September 5, 2020

We have been keeping busy the past few weeks! Volunteers working outdoors are enjoying cooler temperatures, but we could do without the rain! We are grateful for the donations of fresh produce from local gardeners as the season winds down. Click the arrows above to browse through the photos.

Please read this update from volunteer leaders Janice Rook and Melody Smiley.

In August, the Pop Up Pantry continued our successful efforts to serve clients weekly in their local communities.  Working with National Church Residences, an organization that manages several supported housing complexes throughout Columbus, food was distributed to clients/families at the following agency sites:

August 5:  Commons at Livingston-27 clients
August 12:  Southpoint Apartments-32 clients/families
August 19:  Commons at Grant-24 clients
August 26:  North 22nd Street/Commons at Buckingham-40 clients

123 clients/families were served in August, an increase of 25 over those served in July.

Our team of three volunteers skillfully bagged food each Wednesday during the month. We were able to purchase 3 light-weight, portable dollies to use not only in the bagging process but also in loading the bags into the van and unloading these at the site. Additionally, we were able to purchase 2 folding tables for bagging food.  This equipment improved our efficiency as well as provided for increased safety in the process (i.e., injury prevention).

We’re thankful this month for the assistance of our Share and Learn Garden and the ability to add fresh produce to the food provided for our Pop Up Pantry clients.

During August, we welcomed the addition of volunteer drivers who assist us by driving the van to our agency sites.  One driver accompanied our volunteers each week, meeting us at the pantry after the bagging process was completed, assisting in loading the bags of food, and transporting and delivering it to our designated site.  We’re grateful for the ability to use one of our church vans for the Pop Up Pantry.

Our entire team of dedicated volunteers worked diligently to ensure the needs of our clients were met each week.  Those volunteering were Kitty Rohrer, Kathleen Hatcher, Rose Kandel, Carla Edlefson, Glen Zook, Steve Young, and Mark Tucker.   Clients and agency contacts expressed much appreciation for the efforts of our team.

We’re grateful for Heart to Heart’s support of our outreach initiative and look forward to continuing to grow the Pop Up Pantry in serving more clients and in expanding our work with other community agencies to identify new sites for the pantry.  The Pop Up Pantry is committed to furthering the mission of Heart to Heart and our church in serving others as God calls us to do and in meeting the needs of our local communities during this time of a serious pandemic and increased food insecurity.

The Pop-Up Pantry will continue to operate during the brief hiatus.

Are you interested in being a shift leader? Please let us know.
Volunteers interested in being shift leaders will need to complete the online Food Safety course. The cost to complete the course and receive certification is $15. Training is available on the ServSafe website. Follow the instructions on their site to purchase the course and take the assessment online. If you’re interested in the training, but the cost of the course is burdensome, please send an email to ACaskie@FCchurch.com. Amy will purchase the course online and send you the information to access it.

Volunteers interested in learning how to use PantryTrak from a representative at Mid-Ohio Food Collective should indicate their interest by completing the following.

As part of our agreement with Mid-Ohio Food Collective, we must maintain certain standards. One of these is Civil Rights training for all of our volunteers. All volunteers will be required to complete this online training before we can resume normal pantry activity on September 21. There are three steps to this process.

1. Take the free online training course available here.
2. Complete the quiz at the end of the slideshow.
3. Use this online form to let us at Heart to Heart know you have completed your training, so we can verify with Mid-Ohio Food Collective. Please note you are not required to login as a First Community member to complete this step.

There are very specific reasons we have scheduled this hiatus for Heart to Heart services:

1. Cleaning
2. Inventory
3. Fall/Winter Planning
4. Accreditation Review
5. Training

For the first week, we are asking our dedicated and hard-working group of volunteers to rest, reinvigorate, and remember why you love Heart to Heart. You may consider taking this time to do the following:

1. Register your Kroger card for Community Rewards which earns money for Heart to Heart when you grocery shop. More info here>>
2. Take the online Civil Rights Training.
3. Make sure to sign up to volunteer online.

The following week, we will be asking volunteers to join us for specific projects and to attend planned discussions. You can view the schedule and Sign-Up Genius online. We look forward to our conversations with you about how we can help Heart to Heart serve the community in the best way possible.

We will resume our services the week of September 21. To volunteer for those shifts, please make sure you have completed the Civil Rights training above, then use the Sign-Up Genius to let us know you are coming. If you are a minor, we must have a Waiver Form on file for you.

Please note: We must adhere to CDC guidelines for all of our volunteer shifts. In order to do that, we cannot accept volunteer walk-ins and the number of volunteers per shift will be limited. We hope this is a temporary solution to a temporary problem and we ask for grace as we work together to figure this out.