The garden is not going to be open for volunteering tonight.
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Where does it all come from? - A GOOD READ
Where does it all come from?
Half of our current members are NEW. We have doubled in Size since January 1st. We get a lot of questions.
I wanted to share what the week looks like. Many folks don't know what happens the rest of the week. I would like to take the time to write this up and share where we get food, how it gets to us, etc.
Sunday - This day in my entirety with the program has never been a day at the site. Patty and any of our Advisory team members may meet to chat about the shopping and things to offer for the week, what we got into the site that is to go out, etc. Mostly, on Sundays we try to rest up. There could be a possible glean, but we really try to not do Sunday events.
Monday - Monday starts at about 9 am (8am during school). We have a member who goes to 2 Safeway stores and picks up donations. We have another member who picks up donations at Winco. In addition, we get produce from Gathering Together Farm. We have a crew that works diligently Monday morning to get everything setup and ready for shoppers to come. This is a very long day as the cleanup crew hasn't been finishing until about 6pm. Our last shopper is at 4:15. We can always use extra hands for cleanup on Mondays!
Patty and Alicia have a coordinator meeting we attend via zoom bi-weekly in the afternoon. There are 14 groups that are in the Linn Benton Counties and we have 1 person who coordinates for all 14 programs. She is amazing!
Tuesday - The only thing we have "schedule" is that someone needs to go down to the site when the food bank gets there and take the totes off the tables and stack them or put them in the can. The can is the big box outside the building. We do get calls for people who want to donate or occasionally will get our large donor request that we do Tuesday instead of Thursday.
Wednesday - Wednesday we pick up from Safeway and Natural Grocers. This is a team of 2 that go and do this pickup. We also pickup from the Corvallis Farmers Market bi-weekly. We currently have a volunteer doing this. Patty is at the site from 9 until Farmers market comes back. We are often organizing, cleaning the pig bins, cleaning the fridges.
Thursday - Prior to COVID19, we didn't have a large donor give directly to our program. We mostly only had food and once a month got a few items (think less than 1 pallet). The items that are out front (soaps, lotions, body wash, toys, etc) are something that is a privilege that Linn Benton Food Share allows us to pick up and be a HUB for the gleaning groups. We are a hub as Patty has created relationships with other gleaner groups and LBFS. We have other groups come to our site and are able to share items from this donation. This is a huge amount of work. It is sometimes as many as 4 truck loads. I am not talking about a pickup truck. I am talking about a 1 ton truck. We are told our pickup times etc from the donor and we must accommodate their schedule. This is a huge warehouse for the donor, and we do not have control of when they allow us to pull into the location. Please be mindful of this when volunteering. We can only guess the time that the truck will arrive for unloading.
We pick up KFC on the 3rd and 5th Thursdays of the month. We have a team that does this currently.
Friday - We pick up from Safeway and Trader Joes's on Fridays. There is a crew on Friday who help setup for Saturday distribution. There is also open slots on the volunteer form for folks to sign up to help on Fridays with this! If we have the opportunity to order food from Linn Benton Food Share, we will also have what we call a warehouse order. One of the members will drive the van to Tangent and pick up the order to bring it back to be unloaded. Thanks to the Siletz Grant and Ann Morgan our Siletz Grant writer, most of the costs of the food is covered by grants.
Saturday - Distribution day again. Saturday is the larger distribution day. The morning crew picks up from 3 Safeway stores, Winco, and bi-weekly at Costco. The buzing of feet are running quickly to get the space setup for members to shop. This day starts as early as 6:30am. Shopping ends around 4 and then cleanup after. Folks are welcome to come help cleanup at the end of Saturday always to ease the work for all.
In addition to this, there are funding committee meetings to attend, PCS meeting to attend, phone calls to make, computer work to do, the blog to keep up to date, food orders to make, etc.
Summer and Fall, we squeeze in gleans when we can. We typically don't know when we will get a call for a glean or even a produce pickup. Gleans are usually scheduled, but it is often the donor who chooses the time, the allowances of number of people, and children. If someone is interested in learning more about gleans and how to be a gleaner coordinator, we would be happy to train you. Often times we get a call asking if we can go do a pickup of produce right now. We just never know.
