Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience:This planning project addressed the food access and security needs of Greater Houston. It included five counties in the Houston-Sugarland-Baytown MSA, which is the 5th largest in the nation with a 2012 population of over 6.2 million people. The project focused on the 12 organizations that comprise the Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries (ACAM) network andits collaborative partners. Together, these organizations serve more than 250,000 individuals annually. Of those served, 116,291 clients in 38,406 households were directly served by the ACAM network of food pantries. The planning grant partners collectively serve approximately 5.5M meals valued at more than $4M. The average client of the ministry network is a Hispanic or African American female aged 27-59 with extremely low income, or 30% of Area Median Income (AMI) who has received less than a high school education. ACAM's member ministries operate food pantries and similar programs throughout Greater Houston, serving as its safety net for low-income families in crisis and as distribution points for their local communities in times of disaster. This planning project allowed the network of assistance ministries to assess current supply streams and enhance them by exploring new relationships with local vendors and methods of achieving economies of scale through shared purchasing. ACAM has become a member of the Houston Food Policy Workgroup, a sub-group of Houston Tomorrow. In 2016, Houston Tomorrow will be looking into EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer), which is the method by which assistance is provided to low-income families to buy food, replacing food stamps. In Texas the program is SNAP, and benefits are via the Lone Star Card. The EBT at Farmers Markets Action Group understands the many benefits in health and farm economic development to accepting EBT at Farmers Markets, but notes that there are also many challenges. ACAM is now at the table on behalf of the network to develop strategies beneficial to low-income families. As nearly half the network ministries assist low-income families with signing up for SNAP benefits, it is a partnership that makes sense. ACAM also evaluated and integrated food supply security into ACAM's disaster plan. Findings were disseminated to local stakeholders at the Hunger Free Texans Quarterly Conference held August 4, 2015. Collaborative partners for the project include the Houston Food Bank and the City of Houston's Emergency Management Division. Completion of this planning project resulted in the development of new resources and strategies to reduce food insecurity in Greater Houston and prevent it in the future. Ministries have also begun looking into expanding their nutritional class offerings from current levels of 608 clients receiving 372 units of classes. In 2016, ACAM will begin standardized collection of class offering data in the form of duplicated and unduplicated clients, contact hours and numbers of sessions offered. This will allow a better understanding of the various levels of nutritional, health or cooking course offerings taking place within the network. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Food Pantry Best Practices: ACAM has revised its2016 Training & Networking Plan to include trainings specifically for food pantry managers and staff. Topics will range from storage, donations, distribution & merchandising among others. The trainings will be held at food pantries and led by successful, experienced food pantry managers. ACAM is also planning a food pantry road trip to three successful food pantries both inside and outside of the ACAM network. This would entail physically visiting several pantries (a mix of large & small) that are exceptional in the key areas of donations, storage, merchandising, customer service, how to handle in-kind donations, volunteer recruitment & management. Current and new trends like the Client Choice model, donations and storage of fresh produce, wholesale & retail sources of donations as well as nutritional education for clients will also be covered. The manager of each food pantry on the trip will give a tour and discuss key best practices. Emergency Food Access: The ministries have expressed interest in becoming FEMA-certified through National Incident Management System (NIMS) training offerings. Since the ministries will likely again serve as Points of Distribution (PODs), additional training is essential. ACAM is in the process of developing a Crisis Communication Plan. NIMS training for ACAM Network organizations provided by FEMA's Emergency Management Institute would be a component of this planning project. For disaster planning in 2016, ACAM has already selected a consultant to assist with getting ACAM ministries involved in developing procedures around crisis communications with ACAM, each other and their respective communities. We expect to further update both ACAM's Disaster Response Plan and provide technical support to the ministries to ensure their individual organization's response plans include best practices in direct service delivery with more detailed communication and food distribution procedures. Food, Health and Nutrition Data Collection: ACAM has revised its 2016 Annual Services Data Report (ASDR) to capture more data on ministry class offerings for cooking, nutrition, general health and gardening. For example, the ASDR data indicated that Emergency Aid Coalition has provided nutritional training sessions in the past, providing 372 service units of education services to 608 participants. These class offerings used to be captured in Adult Education and Training. In 2016, all food and health class data will be separated into their own line items under Food Programs for better tracking. