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Cornell Cooperative Extension and Chautauqua Health Network have been in collaboration to work on a grant focused on healthy schools and communities.
Part of the collaboration has involved visiting and talking with local food pantries to see and discuss what types of foods are available, how the system works, how pantries refer clients with needs besides food, and creating relationships with managers, volunteers, and staff.
The two organizations hosted a food pantry networking meeting last week at the Jamestown Community College Carnahan Center. The purpose of the meeting was to highlight some best practices in food pantries, the findings from the pantry visits, sharing what the collaboration was able to accomplish with grant funds, and encouraging a welcoming and open networking opportunity.
The meeting was led by Jabneel Dunn, Community Health Outreach coordinator; Cassandra Skal, CCE Agriculture Program Coordinator; and Mary Ryder, SNAPED educator.
Food pantries in attendance included Cassadaga, Frewsburg Community, the Salvation Army of Jamestown, Sinclairville, St. Susan's Center, Seventh Adventist Church and Bread of Life. Other members included the Jamestown Public Market, JCC Nursing Program and Chautauqua County Health Network.
Ryder began the meeting by talking a bit about best practices for food pantries, specifically what barriers the organizations saw during their visits to the food pantries that they hoped to help improve.
"One of the things we saw was signage," Ryder said. "We think that is a barrier and also something a lot of pantries are doing well, is having signage. Whether it be signage that is bilingual or providing signage that is movable so that as your pantry moves around and is empty on stock or condensing you want to have signage that can move from one spot to another depending on the type of shelving that you have."
Another possible type of signage were some that provided nutrition messages about the types of food that the pantries provided. Other best practices discussed included offering a welcoming environment -- what draws people to the food pantries, and what can make it more appealing or open -- making sure the correct times and days that pantries are open are listed everywhere that they are supposed to be, such as church websites, and sharing excess donations between pantries.
Skal discussed assessments done by CCE and CHN at each pantry that they visited, which includes vegetable and protein offerings, accountable referrals, intake referrals and signage findings.
"On accountable referrals, we noticed that 12 of the 19 that we visited could use or are open to additional resources to share with their clients," Skal said. "Nineteen of 19 pantries that we visited are very welcoming of brochures that our team would put together with resources from the county, kind of disguised with recipes and things in case it's like a serious situation at their home, where they would bring it out to the car and they're like, 'Why would you bring that piece of paper, you're in so much trouble,' you can hide it with recipes and things like that."
Accountable referrals were brought up again later in the meeting, with the discussion focusing on if clients came in and made it known that they needed additional resources or help, pantries would be able to lead their clients to the right places.
It was also found that each pantry was in need of additional signage, which was given to them by the collaboration at the meeting.
Dunn then discussed the grants that CCE and CHN are working on together and what that has accomplished so far. This includes coolers, racks/shelving and more signage.
"We still have three more years to go with the grant," Dunn said. "The grant goes for five years and we are in year two. Again, if there is something that you do not have that we might be able to provide we will try to make that work."
The second half of the meeting was for open discussion between the attending food pantries to share what has been successful for them, and what has been a barrier. Problems with Feed More's ordering system was a big barrier, as most of the pantries in attendance have to order their items through Feed More.
The idea of sharing emails and phone numbers was discussed and a sheet was passed around the room to help people keep in contact with each other and share ideas and additional resources or updates, along with a newsletter that is planned to be sent out.
Other discussion included trainings such as how to de-escalate situations. Specifically at the Jamestown Salvation Army there has been an increase in "hard to handle" situations that have included contacting the police. Suggestions included coming up with policies such as how to evacuate if needed, and trying to increase the number of volunteers.
The question was then brought up about how to recruit more volunteers, which is another barrier for food pantries. Other barriers included getting non-perishable items and language/interpretation.
The final item discussed was that of community advocacy. The question was asked, what can food pantries do for their communities to help with hunger problems, as food access needs are getting worse. Food stamps have not been raised since the 1980s, and customers at food pantries are increasing since the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea was discussed about writing and signing letters to send to the state, along with holding Feed More accountable. The meeting ended with a suggestion of holding more networking events similar to Thursday's in the future.