Where does our food come from? Why does it seem that we serve the same meal on a regular basis? Why don't we have salad dressing or margarine?

These are just a few of the questions that have been recently asked and we wanted to share some insight:

1.  We receive a grant through the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) yearly.  The grant is divided quarterly and many times we do not receive the funds until the second quarter.  50% of the grant is sent to the state authorized food supplier (Ettline Foods) and the other 50% is received in cash.  There is only a certain variety of basic foods that are available to purchase from the wholesaler. Therefore, salad dressings, sugar, coffee and snacks and other non-essential items are not covered under our state grant. We must depend on donations for these items.  

2.  We receive many of our meals from groups, families, civic troops, churches and synagogues.   Many times the groups donate the same meal such as baked ziti, chili, meatloaf, etc.  When another group is scheduled, they may choose to donate a similar dinner and at no time would we ever tell a group they couldn't bring that particular meal in. 

 Take for example, all the turkeys we received from the holidays.  Tariya, Kitchen Services Director, would cook up three or four turkeys a day and serve that for lunch during the week.  Then, a new family called us and told us they wanted to provide a holiday dinner meal.  When it came in, you guessed it, it was a turkey dinner.  So our residents were served turkey for both lunch and dinner. 

We don't look at this as a negative though.  In fact, we feel grateful that Safe Harbor didn't have to spend one penny on two of the meals we served that day!

Reminders

1.  We wish to remind all kitchen volunteers that donate meals for our residents to bring in the meal hot and ready to serve.  Due to Health Department Regulations, we ask that no cooking is done in the kitchen.  

2.  Meal provider volunteers are asked to continue calling or e-mailing your menu to Tariya at least a couple days ahead so she is aware of what food is coming in.

3.  Recently, an e-mail was distributed to all kitchen volunteers with two sheets outlining the "Dinner Volunteer Responsibilities" and "Dishwasher Procedures".  If you didn't receive it, please e-mail Patty  and she'll be sure to forward it to you! 

4.  All volunteers are asked to fill in a Kitchen Volunteer Application.  Please remember to fill all the spaces in on the form. We need your e-mail address (if you have one) and an emergency contact person listed for all volunteers.  If by some chance, you have an accident here on your shift, we need a person to call.

  Also, we send out the Shelter Snippets to keep  volunteers informed of the happenings at the shelter.  If you don't have an e-mail address, we will send it via postal service, but this is an added expense for the shelter.

5.  We ask that volunteers do not attempt to repair or adjust any kitchen equipment (ie: oven hoods, refrigerator/freezer or dishwasher)  All this equipment is extremely expensive and sensitive and any tampering may cause thousands of dollars in repair services.  If the equipment is not working, please notify the staff on duty.