We are a super active and communicative group. We work very hard to keep folks informed.
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Crazy Dayz is finally coming!!!! This weekend make sure to shop the sale!
Crazy Dayz!
This Saturday September 3rd during distribution and Monday the 5th during distribution. You are all welcome to come shop the sale Saturday, even if you are shopping for food on Monday. Don't let the good stuff pass you by!
Recumbrant Bike:
A member has a bike and this is for the crazy days so you pay what you think the item is worth. This item is available to be picked up in Corvallis. Please email Alicia with what you think it is worth. The person who offers the most will take it. Let's close offers Friday at 9pm.
Blueberry Glean - Friday 9/2
We have been offered a large blueberry field glean on kiegar island. I need good pickers to join me on Friday. If we have a poor turnout it will not look good for the gleaning program or LBFS. I am meeting with donor Thursday afternoon and will send location details and other revenant info after. Regardless of how many berries are in the freezers this is a actual glean, we need participants.
Alicia will setup a sign up as soon as we have the time. Please keep this time available on your schedule if you can do it.
Volunteer today ! 1 hour needed. (Clearing Totes)
Help today with Totes. If you are available today at 3:30pm to 4:30 pm, I need someone to go down to PCS and clear the totes for the food bank. It is an easy job. Please contact Alicia to sign up to do this.
Monday, August 29, 2022
Hazelnut Glean - September 1st
We will be having a hazelnut glean on Thursday - September 1st.
6:00pm (Meet at 5:30 at PCS and then carpool over together). We can only take 4 people to help with this one. Jessica our Co-Coordinator will be lead on this.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A054EA8A72EA2F58-hazelnut
Target sign up for Thursday - September 1st.
Target sign up for Thursday - September 1st.
Please sign up by 9pm Wednesday so we know what to expect for helpers.
Please contact Patty if you have changes or questions.
PLEASE BE ON TIME. IF YOU ARE MORE THAN 15 MINUTES LATE - DO NOT COME.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A054EA8A72EA2F58-target40
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Volunteer Opportunities Week 8/29-9/4
Volunteer Opportunities Week 8/29-9/4
---We could use 1 person to help Alicia with KFC on September 29th and on October 20th. If you are available, it is about 2 hours start to finish. We leave PCS about 8:30ish and done by 10:30
This weeks VOLUNTEER opportunities: Little something for everyone. We will let you know if we have a Target donation as soon as we do. Please be mindful that there are 10 days left of the month. Please make sure to get your hours in this month.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A054EA8A72EA2F58-volunteer10
Friday, August 26, 2022
Shopping Sign up for August 27 and 29
Shopping Sign up for August 27 and 29
Members need to text or call Patty on Saturdays and Alicia on Mondays 2 hours prior if you need miss a shop time. If you skip and do not contact us - you MUST sign up for a cleanup shift the following week. If you do not contact Patty on a Saturday and skip shopping without connecting, you may NOT sign up to shop on Monday.
Everyone of the members making shopping possible is a volunteering taking time from their lives, please be mindful of others time. By skipping your time slot, it makes for a longer time for our volunteers.
**If the list is full, please please call or text the person in charge.
Saturday Shopping --CALL PATTY for any changes after 9pm Friday night
CLOSED
Monday Shopping -- contact ALICIA for any changes. We will close the list Sunday evening at 8pm
CLOSED
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Increase in required volunteer hours effective 9/1/2022
Dear members -
The advisory board has met and have voted to increase the volunteer hours to 7 hours effective 9/1/2022.
Please note that we have the ability to increase the hours to 8 hours as that was the obligation pre-COVID. We have gone through some rough times during COVID. We are working at shifting back to normal. We had hoped that keeping it at 5 hours would work but there is still a great need for volunteers to take part in this amazing community we call Philomath Community Gleaners!
We are more than a place to get free food. We are a community of dedicated volunteers helping not only our own households, but also our fellow gleaners and our adoptees.
Gleaners is a self-help program whose mission is A hand up not a hand out.
We post volunteer opportunities on Sunday (typically). We also can use help with Target on Thursdays.
Where else can you get $583.46 worth of food and goods per week for a small amount of volunteer time.
