issues. He discussed the possibility of legislation to allow the number of exemptions to exceed 20% of the caseload based on specific hardship criteria.

Angela Salarno, Department of Public Assistance - Reviewed the results of “Reaching for Independence: A Study of Families that have left ATAP.” Most leavers were young, high school educated, single women with small families. Alaska Native families left the caseload at about the same rate as non-Native families. The presence in “one-parent” households of a second adult who was not eligible for TA related positively with success in staying off the TA rolls. Three out of ten families returned to TA during the 24-month study period. This study was only intended to measure who left and whether they came back on, not the well being of those families off of welfare. They are talking about doing a family “well being” study next. Interesting to note: health problems are the #1 reason for being on ATAP in the first place. Very few ATAP recipients receive child support and an equal # pay it out.

Jay Livey, Dep. Commissioner, DHSS - Spoke to us about food stamp issues. 70% of the welfare savings came from food stamps. Decline was too great. Many people who are eligible are not participating. Talked to us about the Nutrition Assistance for Working Families and Seniors Act which over the next 5 years will help working families and elderly access the food they need through seven measures, including restoring eligibility to legal immigrants and supporting faith-based food pantries by increasing TEFAP by $100 million dollars. There is a new law which will no longer penalize people for having a reliable vehicle. They are simplifying the process, moving away from monthly reporting to reporting only as change occurs. Talked about the special problems in rural Alaska where there are no jobs and there is a need for provisions for working age adults without dependents. Looking at tax benefits to encourage more donations to food banks. Talked about Medicaid issues. The need for prescription drugs coverage if eligible for Medicaid. The need for prescription assistance for people 21-64. Nancy Cornwall will be chairing a Medicaid advisory conference in Wasilla in May.

Sam talked about the need for more state funds to support the faith-based emergency food pantries who taking up the task of feeding the poor. We would like to receive an amount more in alignment with the 240,000 offered federally. There needs to be a balance between local programs and state support. Local programs need help establishing infrastructure. Once that is in place more stuff (donations) come in the door. Example: Fairbanks Food Bank and Fairbanks Rescue Mission. Jay encouraged the Food Coalition to submit a proposal to the state. The state is very amicable to supporting local pantries.

Nancy ?, DEC/Food Safety and Sanitation - Major funding cuts to this department have forced prioritizing to food establishments, daycare, pools, and spas. At this time food pantries are only inspected on a complaint basis. Gave us Comprehensive Guidelines for Food Recovery Program which came from the National Food Protection Conference that meets every two years - guidelines concerning game animals, restaurant leftovers, etc. There are regulation waivers for rural communities.

Kathleen Wayne/Department of Ed and Child Nutrition Services - Talked about the school breakfast issue. Benefits are proven. Federal funds are available to support. Why do so few schools offer it? Cost and administrative barriers to the schools (personnel and facility costs). Wasilla has a need but does not have an adequate schools kitchen. Many of the newer schools do not have adequate kitchens to prepare breakfast on site. There are other issues. Some schools offer breakfast and the kids don't come. Kids will not come to school early just for breakfast. Needs to be some other enticement or breakfast offered to everybody in class at the beginning of the school day. Headstart should be an ally in this, advocate through PTA. The state will reimburse $.10 per meal to offset admin costs. There is an Alaska School Food Service Association. The president is Michael Lingenfelder from Kenai. Diane will contact him for support. Presently federal money is offered only to the school district. What about asking for an option for money to go to a non-profit instead of the school district if they have a way to provide the service? Talk to Sen. Stevens. Kathleen could offer it to USDA - a proposal coming from the Food Coalition, blessed by DOE. - Discussed the childhood obesity problem and the link in this problem to cola consumption. There is a bill in the legislature to get rid of cola machines in the schools or regulate the location and the hours of operation. There is some resistance because these machines are income producing for the schools.

