When a food pantry, meal site, shelter, drug rehab, day care, summer camp, or other non-profit organization decides they want to become a Food Bank program,Agency Services is their first point of contact. We provide them with information about membership and guide them through the application process, including visiting their site in person to make sure it meets certain basic requirements of cleanliness and safety. Once approved, member programs hear from us regularly through NewsBytes, our weekly newsletter which provides information about the foods we have on offer, reporting requirements, important changes at The Food Bank, food safety, and the like.  We also make weekly inventory updates available through our shopper hotline. We train authorized shoppers and have regular contact with them when they come to shop, since we are responsible for check-in. We manage annual membership, MEFAP, and USDA agreement renewals; we train program representatives on our reporting requirements and collect Quarterly Service Reports; we enter and maintain program information in our databases and filing system; and we make monitoring visits to each site at least once every two years, in compliance with America’s Second Harvest requirements. We try to make sure that the bounty of MEFAP foods especially is distributed as fully and fairly as possible to needy people via our member programs. We strive to be responsive to the needs of our member programs by administering surveys aimed at both shoppers and management, chatting with shoppers, and responding to questions and concerns. Next year we plan to take a more proactive role in provision of services in W. Mass by bringing together our member agencies and other organizations in neighborhood networking meetings in 12 different geographic areas. We hope these meetings will be a catalyst for the improvement of services through better communication.

And Justice for All Posters

2007-2008 Income Guidelines