Have you ever wondered what our schedule looks like here at the Kansas Food Bank?  We thought it would be fun to share with everyone.  Here is a look at what happens throughout the month.

First of all, there are several activities that happen daily at the food bank:

• Volunteers pack Food 4 Kids packets to serve over 6,400 children a week, in more than 100 school districts across the state
• Drivers pick up donations at local retailers, this is food that would otherwise have been destroyed
• Warehouse staff pull and pack orders for all of the agencies
• Agencies in and around Wichita come in to pick up their orders
• Trucks from all over the country deliver product to us that must be inventoried and processed
• We answer numerous phone calls directing people to pantries for food assistance

During the first six working days of the month our delivery team of staff and volunteers deliver Food 4 Kids (F4K) Packets to Sedgwick County and surrounding areas.   The other F4K packets are piggy-backed on to our rural delivery routes to help us keep our costs minimal.

Feb 1 – Order Day.  This is the day when all the agencies can call in to place their order.  They receive a shopping list and at 8:00 a.m. the frenzy begins!  This month we processed 80 agency orders totaling just over 175,000 pounds of product, and that was just the first day!  Our agencies get to pick and choose what they want to distribute and sometimes things go really fast off the shopping list.  (Just how many fruit cakes can we move?  That was the hot ticket item this month!)

Feb 2 – Agency orders along with F4K backpacks for the Concordia and Junction City route are delivered by our driver.

Feb 3 – Agency orders for Southeast Kansas are delivered to our warehouse in Independence.  From there, agencies either pick up their order or we deliver to them based on geographic location.  And throughout the month, our delivery team in SE KS travels that area to dispense backpacks to our school partners.

Also this is a commodity month, so for three days we are busy receiving two semi-loads of food,  sorting product for the TEFAP distributors in Sedgwick County.

Feb 8 –  We are on the road delivering to the Dodge City and Garden City area.   Along with the F4K packets, eleven agencies in that area depend on us to make the monthly trek out west.

Feb 10 – It’s back on the road again for our driver.  This time to the East border of the state.  We stop in Toronto, Iola, Ft Scott, Prescott and LaCygne for agencies and several schools in-between.  Then it’s over to Garnett for F4K as well as our first mobile pantry into Anderson County.

Feb 13 & 14 – We take off for Salina to drop orders and then head to the far NW corner of Kansas.  We hit Victoria, Ellis and Colby on the way to our final stop of the day in Goodland.  The next morning the driver heads to St. Francis, Bird City, Phillipsburg, Alton and ends in Beloit.  The schools on this route are worked in to optimize our delivery costs.

Feb 14, 15 & 16 – Computer training for our staff.  We are working towards getting a long awaited upgrade to our computer system.  That means we will all be bleary eyed by the end of the last day!

Feb 16 – The rural driver is off to Liberal.  Along the way he stops in Bloom & Plains.  Then after the drop in Liberal it is off to Hugoton and Ulysses and finally back home.  And we can’t forget the schools, F4K packets make the trip too!

Feb 20 – Time for the Hays run.  Our driver delivers to Hays, Larned & Great Bend as well as numerous schools.

Feb 22 – Then final rural delivery route is dispatched to Emporia where we serve eleven different agencies and schools in the surrounding area.

Feb 29 – A quick inventory and recount of items for the shopping list is completed and we start all over in March.

Who knew, so much goes on here as we strive to meet the needs of food insecure Kansans, providing all or part of a meal to 32,000 of those in need each and every week!

In celebration of the upcoming Holidays, the Kansas Food Bank will be closed on Monday, December 26th and Monday, January 2nd so our employees can spend time with their families.

Bocconcini Italian Eatery at 4811 E. Central in Wichita is running a yummy food drive for us through the end of December. Bring in any 3 non-perishable canned food items and receive a free homemade tiramisu! YUM!

Starting Friday, December 9, 2011, at the Bank’s Open House event, customers and friends are invited to donate jars of peanut butter for donation to the needy. CBOK will continue collecting peanut butter through the end of the year at all eight branches. The Bank will match the amount of peanut butter collected, and deliver to area food pantries.

Unopened containers of peanut butter can be donated at any of CBOK’s eight branches — Kingman, Winfield, Medicine Lodge, Isabel, Turon, Pretty Prairie, East Wichita and West Wichita – until Friday, December 30, 2011.

Many MANY thanks to these 95 volunteers from Kansas Gas Service. In just 3 hours they: made 1,200 holiday boxes, boxed up 5,000lbs of bread, tore through 10 pallets of Food 4 Kids product prep, and relabeled 2,880 jars of mayonnaise. WOW!

The Kansas Food Bank will be closed November 24th and 25th so our employees can spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with their families.

From our families to all of yours, we hope you have a wonderful Holiday.  We will resume regular work hours on Monday, November 28th.

Our friends at Intrust Bank are asking for your help to “Fill the Plate” this Holiday Season.  They want to donate 135,000 meals.  To do so they need your help.  Click Here to vote for your favorite Holiday food.  Each vote will be 50 meals that Intrust donates.  What is your favorite food:  turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce?  Vote now!

Girl Scouts across the United States have been participating in “Birthday in a Bag” in honor of founder Juliette Low’s birthday.  Local Troop 40710 started this idea that has spread like wildfire across all 50 states.  The girls have been busy packing bags that will be distributed to children who participate in our Food 4 Kids program.    Girl Scouts are celebrating their 100th year of scouting this year!

It’s time once again for the Boy Scouts to hold their annual food drive to benefit the Kansas Food Bank.  Scouts will be located at select area metro Dillon Stores every Saturday in September collecting food.  They will also be canvassing neighborhoods the first two weekends in October collecting non-perishable items.  Each year the scouts do their “Good Turn” deed by helping collect food for those in need.  The very first donation came in at 1,200 pounds so they are off to a good start.

September is Hunger Action Month, when we ask everyone in Kansas to take action to fight hunger in their community, all month long. Hunger Action Month is your opportunity to join a movement that has a real and lasting impact on our effort to feed more Kansas than ever before. Whether it’s by advocating and raising awareness, making donations, or volunteering, you can find the way that’s right for you to make a difference during Hunger Action Month.

We invite you to join us for an interactive day at the Kansas Food Bank on September 9th.  It will be a great chance to come down to the warehouse and get a “hands on” approach to fight hunger.  Our friends from KWCH 12, KSCW – the Crew and Journal Broadcast group will be here throughout the day as well doing their part to raise awareness of hunger in our state.

We will have different volunteer stations set up between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. in two hour time blocks, so there will be plenty of time to choose when you can come down and help out.  We will be packing Food 4 Kids backpacks, assembling Laid Off Worker and Senior Boxes, packing Mobile Pantry boxes and sorting salvage.  There is always plenty of work that needs to be done around the warehouse and this is your chance to  see the inner-working of what your Kansas Food Bank does each and every day.

Volunteer Schedule:
7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m. to noon
1:00 pm to 3:00 p.m.
4:00 pm to 6:00 p.m.

Of course, if you just want to come and take a tour of the warehouse to see what all happens in this huge building, we will be happy to show you our space.  It is really quite amazing to see the big freezer and it is quite cold in there too!

For information on how you can help and be a part of this fun filled day, contact debikreutzman@kansasfoodbank.org and schedule your time now.  Invite your friends, family and co-workers to join you, the more the merrier!

What better way to kick off “Hunger Action Month” than being a part of our team!  You CAN make a difference!