Philomath Community Gleaners
October 8, 2024 @ 7:00pm ZOOM MEETING ONLY
Attendees: Valerie S., Renay L., Patty N., Jennie W., Jill N., Michelle F., Tim W., Jules F., Karen C., Sandy H., Danielle B., Michelle R., Liza F., Karyn E., Patty M., Nina P., Linda D., Jennie M., Kelsea N., Shalandra R., Ann M., Jen L., Laura F., Chelsea S., Jody T.
August Meeting Minutes – were posted for reading. Valerie S moved to approve. Michelle R 2nd and all were in favor.
We have a glean planned soon and need helpers. Willamette Grange – we will glean the orchard.
Renay moved to approve. Laura F seconded. All were in favor.
Reports to be completed (Grants spent in full)
Siletz Grant 23-15 (Nov 2023)
Siletz Grant Awarded May 2024 (24-4)
Grants Pending responses:
-There was discussion on funds and grants. We currently have no funds for food with grant funds. Patty discussed what happened with the Siletz grant and that we may not get it this next round.
Service reports were read to the membership:
August Monthly service report -
Total number of members- 457 (including children) Volunteer hours recorded – 1274 | | Total pounds distributed to members: 38,899 Waste (Pallets, trash, Recycle) – 94 other community groups – 2801 other gleaning groups - 325 |
527 Shops for the Month, average pounds per family was 74# each trip. That is an average value of $143.20 per shopping trip at $1.93 per pound value.
**Hours needed by Gleaner Family – Total Hours recorded (1274) / # Gleaner Families (84) =15 hours.
Total number of members- (including children) 487 Volunteer hours recorded – 920 | | Total pounds distributed to members: 36,492 Waste (Pallets, trash, Recycle) – 68 other community groups – 2161 other gleaning groups – 110 |
574 Shops for the Month, average pounds per family was 64# each trip. That is an average value of $123.34 per shopping trip at 1.93 per pound value.
**Hours needed by Gleaner Family – Total Hours recorded (920) / # Gleaner Families (83) = 11 hours. Please note I think some hours may not have been accounted for with new program issues.
Reminder - Children must be able to touch parents. This is a safety issue. Please have your kids close!
Discussion of end of year
We will post the voting online as well as have it in person for positions. Voting should start as soon as we can get responses from nominees. For purposes of scheduling, let’s plan around 11/15 we have the vote up for 2 weeks. Voting can end of November 29th so our new elected members can get training in December to be ready for a Jan 1st start day.
Patty said she is appreciative of the comments in the box from membership. Some folks seem upset that we have more adoptees than gleaners right now. Adoptees are a protected class and we cannot turn away membership if we have open slots. For history purposes, gleaners were started where if you were a gleaner, you had an adoptee you shopped for or possibly delivered to. It was a 1:1 membership. We need to be mindful of our group and we can not discriminate.
One other thing brought up was the pre-shopping and folks want to go back to it. It is against the law. Patty took full blame for this as we didn’t correct it a year ago when it came up in a LBFS meeting. If we allow pre-shopping, we are then (According the IRS) paying people for their time. You can look up the law. Susan James is willing to discuss this if you would like to further investigate but we are doing what is right.
If you have a better suggestion for shopping that follows the LBFS rules, please bring that to us so it can be discussed. The system in place before COVID was that you are waiting in line in the lobby (could be hours) for food. It was a sign up as first come, first serve. Our Advisory board has met, and we don’t have a better answer than what we are doing now.
Please shop in your alphabetical time slot! If you find that there is a week that doesn’t work for your schedule, please plan to go to the food bank.
Monday Driver needed for take over 10/21 for both Safeways. This is a 2-person team. Alicia would like us to follow the schedule that Timmy did a few weeks ago so that the van is back for the farm before 10am. Liza will ask her daughter, but if anyone is interested, please reach out to Patty.
We have no “Key” Volunteers in the program. That phrase was heard recently in the building, and we need to be mindful of our words and know that we are all volunteers. No one gets a special title as a “key” volunteer. This can come off negative to folks and we would like our members to feel appreciated and stay.
Sometimes all slots are signed up for. Consider taking a cleanup shift. If you need hours, you can always come and help. We especially need help on Mondays as sometimes it takes 2.5 hours to cleanup. This is a lot on a few volunteers who commit to this weekly plus a few extra. I don’t think anyone would turn down the help.
If we don’t get people to sign up to do our store runs, we will be forced to give runs to other groups.
Please note that every position must be signed up for unless you are part of a designated crew.
Open Questions and Answers -- What's going well, what’s not?
Liza asked if there was more time for suggestions in the box. Patty said the box has been out there for 3 weeks and she would like it closed. Liza asked if we could have a general suggestion box. Patty suggested that the new coordinator could do this.
Patty spoke about why she is stepping down as our coordinator. Patty has issues herself with the program and has been having issues with PCS and Sharon, our Director. The way PCS seems to want things to run does not align with LBFS and Patty will not go against LBFS rules.
Gleaners have no voice when it comes to what happens in the building. PCS has denied the Gleaners to attend meetings for the past few years. Most recently, PCS changed the gleaners name to Community Gleaners without asking the membership at large (note that the membership is supposed to have say in what happens with their program). Patty found out at a meeting that the name had been changed. The problem with this change is that there is another group in Albany called Community Gleaners and we can't have 2 groups with the same name. Karen with the food bank was also shocked to hear of the name change that happened without her knowledge either.
One member shared that we were not allowed to use box knives to open boxes at the site. Her first experience with the Director was super negative.
