October Spire Article: Food Pantry changes in the works

The September food pantry was overwhelming--the food held out, but the volunteers were exhausted. The pantry advisory group is working on changes to the system to make volunteering a little easier. Here are some of the planned changes.

1. Sign up for clients will no longer be first come-first served. Our reason for doing this is primarily so we can continue to serve the population that was/is the reason we started the pantry--working people who don't have access to a daytime pantry. When clients arrive, they will draw a card which assigns them to a half hour time slot and number within that time slot. This means people don't need to wait in Watseka for long periods of time. Once they know their half hour slot, they can leave and come back. It also means someone arriving at 5p has just as much opportunity to be close to the beginning as someone who arrives at 12n.
2. We will start distribution at 5p instead of 5:30p. We'll ask clients to return to Watseka a few before their time slot to sign in and receive bags.
3. We will run two identical distribution lines. We will use the conference room and 127 as a mirror image of the food in the hallway (now placed on the left side). Volunteers will wait in the Sunday School room across the hall from the conference room.
4. Experienced clients who are physically able will shop by themselves. (We'll post volunteers between tables to answer questions and assist when needed.) Shoppers will still walk with new clients and with people who need assistance.
5. We will limit the number of bags per household to 6.
6. We will limit the number of cases of any particular item to 1.
7. We will be more systematic with how we assign volunteers during shifts. Although we still need more volunteers capable of carrying bags of groceries for long periods of time, there will be more jobs that do not require lots of lifting. For example, Youth, or other non-shoppers, could be used to watch bags while clients go to get their cars. This frees up carts, and could also make clients more responsible for loading their own vehicles since the watcher would only be responsible for making sure the right bags get matched to the correct client.

Please continue to watch for announcements for training times and new volunteer signup procedures. Questions? Please contact foodpantry@wesleyui.org.