By Melody Keim | Executive Director
Dear Friends,
It is a tremendously challenging time as we see the demand for food resources rival the beginning of the pandemic. Pandemic relief efforts went away with nothing to replace them, the cost of food remained high, and food distribution programs are struggling to keep up with the demand. Households are fighting to meet their basic needs in what can only be described as a hunger crisis.
To let families know about the changes to the emergency allotments (EA’s) with SNAP we designed a flyer and Facebook post with our partners at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Just Harvest, and Philabundance. We collaborated closely with the Department of Human Services (DHS) on their messaging around this change, which resulted in our materials being co-branded with DHS and shared on their EA webpage.
As part of our strategic work to reduce barriers for historically marginalized communities, we cultivated seven new relationships with trusted community organizations serving Spanish speaking immigrant communities. One of our new partners also joined our VIP (Victory in Partnership) program. We added a Spanish language tab to our website, a Spanish voice message system for the SNAP Hotline, and continued our efforts to translate materials into multiple languages including Spanish.
New technology, Service Enterprise certification, and deepening relationships with County Assistance Offices helped us grow our capacity to ensure SNAP Hotline callers receive the benefits they are eligible for. We shifted to a new database called Apricot. This change in combination with a monthly reporting criteria we developed as a team, transformed the ways we measure our impact and evaluate our work. Our participation and certification in the City’s Service Enterprise Program helped us build a more robust volunteer program to support our work on the SNAP Hotline.
This was a year of growth and transformation for our small, but mighty Coalition team. We were fully staffed for the first time in a long while and our culture of collaboration allowed us to align our work across all departments. We tried new things such as introducing Pantry Tours for our VIP members, the Philly Brunch Off, a survey for SNAP clients, and joined the Philly Sustainable Business Network. We continued our work to build an equitable compensation structure to ensure that our Coalition team members are food secure and thriving.
As we reflect on the past year, we approach the new year with stronger internal systems, gratitude for your support, and our team’s tenacity to address the root causes of food insecurity . . . with hope that someday the Coalition will no longer need to exist.
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