In November of 2021, we had a family of 4 put together a snapshot of a typical week of food/goods and research the retail value. Please note this is 1 week of food and a typical month is 4 weeks. That equates to over $2,000 of food/goods for a few hours of work toward the program. In addition, we can guarantee the cost has increased in the past 6 months as well.
School Supply boxes
Dear members of Philomath students.
Please bring in the boxes you received from the school supplies. We are trying to conserve use of our clear bins for use of produce and I think these boxes will work well for the racks that we use out front.
Please bring the boxes next time you shop if you can.
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Organizations team up to give away $10,000 in gift cards at Aug. 28 farmers’ market in PHILOMATH
Simply sharing information for anyone who doesn't follow the Philomath News.
Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Target sign up for Thursday - August 25th
This is a great time to get in those volunteer hours for the MONTH. We have 1 truck coming at this time.
Please sign up by 9pm Wednesday so we know what to expect for helpers.
Please contact Patty if you have changes or questions.
Drawing - Ends Thursday evening at 5pm (Aug 25th)
Please sign up by 5pm on Thursday August 25th. You MUST plan on shopping either August 27th or 29th to pick up items. We will not tell you if you won or not as that is a lot of emails, etc. If you are not in town or do not plan to be shopping, then do NOT sign up. Any items not picked up by Monday shopping will be put back into the drawing for the next drawing. We do not save items unless we forget your items or we miss it on our end.
If you sign up and skip shopping or don't let us know, you will not be able to enter into the next drawing.
You can enter for 3 items. Please tell us your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices.
Example:
First Last Name - 1
First Last Name - 2
First Last Name - 3
YOU MUST ENTER YOUR NAME - First and Last name as we have many members who have the same first name. If you put YES, I don't know who you are.
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Volunteer Opportunities Week 8/22-8/28
This weeks VOLUNTEER opportunities: Little something for everyone. We will let you know if we have a Target donation as soon as we do. Please be mindful that there are 10 days left of the month. Please make sure to get your hours in this month.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A054EA8A72EA2F58-volunteer9
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Princess Bed Bidding
Princess Bed Bidding (No mattress, just the frame)
Bed - seeking what its worth to you. This bed is ready to be picked up (Monday pickup preferred) and top value will get a confirmation tomorrow at 5:30pm (Sunday). I will close the bids at 5pm. If I have time, I will try to give all whom bid a heads up of the current bid prices
BID HERE:
Friday, August 19, 2022
Shopping Sign up for August 20 and 22
Shopping Sign up for August 20 and 22
FRIENDLY REMINDER: NO FLIP FLOPS allowed during volunteering or any open toed shoes.
Members need to text or call Patty on Saturdays and Alicia on Mondays 2 hours prior if you need miss a shop time. If you skip and do not contact us - you MUST sign up for a cleanup shift the following week. If you do not contact Patty on a Saturday and skip shopping without connecting, you may NOT sign up to shop on Monday.
Everyone of the members making shopping possible is a volunteering taking time from their lives, please be mindful of others time. By skipping your time slot, it makes for a longer time for our volunteers.
**If the list is full, please please call or text the person in charge.
REMINDER: Please do not parent a child that is not your own. Also, please be kind to everyone.
Saturday Shopping --CALL PATTY for any changes after 9pm Friday night
Monday Shopping
contact ALICIA for any changes. We will close the list Sunday evening at 8pm
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Target - note to members from Patty
I want to give a shout out of thanks to the 17 people, which is roughly 10% of the gleaner households, that helped move appropriately 7 tons of product today. I will tell you I am exhausted and hot just like our members who came to help. As a group we need to make a decision if getting Target is an important resource for our group because for the people who show up week after week to do Target we are beginning to wonder if doing it is worth it. I welcome any thoughts regarding this issue.
Thank you
Patty
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Crazy Dayz Postponed & Bottle Deposit
Crazy Days POSTPONED
We are going to postpone the crazy dayz sale until the first Saturday in September and hope for some cooler weather for our volunteers who are out in the weather.
