March 6th 2022

March 6th 2022

It’s been almost two years since Covid shut down our ‘normal’ operation. We re-opened a couple of months later with our ‘curb service’ process which is still in place to this day. Prior to Covid, we typically helped 30-35 people each day, and even more on some days; the bulk of our work was done by noon each day. Our new process is much more labor-intensive and we aren’t able to serve as many. Initial contact is made over the phone so we spend quite a bit of time receiving and returning calls. It’s not unusual for us to start the day with a list of 30-40 people to call, while at the same time we are handling 12-20 people coming in to pick up their ‘orders’; at the same time, we are also getting ready the next batch of orders for the following day. Although the pickups are usually done by noon, the work continues into the afternoon. With our previous process, we greeted guests and served them during one visit and we were done; our curb service results in us getting an initial call one day, us returning the call and holding an interview in the next day or two, spending the next day preparing the order, and having it picked up the following day …. So you can see it can take a few days or more to fulfill the requests. We’ll be anxious when we can return to the ‘old’ process and be able to provide our service from start to finish in just a couple of hours!

Thank you for your support of the two food drives the Knight’s run for us in the last month; in addition to the non-perishable food we receive, your cash donations allow us to spend money on other food necessities. Although we get a large shipment of food from the Food Bank’s TEFAP program (The Emergency Food Assistance Program from the government) each month as well as additional food we shop for at the Food Bank, we have been running short of meat. Between the rising cost of meat and the supply chain issues, the meat included in the TEFAP program as well as the Food Bank’s supply has been running low. Thanks to the cash donations, I was able to purchase extra meat from Food Lion; we also purchase a supply of Boost/Ensure/Glucerna to have on hand for people in need.

Mary Ann

Special Need: Boxed cereal – we never seem to have enough!