Food for thought: Midstate food pantries cope with supply chain, staffing challenges as need continues to rise | The Sentinel: News

serves about 1,200 partner organizations across its 27-county territory, according to executive director Joe Arthur. “Our job is to find them as much high quality food at the lowest cost as possible,” Arthur said. Getting food has been a continuous challenge during the pandemic with the first three or four months being “exceptionally challenging,” Arthur said, but the organizations have been able to overcome and deal with it. Thinking back to March 2020, Eric Saunders, executive director of

, said the supply chain collapsed “in a big way” as even wholesalers lacked inventory. “That meant that the food bank was short,” Saunders said. “We went for a couple of months with almost no food coming in other than what was coming out of the restaurants and schools shutting down.”

That food was highly perishable and commercially packaged, which meant New Hope had to figure out how to use or repackage it in the best way possible to serve its people. Central Pennsylvania Food Bank turned to its partners in the food industry like Giant and Weis Markets and their suppliers to help find truckloads of food that the food bank could not get through its normal channels. Large farms and a cooperative the food bank helped to establish in Philadelphia have provided a source for fresh food. The challenge has been in the “center store” items like boxes of cereal or cans of fruit and vegetables. The food bank also takes advantage of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs as much as possible. The agency’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, for example, will buy what is necessary to stabilize markets. When the food bank is filled with stacks of canned corn, for example, there was likely an abundant corn harvest. “The more we can leverage that — because it’s always really good food — the less we have to buy,” Arthur said. Donations of high-quality food throughout the pandemic and even now are still down because those businesses are selling the food to keep up with their own sales demand. That has forced the food bank to do more purchasing than it ever has before. Before the pandemic, the most product the food bank purchased in a year was about 5 million pounds. “Last year, we went through 10 million pounds of purchasing. This year, we’ll probably be in the 12-14 million pound range even though demand is less than it was in 2020,” he said. “There’s just not as much food in our system.” Robert Weed, executive director of Project SHARE in Carlisle, said some products were harder to find than others, but SHARE worked with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, wholesalers and manufacturers who could offer comparable alternatives. “From a supply chain standpoint, we’ve been blessed and really haven’t had any significant issues,” Weed said. The organization also drew heavily on its existing relationships and programs to maintain its stock. Located in a warehouse-filled logistics hub between Interstate 81, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 83, Project SHARE receives 7-10 calls from trucking companies each month offering food that had been rejected by retailers. Often it’s produce that is still in good shape and safe to eat, but other items have also been offered. Weed recalled a load of orange juice that was rejected because each pallet had one bottle that was broken. “We’re able to rescue that and distribute it, get it out to the public as opposed to having it in a Dumpster somewhere,” Weed said. Project SHARE also benefits from its seasonal gleaning program that resulted in 80,000 pounds of fresh produce that would have otherwise been plowed under at the end of the growing season. Even more food is rescued from grocery store shelves where retailers will pull items days before their best-buy date to maintain their quality standards even though the food is still good for some time after that date. A warehouse that features large freezers and coolers allows Project SHARE the capacity and flexibility to accept rejected loads and to bring back several pallets of fresh food from the gleaning program.

Similarly, Saunders said about half of the food New Hope acquires is also free. “But, it’s only available if you have some way to get it — hence transportation — and someplace to put it, and that’s warehousing and refrigeration,” he said. New Hope now has eight centers in Cumberland, York and Adams counties. Some of those centers have warehouses but the size varies from center to center, creating an internal supply chain that allows one center to help supply another when necessary. Whether a rejected load, gleaned produce or food donated by a retailer, the food only gets to the people who need it through a process that requires volunteers filling roles from drivers to the person putting a box of food in the client’s car. That’s a link in the food pantry supply chain that’s been highly affected by the pandemic.

New Hope Ministries lost about two-thirds of its almost 4,000 strong volunteer force when the pandemic hit in 2020. Most of those volunteers were senior citizens and retirees with compromised health who backed out of their volunteer roles due to safety concerns. Those who stayed have been working three times as hard, Saunders said. “That’s been painful,” he said. “I’ve got my caseworker trying to do case work and sitting on the front desk answering phones at the same time.” Project SHARE also faced an immediate challenge to keep its volunteer corps full for similar reasons. But, Weed said, at the same time some businesses shut down and those employees who weren’t working looked for something to do. Project SHARE continues to see volunteers who work at companies that allow remote work, which provides greater flexibility with hours so long as the employee is accountable to finish certain tasks. Throughout the pandemic, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank has had enough volunteers to carry out its mission. “Even during the worst periods of COVID, people were willing to come in, follow protocol, mask up and all of that,” Arthur said.

