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Community Outreach Hunger Coordinator (Caroline County FY19 and Beyond) Annual

Partners

  • The Chesapeake Culinary Center
  • Caroline County Public Schools
  • The Health Department 
  • Food for Learning
  • The Maryland Food Bank
  • University of Maryland Extension Office
  • The Homelessness Board
  • Sweet Caroline
  • The 14 food pantries in Caroline County
  • Multiple church groups
  • The Caroline County Commissioners
  • The Town of Denton Manager
  • Town of Denton Commisioners
  • Department of Social Services
  • Caroline County Sheriff’s Office
  • Choptank Electric
  • Preston Ford

What Works

  • To better serve youth a centralized backpack program was established in June as the reach and efficiency to serve would improve.  This, in fact, was a major step forward in getting children the food they needed through the summer months.  Too early to make a full assessment, but it has made for a more effective model for the schools to have a central group to reach out to for backpacks and family emergency needs.  It has freed those who volunteered at the schools time to arrange pantry nights at the schools.  Given the food deserts that exist in the county, the premise is to make food more accessible to families of the backpack children and those who see schools as a safe haven for services.
  • Partnering with other groups that help the underserved. Working with the Homelessness Board, His Hope Haven and the Caroling County Public Library, a group proclamation was made to the County Commissioners establishing November 10-17th as Hunger and Homelessness Week.  The goal is to raise awareness to the issue of hunger and homelessness and have fundraising events to support the groups that serve the community.
  • Partnering with the Health Department to get a brochure done on the food resources/pantries in the county.
  • At the Caroline County Summerfest brought awareness to the 1 in 4 kids and 13% of residents that are food underserved. Most who stopped by had no idea of the statistics or resources available.
  • By having the schools identify children pre-school age through their Backpack kids, addition food is being sent home with their school age siblings.
  • Four schools have now had the time to have pantry nights since the Backpack program has been centralized.  Over 75 families have been utilizing the school pantries and emergency food boxes as needed.
  • Community engagement has increased with Food for Learning generating funds for the Backpack program.  The group is building awareness of the 1 in 4 kids that are food underserved through presentations at Lions Club, Rotary Club and the Caroline County Jaycees.
  • Through the partnership with pantries, Choptank Electric and the Homelessness Board, CHH will participate in a resource day for the underserved in January by providing boxes of food, recipes and the Pantry Resource Guide.

Program Summary

  • Name established, “Caroline’s Helping Hands (CHH)” which is a coalition of food pantries, churches, government agencies (Health Department and Social Services), the Caroline County Public Schools and groups serving the underserved in Caroline County.
  • CHH social media resources posted on local pantries with their hours of operation and a one sheet handout developed with pantry input to distribute at events, every back to school night in Caroline County and with the local agencies and churches.  Every member of CHH has the resource guide to refer to and distribute at their events and organizations.
  • Surveys will not be distributed until the next meeting in Feb. of 2019

Target Population

  • From June –September- over 7500 meals were served through the newly developed Central Backpack Bank to the children in Caroline County with the recipients being under 18 years of age.
  • 1000+ families served each month through food pantries in the county.
  • Latinos, Haitians and African Americans are the primary recipients of the backpacks.
  • From September-December 21,000 meals were served to over 315 children through the Backpack Program. Over 75 families served in pantries and emergency supplies of the children who attend the schools with the number growing as the word is getting out through neighborhoods in need and through the food pantries. 
  • The centralized Backpack program has provided other Caroline County food pantries with over 20,000 pounds of food.
  • Food pantries have seen an increase of approximately 10% in participation since the resource guide, exhibits, speaker engagements and social media of CHH has been launched with families of varying ethnic backgrounds depending on the part of the county they are served.

Data Discussion

 

  • Presently, we know more children/families are being served with the summer meals programs, breakfast, lunch and afterschool meals and the expanded backpack program that will help with the gap when school is not available on weekends and holidays.
  • There has been an increase in those utilizing the food pantries, the Backpack program continues to grow with parents becoming more aware of the service it provides, schools are now being able to focus on the emergency needs of the families of their students and the awareness amongst Caroline County government has increased.
  • CHH is now being asked to participate with the Homelessness Board, the Health Department and county church and resource days.
Story Behind the Curve

Story Behind the curve:  What is the story behind the data, why does the data look the way it does (good or bad): 

  • The name was established by the group, “Caroline’s Helping Hands (CHH)” which is a coalition of food pantries, churches, government agencies (Health Department and Social Services), the Caroline County Public Schools and groups serving the underserved in Caroline County.
  • CHH social media resources posted on local pantries with their hours of operation and a one sheet handout developed with pantry input to distribute at events, every back to school night in Caroline County and with the local agencies and churches.  Every member of CHH has the resource guide to refer to and distribute at their events and organizations.
  • Through Food for Learning initiatives, promotions of the resource guide through the back pack program and requests for toiletry backpack program through the churches, awareness of the 1 in 4 food underserved children and the plight of families that are the working poor/unemployed has increased. The food pantries seeing a 10% increase in those who utilize their services.
  • Awareness to hunger in Caroline County has increased with more participation in raising funds for the pantries by the local corporations and businesses.
  • Non-perishable food drives have increased through organizations such as Pivot PT.
  • Silos are starting to come down amongst agencies that serve the underserved. Food pantries are partnering more on sharing food, sharing knowledge to get new food pantries up and running and cross pollinating with other agencies that deal with homelessness, social services and health. 
  • CHH and the Homelessness Board partnered on getting awareness out in November, 2018 on Hunger and Homelessness Week.  The plan is to repeat this collaboration of H2 in 2019 with more events and awareness amongst agencies.

