Second Harvest North Florida Volume 12 • Issue 4 • April 2011 www.WeNourishHope.org
Happenings
a newsletter for member agencies
Hurricane season begins June 1; start preparations now
It’s hard to believe a year has passed, and yet once again, we are rapidly approaching hurricane season. Now is the time for your agency to begin planning and preparing. While we all obviously hope to avoid a disaster, spending some time in advance of a storm will significantly decrease the potential impact to your church or organization. Here are some key steps for you to take over the next few weeks: 1) Encourage your staff to develop their own family emergency plans. If your employees are prepared and their families taken care of, they will have greater peace of mind and be more available to help your organization prepare and weather a storm. As part of this, make sure you identify which staff are planning on being available and which staff will need to be with family. Note that some key leaders may be unavailable due to elderly parents, small children, etc. 2) Make sure your insurance coverage is current and sufficient. It is always a great idea to ensure that you have photos or at least a list
In Remembrance For more than 12 years, Mike Frison was a friendly face here at Second Harvest North Florida, where he faithfully worked to fight hunger as the warehouse dispatcher and receiving manager. We are deeply saddened to announce that after a lengthy illnes, Mike passed away last month.
of your assets including serial numbers on electronics.
Second Harvest Hours of Operation:
Mon.-Fri.................. 7:30 a.m. - 12 noon
3) Take some time to write down the key steps you will need to take in advance of an impending storm to secure your location, for example, back up computer files, cover electronics, secure windows and doors, etc. 4) One of the key things you need to be sure to do is have a good list of contact numbers including all your staff and key vendors (landlord, insurance company, IT provider, maintenance companies, for example. It is also important to note that in the event of a significant disaster, phone lines may go down and text messaging may be the only way to reach your staff. There are a wide variety of resources available to help you and your organization prepare and plan for a hurricane season. The following is a list of some good places to start gathering more detailed information. • • •
Emergency Preparedness: www.ready.gov National Hurricane Center: www.nhc.noaa.gov American Red Cross: www.redcross.org
Finally, in the event of a storm or other disaster, please note that Second Harvest North Florida is here and available to help. The strength of our network and our ability to get food to those in need is based on you and the 450 other partner agencies that we serve across our 18 county service area. If your community has suffered a severe impact by a storm or disaster, let us know! We keep resources on hand specifically designated to respond to emergency events and will be happy to help you reach out to those in your neighborhood who are hurting.
New Sharing Floor Hours Reminder:
As a reminder, the Second Harvest Sharing Floor hours have changed. Our new hours are Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 12 noon. We ask all agencies to arrive in time to complete your shopping prior to 12 p.m.
Email Addresses: We are now sending out regular emails to all our partner agencies and working hard to stay in closer contact with each of you. These emails include product availability notices, specials on particular items or categories, as well as important information regarding Second Harvest policies and procedures. As a reminder, under our most recent contract, we now require all member agencies to keep a valid working email address on file with us; you may choose to use a personal email account (gmail, yahoo, etc.) but this address should belong to the primary contact on your agency account. If your email address or the primary contact on your agency account changes, please be sure to let us know so that we can update our records accordingly. As part of an effort to encourage you to check your email and open the correspondence we send you, Second Harvest will begin awarding $25 credits to two agencies selected at random each month from among those who open the emails we send out (we can see who does and doesn’t open their mail ;-)
WE STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET. I TRY TO FEED MY KIDS FIRST AND ME LAST.” “I WORK WITH CLIENTS WHO DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE ENOUGH FOOD TO EAT. THEY ARE CHILDREN AND MANY TIMES THEY CAN N ONCENTRATE ON THEIR STUDIES, BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FOOD IN THE HOME.” “IT DOESN’T HAPPEN OFTEN [THAT WE HAVE TO USE THE FOOD BANK], ONLY WHEN WORK SLOWS DOW WE DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO AVOID IT.” “WE STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET. I TRY TO FEED MY KIDS FIRST AND ME LAST.” “I WORK WITH CLIENTS WHO DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE ENOUGH FOOD TO EAT. THEY A HILDREN AND MANY TIMES THEY CAN NOT CONCENTRATE ON THEIR STUDIES, BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FOOD IN THE HOME. “IT DOESN’T HAPPEN OFTEN [THAT WE HAVE TO USE THE FO