All three groups said this is a time of year when people are more inspired to volunteer and that the need continues long after the Christmas tree is kicked to the curb. Project SHARE and New Hope Ministries need volunteer drivers who are comfortable with driving large box trucks that do not require a commercial drivers license to operate. Both agencies use the trucks to pick up food from other sources or to deliver their excess food to another food pantry. Each agency lists specific volunteer needs on their respective websites, but they agree they can find something for the willing person who wants to help. “Come interact with folks who are your neighbors who can use a helping hand,” Saunders said. “We can use people to answer phones, to drive trucks, to operate forklifts, to read books to kids. If you want to help, we’ll find something for you.” Monetary donations are also a key way to to assist the agencies. “It’s not glamorous, but to keep the lights on, make sure that we’ve got the dedicated personnel we need to run these programs. We depend upon holiday giving to fund our programs all year round,” Saunders said, adding that about one-third of New Hope’s annual funding comes in during November and December. Financial support at Project SHARE comes in waves and there’s no doubt that November to December represents a big wave. “The need remains consistent, so as we move through this season of giving, we’re, in essence, stockpiling, for January, February, March when the need doesn’t go away but the financial support from the community is typically less,” Weed said. If those reading the tea leaves are correct, the agencies are going to face a greater need in the new year.

In November, Arthur said he started to see increased need for food that he doesn’t credit solely to the usual holiday increase. Instead, he connects the increase to higher prices for food, fuel and heating. He also said he sees lease renewals with increases of more than 20% in this market area at the same time that federal support that was put in place during the pandemic ends. Arthur has been preparing for higher demand at the food bank’s main warehouse by stocking up on food, knowing that it might take people a few months to get to the point where they need to go to a food pantry. Taking that step can help stretch a family’s budget. “We are encouraging people to take the food, but the food has a financial value. If you can utilize a pantry, then you can put some of your income toward back rent, emergency fund,” Saunders said. “There’s no shame in taking what’s available in terms of assistance.” As agencies enter the new year, they are also considering ways to better reach their communities. For Project SHARE, that could include an expansion of the client choice model for distribution they unveiled in November. Weed said the staff at SHARE spent four or five months planning how to execute the new model from the time a client registers for an appointment to the time their groceries are bagged after they choose what they want based on family size from the shelves. Clients were overwhelmingly thrilled with the new option. The goal at the usual drive-thru distribution is to provide enough food for a family of four for a week. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it’s smaller households and senior citizens who have been the most anxious to sign up for the client choice option. Going into 2022, Arthur said the food bank will work with smaller food pantries to develop and encourage the client-choice model. “It’s very respectful of the client. There’s no waste of food because they won’t take things they won’t use,” he said. New Hope has been using the client choice model for some time and has found people have valued the option to choose their food based on preferences, religious dietary restrictions, allergies or health conditions. But there is a sense that it is far more efficient to let people make their own choices. “It takes a lot of manpower to make sure you have 200 boxes with all the same stuff in them. Just put the food on the shelf and spend your time being nice to people,” Saunders said. Agencies are also looking at more mobile options to get food to the people who need it.

“In food assistance circles, we’re talking about home delivery options. Some of the groups are even using DoorDash now to deliver food assistance,” Saunders said. “The pandemic’s forced us into thinking about how the work we do can be done differently.” Last year, Project SHARE experimented with remote distributions after getting the sense that there were pockets of people who could not get to Project SHARE or to its farmstand as often as they hoped. In conjunction with area churches, SHARE gave away milk, bread and eggs at locations in Plainfield, Carlisle and Newville. In the summer, the Read & Feed program for children in Plainfield, Mount Holly Springs and at the main building made sure 375 children a week received food. “That reinforced the fact that if we can get outside our walls there’s a population that we can serve better,” Weed said. Project SHARE is looking at the potential to add its farmstand offerings to the mobile operation in the future. New Hope is also taking food to the people with a new partnership at Camp Hill School District and at four apartment complexes in the area. “We park at the curb and folks can come down or we can take a box up. It’s one of our most successful outreaches,” Saunders said. Having the food available is only part of the equation. The other part is encouraging people who need help to reach out. “Don’t let anybody suffer. If you know somebody who’s going through a tough time, please share that help is available,” Saunders said.