Bottle Deposit
Please make sure to bring back your bottles so we can turn the funds into cash for the program. Recently, we have had a lot of specialty soda and Sunny D. Both of these items are redeemable for bottle deposit. These funds go to helping with our truck rental, gas costs, food costs, etc. Every penny counts!
August meeting Minutes from 8/9/22
Philomath Community Gleaners Monthly Meeting Minutes
August 9, 2022 @ 6:30pm via ZOOM & In person
Welcome – 6:31pm
Attendees: In person: Patty Nobles, Linda O., Shelby O, Jessica O., and Alicia W
Attendees via Zoom: Amanda M., Patty McF., Dana H., Tesla C., Jill, Jodi B., Melissa S., Karen C., Kalea S., Elaine K., Michele D., Timmy W., and Melissa Bron.
Updates – David from PCS – There were no updates
June Meeting Minutes – Posted 6/26 for reading. Alicia referred to the post that minutes were posted. Elaine moved to approve the Minutes, Melissa S 2nd the motion. All were in favor. Motion Passed.
Treasurer Report (s) -
June & July – need to approve as reported today. Alicia read the following treasurer report. Patty Nobles moved to approve the treasurer report, Linda O 2nd. All were in favor. Motion passed.
Philomath Gleaners |
| June 2022 |
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REVENUES |
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| General Donations | $2,066.23 |
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| Cans | $111.70 |
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| Frog |
| $85.42 |
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| Total Revenues |
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| $2,263.35 |
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EXPENDITURES |
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| Food Share | $2.56 | Non-food | |
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| Food Share |
| $560.11 |
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| Gas (Town Pump) | $229.78 |
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| Supplies | $93.97 |
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| Dollar General groceries |
| $637.06 |
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| OSU Motor Pool | $270.22 |
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| Total Expenditures |
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| $1,793.70 |
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Ann Morgan, Treasurer |
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Philomath Gleaners |
| July 2022 |
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REVENUES |
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| Donations | $68.00 | |
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| Wenger Funds | $500.00 | |
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| Frog |
| $227.16 |
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| Crazy Daze |
| $94.00 |
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| Mid Valley Gleaners |
| $25.00 |
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| Total Revenues |
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| $914.16 | |
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EXPENDITURES |
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| Supplies | $229.08 | |
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| Gas (Town Pump) | $111.09 | |
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| OSU Motor Pool | $145.81 | |
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| Food Share Non Food | $29.28 | |
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| Food Share | $569.03 | |
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| Total Expenditures |
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| $1,084.29 | |
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Ann Morgan, Treasurer |
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Grant information:
Alicia read the information about grants to the group:
Current Grants:
Siletz grant 22-03 – 253.75 remaining
We had another donor write us a check for $500 and we are going to track these funds although there were no restrictions on the funds.
Chambers Grant for canning lids and freezer bags – all item purchased. Just need to be sorted
We do track our funds the best we can. PCS also tracks fund in QuickBooks. Just for reference: We started the year with about 14,054.30 in restricted funds for the gleaners. Our current funds are 13,728.94. This means that we have only depended upon the PCS finances in the amount of $325.36. This is huge as we work really hard to be a self-sufficient program and are extremely thankful that PCS works hard to pay the power bill, keep the cooler running, fix broken faucets, etc. It is the effort of all of our members who make fundraising possible!
Grants Pending responses:
Grants Working on:
Fred Meyer Community Grant – Alicia is requesting for Toilet paper and Paper towels – it is almost ready to sent out
Walmart Community Grant – PCS redid a grant for May so we will try to do in August.
Bi-Mart Community Grant – Still working on this one
Roundhouse – requesting food and hygiene items. Grant is almost complete.
Timmy is looking into Patagonia grants
Monthly service report -
Alicia read the Monthly Service Report to the group.
June NUMBERS
Total number of members- 485 (including children) Gleaner Households – 98 Adoptee households – 57 New households - 15 Volunteer hours recorded – 1148 Donated Miles – 3050
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| Total pounds distributed to members: 33,210 Waste (Pallets, trash, Recycle) – 6306 Donation out – other community groups - 8468 other gleaning groups - 8225 Farm / animals - 3604 |
467 Shops for the Month, average pounds per family was 71# each trip. That is an average value of $ 118.76 per shopping trip at 1.67 per pound value.