Partners:  Who were your partners this qtr.?  Partners include:

  • The Chesapeake Culinary Center
  • Caroline County Public Schools
  • The Health Department
  • Food for Learning
  • The Maryland Food Bank
  • University of Maryland Extension Office
  • The Homelessness Board
  • Sweet Caroline
  • The 14 food pantries in Caroline County
  • Multiple church groups
  • The Caroline County Commissioners
  • The Town of Denton Manager
  • Town of Denton Commissioners
  • Department of Social Services
  • Caroline County Sheriff’s Office
  • Choptank Electric
  • Preston Ford
  • Judy Centers
  • Head Start Programs
  • Benedictine School

Demographics:  Sex, race, age of youth only, (report on parent and youth served):

  • From June –September- over 7500 meals were served through the newly developed Central Backpack Bank to the children in Caroline County with the recipients being under 18 years of age.
  • 1000+ families served each month through food pantries in the county.
  • Latinos, Haitians and African Americans are the primary recipients of the backpacks.
  • From September-December 21,000 meals were served to over 315 children through the Backpack Program. Over 75 families served in pantries and emergency supplies of the children who attend the schools with the number growing as the word is getting out through neighborhoods in need and through the food pantries.
  • The centralized Backpack program has provided other Caroline County food pantries with over 60,000 pounds of donated food that was not suitable for the backpacks from June, 2018-May, 2019.
  • Food pantries have seen an increase of approximately 10% in participation since the resource guide, exhibits, speaker engagements and social media of CHH has been launched with families of varying ethnic backgrounds depending on the part of the county they are served.
  • From January-June, 2019 the backpack program is now serving 400 children each week. 
  • The pantries and the schools have been addressing the plight of the working poor and encouraging those who need a “supplement” to what their families can provide.  Since doing this, we are seeing less of an “emergency supply” need at the schools.

 

What works:  What are you or your partners doing that works to improve the Indicator “Childhood Hunger?”

  • To better serve youth, a centralized backpack program was established in June, 2018 as the reach and efficiency to serve would improve the outcomes on food recipients. This, in fact, was a major step forward in getting children the food they needed through the summer months.  It has made for a more effective model for the schools to have a central group to reach out to for backpacks and family emergency needs.  It has freed those who volunteered at the schools time to arrange pantry nights at the schools.  Given the food deserts that exist in the county, the premise is to make food more accessible to families of the backpack children and those who see schools as a safe haven for services.
  • Partnering with the Homelessness Board, His Hope Haven and the Caroline County Public Library, a group proclamation was made to the County Commissioners establishing November 10-17th as Hunger and Homelessness Week.  The goal is to raise awareness to the issue of hunger and homelessness and have fundraising events to support the groups that serve the community. The group for H2 will have more awareness and events in 2019.
  • Working with the Health Department to get a brochure done on the food resources/pantries in the county. This brochure has been placed in every health department and social service center for those in need.  The resource days and backpack program have shared this brochure and, anecdotally, the word is out on pantries in the brochure and on social media.
  • Caroline County Summerfest Exhibit brought awareness to the 1 in 4 kids and 13% of residents that are food underserved.  Most who stopped by had no idea of the statistics or resources available.
  • Due to public school children sharing backpacks with their younger siblings, CHH began going to the Judy Centers and Head Start where an additional 90 children began to receive backpacks.
  • Four schools have now had the time to have pantry nights since the Backpack program has been centralized.  Over 75 families have been utilizing the school pantries and emergency food boxes as needed.
  • Community engagement has increased with Food for Learning generating funds for the Backpack program.  The group is building awareness of the 1 in 4 kids that are food underserved through presentations at Lions Club, Rotary Club and the Caroline County Jaycees.
  • Through the partnership with pantries, Choptank  Electric and the Homelessness Board, CHH will participate in a resource day for the underserved in January by providing boxes of food, recipes and the Pantry Resource Guide.
  • Pantry collaboration has resulted in more communication and sharing of food resources so that the county is more balanced in offerings for families.
  • With the increase in food insecurity awareness there have been more groups providing non-perishables to pantries with food drives. 
  • The awareness of CHH has also brought other family needs to the forefront.  Toiletry backpacks are now given to the children and a drive for people to donate their hotel toiletries has begun so the pantries can share them with families.  This is a no cost way to help the community and build awareness to the basic needs of families.
  • Because of the CHH social media page, 7 more Blessing boxes (food and toiletries for emergency need) were established in various areas of the county with more to come.  Just the posting of a Blessing box post started a conversation that created awareness and drive to be involved.

Data Discussion:  Report any feedback from participants relating to data:

  • Presently, we know more children/families are being served with the summer meals programs, breakfast, lunch and afterschool meals and the expanded backpack program that will help with the gap when school is not available on weekends and holidays.
  • There has been an increase in those utilizing the food pantries, the Backpack program continues to grow with parents becoming more aware of the service it provides, schools are now being able to focus on the emergency needs of the families of their students and the awareness amongst Caroline County government has increased.
  • CHH is now being asked to participate with the Homelessness Board, the Health Department, Department of Social Services and churches for resource days for the underserved.
  • It was discovered that some of the children receiving a backpack were splitting the bags with their siblings who were not in public school.  The Judy Centers and Head Start were reached out to and the number of children now being served backpacks has increased to 400 with more permission slips coming in.
  • The outreach to the Judy Centers and Head Start, the Resource Guide was distributed to their families as some were not aware of the help that food pantries could offer.
  • More summer feeding sites have been established due to CHH identifying areas of need.  These are helping to fill in the gap when children are not in the Department of Recreation Summer Camps which begins July 1, 2019.
  • Children in the summer meal sites are asking for their backpacks.  Certainly, and indicator of need and awareness of the program.

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