Central Pennsylvania Food Bank serves about 1,200 partner organizations across its 27-county territory, according to executive director Joe Arthur.

“Our job is to find them as much high quality food at the lowest cost as possible,” Arthur said.

Getting food has been a continuous challenge during the pandemic with the first three or four months being “exceptionally challenging,” Arthur said, but the organizations have been able to overcome and deal with it.

Thinking back to March 2020, Eric Saunders, executive director of New Hope Ministries, said the supply chain collapsed “in a big way” as even wholesalers lacked inventory.

“That meant that the food bank was short,” Saunders said. “We went for a couple of months with almost no food coming in other than what was coming out of the restaurants and schools shutting down.”

That food was highly perishable and commercially packaged, which meant New Hope had to figure out how to use or repackage it in the best way possible to serve its people.

Central Pennsylvania Food Bank turned to its partners in the food industry like Giant and Weis Markets and their suppliers to help find truckloads of food that the food bank could not get through its normal channels.

Large farms and a cooperative the food bank helped to establish in Philadelphia have provided a source for fresh food. The challenge has been in the “center store” items like boxes of cereal or cans of fruit and vegetables.

The food bank also takes advantage of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs as much as possible. The agency’s Emergency Food Assistance Program, for example, will buy what is necessary to stabilize markets. When the food bank is filled with stacks of canned corn, for example, there was likely an abundant corn harvest.

“The more we can leverage that — because it’s always really good food — the less we have to buy,” Arthur said.

Donations of high-quality food throughout the pandemic and even now are still down because those businesses are selling the food to keep up with their own sales demand. That has forced the food bank to do more purchasing than it ever has before. Before the pandemic, the most product the food bank purchased in a year was about 5 million pounds.

“Last year, we went through 10 million pounds of purchasing. This year, we’ll probably be in the 12-14 million pound range even though demand is less than it was in 2020,” he said. “There’s just not as much food in our system.”

Robert Weed, executive director of Project SHARE in Carlisle, said some products were harder to find than others, but SHARE worked with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, wholesalers and manufacturers who could offer comparable alternatives.

“From a supply chain standpoint, we’ve been blessed and really haven’t had any significant issues,” Weed said.

The organization also drew heavily on its existing relationships and programs to maintain its stock.

Located in a warehouse-filled logistics hub between Interstate 81, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 83, Project SHARE receives 7-10 calls from trucking companies each month offering food that had been rejected by retailers. Often it’s produce that is still in good shape and safe to eat, but other items have also been offered. Weed recalled a load of orange juice that was rejected because each pallet had one bottle that was broken.

“We’re able to rescue that and distribute it, get it out to the public as opposed to having it in a Dumpster somewhere,” Weed said.

Project SHARE also benefits from its seasonal gleaning program that resulted in 80,000 pounds of fresh produce that would have otherwise been plowed under at the end of the growing season.

Even more food is rescued from grocery store shelves where retailers will pull items days before their best-buy date to maintain their quality standards even though the food is still good for some time after that date.

A warehouse that features large freezers and coolers allows Project SHARE the capacity and flexibility to accept rejected loads and to bring back several pallets of fresh food from the gleaning program.

Similarly, Saunders said about half of the food New Hope acquires is also free.

“But, it’s only available if you have some way to get it — hence transportation — and someplace to put it, and that’s warehousing and refrigeration,” he said.

New Hope now has eight centers in Cumberland, York and Adams counties. Some of those centers have warehouses but the size varies from center to center, creating an internal supply chain that allows one center to help supply another when necessary.

Whether a rejected load, gleaned produce or food donated by a retailer, the food only gets to the people who need it through a process that requires volunteers filling roles from drivers to the person putting a box of food in the client’s car.

That’s a link in the food pantry supply chain that’s been highly affected by the pandemic.

New Hope Ministries lost about two-thirds of its almost 4,000 strong volunteer force when the pandemic hit in 2020. Most of those volunteers were senior citizens and retirees with compromised health who backed out of their volunteer roles due to safety concerns.

Those who stayed have been working three times as hard, Saunders said.

“That’s been painful,” he said. “I’ve got my caseworker trying to do case work and sitting on the front desk answering phones at the same time.”

Project SHARE also faced an immediate challenge to keep its volunteer corps full for similar reasons. But, Weed said, at the same time some businesses shut down and those employees who weren’t working looked for something to do.

Project SHARE continues to see volunteers who work at companies that allow remote work, which provides greater flexibility with hours so long as the employee is accountable to finish certain tasks.