July NUMBERS
Total number of members- 475 (including children) Gleaner Households – 95 Adoptee households – 60 New households - 11 Volunteer hours recorded – 1327 Donated Miles – 3725
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| Total pounds distributed to members: 31,566 Waste (Pallets, trash, Recycle) – 2771 Donation out – other community groups - 2817 other gleaning groups - 5760 Farm / animals - 4197 |
494 Shops for the Month, average pounds per family was 64# each trip. That is an average value of $ 106.71 per shopping trip at 1.67 per pound value.
Old Business
Patty reported on the Benton County Fair. Patty thanked everyone who came and volunteered. We have been invited back for next year which says a lot about our program. We should expect to see a $1,000 check coming soon.
We are planning to have a Crazy Dayz will be August 20th
Alicia reported: There is still about 100.00 remaining from the 1000 that we had donated for the program. We were just tracking for our own purposes. Alicia will no longer track. We have been using supply funds for the dots and other needs as well. We have more than made good use of the funds.
New Business
We require 5 hours for Volunteer time. Most folks put in more than 5 hours. Jessica mentioned that we really do need help and on Fridays too. Jessica is running the Friday site on the 12th.
Announced : We need people to help with target this week.
Be mindful of the amount of produce. Example if there are 5 melons only take one. We are meant to supplement your grocery budget. For example: if there are only 3 watermelon, please only take 1!
Cooler update – no update.
Open Questions and Answers -- What's going well, what’s not?
Linda: the tent came apart outside and they put it back together. As winter is coming and we are continuing to get donations and Target, where are we going to put all of this stuff we are getting? There is no real answer.
Melissa Bronson: She says she sees who helps and who doesn’t. Some folks put in a lot of time to the program.
Timmy – He would like to remind folks on how to stack the bins so it is easy for people to take them on a store run. They need to be stacked in groups of 5 tubs and 5 lids. The lid needs to go on the tub to make sure no critters can get into the tub.
Reminder: What we all do affects everyone. Each persons actions affect the whole group.
Linda: Asked about the bread and why we save the bread for the next distribution. Alicia explained that for the first time since joining, we had a week where there was “1” piece of bread left over after distribution. In an effort to make sure we have bread for our members, we opted to do the following:
Bread from Monday store pickups will be stored for Saturday distribution. Bread from Tues – Sat will be saved for Monday distribution. This way, if we need to keep bread instead of sharing, we have it.
Elaine asked about bumping our hours up to increased volunteer hours. We used to have 8 hours per month as the required hours pre-covid. Patty responded that we have many single moms and families who are struggling to get in the 5 hours. At this time, we really just want everyone to pitch in where they can to lighten the load.
Dishwashing – It has been suggested that sometimes it is hard to find a spot to volunteer. It was suggested that we limit the dishwashers (morning shift) to 1 time per month to allow more folks to sign up to help. This way, the same people are not always helping with dishwashing. This will allow for everyone to participate in dishwashing.
Tesla had a suggestion that we put up signs on the diapers, wipes, and target goods that these items don’t come free, but with the hard work on volunteers. That you too could help with this process.
Patty reminded folks to not judge others. There are key people that know what is going on in different families. Not everyone knows another families struggles.
Patty let everyone know we would be having Target on Thursday the 11th and will need helpers.
Elaine brought up the video of the jobs at the site. She suggested that we have a video of all of the jobs that a person can do. This is a great idea. We would need someone to do it. And, we need to make sure those involved are okay with the video being done. Alicia’s POST MEETING added note for all to read: please remember that before any photo or video is taken, you need parent / member approval.
There was an extra Thank you to Patty for all she does for this program. This is the best this program has ever been.
Elaine asked about blueberry gleans and if we would get them. Patty responded that we really don’t know when we will get gleans. With the weather this year, it may not be as good as past years. This is why it is going to be imperative that we all participate in gleans this year.
REMINDERS:
Gleaners need to sign up at least once for a cleanup shift
You are allowed to volunteer more than 5 hours per month.
Next monthly member meeting will be October 11, 2022
Meeting was adjourned at 7:15pm
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