Ann Morgan has been writing our grants for Siletz for years. She is the only person who has gotten a 100% from Siletz on her grant writing. This last grant cycle, the Director requested to see the grant prior to turning it in. The Director then submitted the grant for the gleaners as we are no longer allowed to submit anything without her approval. Sadly, the grant was kicked back in the computer system as the email was input incorrectly. This error could cost us a $3000 grant. Currently we are only able to get free food from LBFS and our store pickups. All purchases is on hold.
We are frustrated with the budgeting with the board too. We have only used funds from grants all year and there was a little over $4K in the line item for food for us but we are not sure if the board will allow us to use it. Alicia says that the funds should be separated. Grants grocery funds and General funds grocery.
Patty says she has no more fight left in her. What is happening week by week is exhausting. This decision is hard for her to make. Please consider this job is not easy but one we need to fill. Please consider this when making nominations.
Timmy announced he will not be continuing as the Co-Coordinator anymore either. He feels like PCS has become a hostile environment. He is also spending about $180 on gas to volunteer monthly.
Michelle R asked if our director knows our complaints and struggles. I don’t think this was directly answered.
Renay said she didn’t feel like she was comfortable nominating anyone at this time.
Patty said we have 2 bosses we answer to which make our program unique and hard. We have to answer PCS as well as LBFS. PCS gives us curveballs often. We have to appease and meet both bosses.
Jules said that it seems like a lot of politics and that we need someone to take on the job to keep the door open. This program is amazing, and she feels blessed to be part of it. The amount of work it takes to run this program is a lot. Jules would be willing to be a co-coordinator.
Patty agreed this is a blessing and is asking that people be willing to step up and run it.
Laura F thinks the positions are too many hours and asks how we can reduce and split the job duties.
Patty said the job has never been a burden for her. It is her passion. It has just been so difficult with PCS not letting us do what we need to do. When Patty came to PCS, Jean Goul was our President and one thing she remembers Jean saying was that “We are all supposed to be a community”.
Anna G likes the idea of sub-dividing the hours up to different roles. Who is interested in taking on roles?
Jules has a good business history and is willing.
The question was how many hours a week is the coordinator position. Patty said about 30- 40 per week. It could be less or more depending upon the season and if we have help with the gleaning season and/or gleaner coordinators. Patty says she and Timmy are still willing to run Saturdays so that would take a huge number of weekly hours away from a new coordinator position.
If someone steps up to be the gleaning person that would help as well. Michelle P and Patty took it this year. Norma Bronson was doing it, but her circumstances have changed, and she is no longer able to. Anna said she is willing to step up and take on the Gleans.
LBFS hosts an annual training for all new people, usually in February. Patty will be available to assist the new coordinator too. We will need new Friday people to help run Friday and do store pickups.
We hope people will nominate themselves. Anna said she could be willing for Monday pickups if her child gets into a program locally.
Laura F said she is super visual and could help try to figure out a new system. She suggested possibly 2 co-coordinators. Possibly we try to have work groups and split things up into smaller jobs.
Patty said that Sharon plans to re-write all the job positions for the building. She is the one in charge, so folks would need to go to her.
Laura said we should have a hierarchy board. Patty explained the hierarchy.
Exec Committe oversees the Board of Directors
Director oversees all the programs.
Again, we cannot go to the board meetings, and we are not invited. We have actually been denied attendance. Many members said that it is illegal. Patty and Alicia agreed but have tried and been turned down. Liza says she is going to try to figure it out. Laura says the law is that since it is a nonprofit it has to be open to the public. It also must be posted somewhere that the meeting is happening. Most entities post to their websites.
Alicia and Patty have fought to be part of the meetings. We are allowed to see snip its of the meeting information that is chosen to be shared. The last meeting with all the board was a terrible experience and Patty won’t be going back.
Discussed more about the Siletz grant and that we have no more grocery funds in the budget. Patty says she feels like she is running a program with handcuffs on.
A member asked if we could do a petition to address some issues. If we did a petition- it would have to go to the Director first. She has Veto power. Someone asked if they could just show up at a meeting. Another member asked what the chain of command is. Anna G says she may go talk to our director at the farmers market as she sees her there weekly.
Someone asked if a group of us went to the board would it make any difference.
Another member suggested we go to Sharon and ask for help instead of going against her. Aks her to help us problem solve the issues. Maybe if we could meet together we could have a better relationship.
Sharon promised a new building in 3 years when she interviewed. That is her focus. This is why she is writing all the grants for all PCS. All the funds are going to a new building. We can no longer write the OSU grant, the Roundhouse grant, etc. Sharon did help build the building in Dallas and also reworked the gleaner's program there to be a one day a week program.
Questions came up as to where the building will be. Will it be within walking distance of the downtown area as many of our people walk to get food.
Michele R asked if the goal should really be a new building? Timmy said that the parking lot is changing, and we are losing a whole row of parking. That is a large reason why we need a new space. For a small town, we really do a lot for the community.
Someone thinks that we need to sell the building to get seed money for a new building. Parking will be an issue soon as well as coming in/out of the parking area. The water treatment plant will soon be moving forward and we lose a lot of parking. We do have the new back parking lot to use so we hope folks use that. The downfall with it is that carts do not work well out there at all.
Laura F said in a group she works with – they hired a professional grant writer. They were able to get a lot of money during covid. Liza said grants are complicated. There is still some cleanup on grants being done by Sharon now. Possibly PCS could get a grant writer.
Everyone seemed to be super thankful. It is late and Alicia closed the meeting at 8:36pm.
Next monthly member meeting will be December 10, 2024.