Throughout the pandemic, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank has had enough volunteers to carry out its mission.

“Even during the worst periods of COVID, people were willing to come in, follow protocol, mask up and all of that,” Arthur said.

All three groups said this is a time of year when people are more inspired to volunteer and that the need continues long after the Christmas tree is kicked to the curb.

Project SHARE and New Hope Ministries need volunteer drivers who are comfortable with driving large box trucks that do not require a commercial drivers license to operate. Both agencies use the trucks to pick up food from other sources or to deliver their excess food to another food pantry.

Each agency lists specific volunteer needs on their respective websites, but they agree they can find something for the willing person who wants to help.

“Come interact with folks who are your neighbors who can use a helping hand,” Saunders said. “We can use people to answer phones, to drive trucks, to operate forklifts, to read books to kids. If you want to help, we’ll find something for you.”

Monetary donations are also a key way to to assist the agencies.

“It’s not glamorous, but to keep the lights on, make sure that we’ve got the dedicated personnel we need to run these programs. We depend upon holiday giving to fund our programs all year round,” Saunders said, adding that about one-third of New Hope’s annual funding comes in during November and December.

Financial support at Project SHARE comes in waves and there’s no doubt that November to December represents a big wave.

“The need remains consistent, so as we move through this season of giving, we’re, in essence, stockpiling, for January, February, March when the need doesn’t go away but the financial support from the community is typically less,” Weed said.

If those reading the tea leaves are correct, the agencies are going to face a greater need in the new year.

In November, Arthur said he started to see increased need for food that he doesn’t credit solely to the usual holiday increase. Instead, he connects the increase to higher prices for food, fuel and heating. He also said he sees lease renewals with increases of more than 20% in this market area at the same time that federal support that was put in place during the pandemic ends.

Arthur has been preparing for higher demand at the food bank’s main warehouse by stocking up on food, knowing that it might take people a few months to get to the point where they need to go to a food pantry.

Taking that step can help stretch a family’s budget.

“We are encouraging people to take the food, but the food has a financial value. If you can utilize a pantry, then you can put some of your income toward back rent, emergency fund,” Saunders said. “There’s no shame in taking what’s available in terms of assistance.”

As agencies enter the new year, they are also considering ways to better reach their communities.

For Project SHARE, that could include an expansion of the client choice model for distribution they unveiled in November.

Weed said the staff at SHARE spent four or five months planning how to execute the new model from the time a client registers for an appointment to the time their groceries are bagged after they choose what they want based on family size from the shelves. Clients were overwhelmingly thrilled with the new option.

The goal at the usual drive-thru distribution is to provide enough food for a family of four for a week. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it’s smaller households and senior citizens who have been the most anxious to sign up for the client choice option.

Going into 2022, Arthur said the food bank will work with smaller food pantries to develop and encourage the client-choice model.

“It’s very respectful of the client. There’s no waste of food because they won’t take things they won’t use,” he said.

New Hope has been using the client choice model for some time and has found people have valued the option to choose their food based on preferences, religious dietary restrictions, allergies or health conditions.

But there is a sense that it is far more efficient to let people make their own choices.

“It takes a lot of manpower to make sure you have 200 boxes with all the same stuff in them. Just put the food on the shelf and spend your time being nice to people,” Saunders said.

Agencies are also looking at more mobile options to get food to the people who need it.

“In food assistance circles, we’re talking about home delivery options. Some of the groups are even using DoorDash now to deliver food assistance,” Saunders said. “The pandemic’s forced us into thinking about how the work we do can be done differently.”

Last year, Project SHARE experimented with remote distributions after getting the sense that there were pockets of people who could not get to Project SHARE or to its farmstand as often as they hoped. In conjunction with area churches, SHARE gave away milk, bread and eggs at locations in Plainfield, Carlisle and Newville.

In the summer, the Read & Feed program for children in Plainfield, Mount Holly Springs and at the main building made sure 375 children a week received food.

“That reinforced the fact that if we can get outside our walls there’s a population that we can serve better,” Weed said.

Project SHARE is looking at the potential to add its farmstand offerings to the mobile operation in the future.

New Hope is also taking food to the people with a new partnership at Camp Hill School District and at four apartment complexes in the area.

“We park at the curb and folks can come down or we can take a box up. It’s one of our most successful outreaches,” Saunders said.

Having the food available is only part of the equation. The other part is encouraging people who need help to reach out.

“Don’t let anybody suffer. If you know somebody who’s going through a tough time, please share that help is available,” Saunders said.