Teleconference with Diane Kaplan/Rasmusson Foundation - Foundation is 45 years old. Many changes over the last year. Increase in assets since the sale of NBA. Private foundations must distribute 5% per year. Have evolved into a two-tiered program. Tier I -Small capital projects - applications accepted year around. $25,000 and under - 80 to 100 projects accepted per year - on average the projects are funded at $5,000 each. Tier II - Large projects, $25,000+ . Letter of inquiry due by September 30, followed by full proposal. If accepted funds available July of the following year. Must be 501C3, well-managed, active boards, financially sound, thrifty and have demonstrated support. This group is interested in raising the professionalism of non-profits. Impressed with United Way of Anchorage. Sam would like to get funding to provide grantsation.com to all food coalition members for professional development. If we can get the state to match $20,000 to get training and online services. Do a letter of inquiry. Are you considering providing Grantstation.com through Foraker? Application is on the website. Five year vision. Particularly food program outcome is hard to assess. Numbers of households served. 20% increase. What does that mean? Views about hunger issues generally. Why? What is causing the problem? Need more analysis. Matching criteria is applied differently in rural area - may be more acceptable for them to a volunteer labor match rather than cash. Need to be assured that the organization is capable of handling the funded project. Have relationship with other grantors in the state. Informal group of grant makers called the Alaska Funders group. About 60 participants total. Rasmusson is interested in partnering - inviting outside foundations to visit the state. Louise asked about rural programs. In 1995, grants were about 2/3 Anchorage, 1/3 other parts of the state - now that percentage is reversed.

Business Meeting

January 10, 2001 minutes approved.

Treasurer’s report: Last year $90,000 state grant. $68,000 for food. Spent $64,400 of food purchase. $8,000 on freight to get it to the villages. Foodbank shipped it along with TEFAP so we got a break. We spent $2,300 on Spencer's food survey. $6,212 on airfare and food for annual meeting. $1,100 on equipment grants. $2,500 on the webpage. $530.00 on travel to Fairbanks for the executive committee meeting. Total = $85,049.77.

We currently have $1,150 in checking and $21,024 in savings for a total of $22,174.00.

$90,000 less airfare to annual meeting - leaves $85,000. How shall we spend it? $68,000 for food. Plan A - Divide the money amongst the members and allow them to purchase food locally for their program. Plan B - Purchase food as a group and distribute it to the members. We can get more food through plan B. Roy moved to purchase as a group. Ellen seconded the motion. No objections. A proposed food list from Second Harvest was circulated for approval. Jamie posed the question, “How do we look if we don't buy local product, i.e., salmon?” George said that was a good point, but right now salmon is already available to our families through TEFAP, it is not a needed item. Trevor said we should look at the nutritional value of vitamin fortified cereal. Jamie moved that we accept the AK Food Coalition proposed pick list. Jaun seconded the motion. There were no objections. George reminded members that we have 15,000 set aside for special projects and only one request for $1,000. Please get your applications in as soon as possible. Deadline April 17. Do we have a copy of the membership application form? Sara will look for it. Rosalie reminded members to ask for the constituent rate at Juneau hotels and on airfare as well.

What if we get an additional $50,000 from the state to be spent by June 30, 2001? How could we spend it? Brainstorm ***** Buy more food? Demand going up/supply going down. Sam proposes investing in support services like Grantstation.com and Foraker Group and training. At least $20,000 on capacity building. Diane said some members would not benefit. Talked about having a training retreat. Annabelle liked that idea. George thinks we should set aside $25,000 for capacity building to include travel to the retreat site. Louise brought up the questions around food support to the villages. Is it lack of food, or poor infrastructure? Bethel has no place to store it. Fish emergencies seem to be ongoing. Hunger in 56 villages. By-pass mail and rural freight are big issues. Roy says they are trying to eliminate by-pass mail. Trevor said there is a need to build infrastructure in individual food programs. Provide start up money to work on operation and facilities. George says we can not afford to build warehouses. Jamie moved that contingent upon the receipt of the extra $50,000, we put $25,000 into capacity building to include a retreat in Anchorage in June. Roy seconded the motion. None opposed. Sara moved that the remaining $25,000 be spent on special grant funds, with any money left over after the application deadline applied to purchase more food, freight and handling. Juan seconded the motion. None opposed.

Other issues: Be sure to mention on the hill tomorrow that we are faith based. Statistics show that 1/3 of welfare leavers are relying on faith based programs to fill the gap. Why is Safeway shipping damaged and outdated product out of state. It used to go to Food Bank and local programs. Can Anchorage people find out. Perhaps Food Coalition could write a letter to corporate headquarters. We need a committee to mandate that non-profits be given a waiver to provide breakfast to schoolchildren in disinterested school districts. George, Rosalie, Diane and Kathleen Wayne will be on that committee. George said we need to be thinking about whether or not we want to become incorporated to become a 501C3 organization. Funds are presently funneled through Bean's Café, which puts George at some risk. He is not too worried about it, but there are benefits that we could derive such as funding opportunities by becoming incorporated. There may also be some disadvantages in formal organization. We need to know how much it will cost to get set up. Can we do it for $1,000?

Election of Officers

Jamie moved to keep all of the officers the same. Annabelle seconded the motion. None opposed.