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?ACAM's findings were disseminated to the ministry leadership in March, the ACAM Board in June, and local stakeholders at the Hunger Free Texans Quarterly Conference in August.ACAM has also been invited to local government roundtables addressing disaster recovery of which food access and security is an issue. As of July 2015, ACAMwas asked and agreed to becomethe fiduciary for the Greater Houston StormRecovery Network, a collaboration ofmore thanthirty nonprofit, faith-based and government organizations at local, state, and national levels that work together to share information and resources that can help address the needs of individuals and families affected by disaster, including food access. ACAM began participating with the Houston Food Policy Group in September to advocate for the food pantries as points ofcontact forpovertyalleviation and emergency food distribution, andalso to develop relationships with a broad swath oflocal food grower, distributor and policy stakeholders. ACAM believes that recovery from a disaster event requires a whole-community approach and that joining forces with other like-minded organizations would be critical in meeting community needs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1/ Objective 1:ACAM developed a comprehensive 11-page questionnaire designed to gain a comprehensive understanding of each ministry's food-related client services. Both objective and subjective questions were asked and response measurement was both qualitative as well as quantitative. The instrument guided a type of structured interview process. The survey focused on four major areas: Food Sources, Current Capacity, Goals and Challenges. Analysis of the ministry food operations provided a much better understanding of the status quo, which helped immensely in identifying ways to work together, achieve group and individual efficiencies and partner with appropriate entities for food access and security. Objective 2: The survey results were presented to the ACAM staff and Executive Director Workgroup on March 25, 2015. A theory developed after reviewing all of the data, is that increasing the amount of fresh produce came in third mostly due to real or perceived barriers and challenges in obtaining produce at a low cost and being able to pack, store and distribute the produce effectively in order to reduce the waste of high-cost food items. Fresh produce provision is both more labor and capital intensive. Objective 3: The planning project provided valuable information to assist ACAM in improving its programs and measures.ACAM has revised its 2016 Annual Services Data Report (ASDR) to capture more data on ministry class offerings for cooking, nutrition, general health and gardening. In 2016, all food and health class data will be separated into their own line items under Food Programs for better tracking. ACAM has also revised its Annual Training & Networking Plan to include trainings specifically for food pantry managers and staff. Topics would range from storage, donations, distribution & merchandising among others. The training will be held at a food pantry and led by successful, experienced food pantry managers. Objective 4: In compliance with ACAM protocol, Food Access and Nutrition Network (FANN) members will advise and collaborate with ACAM's Data Management Committee (DMC) to establish the nutritional value measures.FANN will evaluate existing nutrition measures, such as the Choose Healthy Options Program (CHOP™), developed by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. FANN and the DMC will determine together if CHOP™ or similar existing measure meets our requirements, or develop our own rating system based on available research. Goal 2/ Objective 1: Part of ACAM's research during this project was designed to understand of the region's fresh food assets. Current assets were identified for potential future collaboration. Objective 2: The network plans to increase food acquisition through the local food banks, with the remainder coming from either small-scale food rescue or the targeted purchasing of specific items frequently requested by clients which the food banks do not regularly offer. ACAM has raised $530,000 to support access to public benefitsas key to fighting hunger in the Houston region. Objective 3: On August 4, 2015, ACAM presented "USDA Community Food Projects: Resources for Reducing Food Insecurity" at a regional quarterly conference sponsored by Hunger Free Texans (HFT). HFT is a statewide nonprofit corporation that "works to improve systems that relate to hunger, food, food access, nutrition, obesity and wellness." The August 4 conference had approximately 120 attendees representing food pantries, government agencies, the health system, education, and nonprofit service providers.The presentation was presented to approximately 154 conference attendees. Of those attendees, 22 provided feedback via a survey developed and distributed by Hunger Free Texans. For ACAM's presentation, 45.5% rated the information as "excellent", 45.5% rated it as "good" and the remaining 10% rated it as average. In essence, 90% of evaluations for ACAM's presentation specifically were good or excellent. Goal 3/ Objective 1: In total, the ACAM network of pantries receives food from 123 unduplicated sources. With this said, it was discovered that the vast majority of these suppliers are not providing produce. Objective 2: ACAM will continue to dialog with the Food Bank Network to explore options to increase effective distribution of the fresh foods access through the Food Bank systems. Even a 10 to 15 percent increase in useable product would greatly increase access to families. Objective 3: A portion of activity within the grant period in support of ACAM's stated goals was spent cultivating new and existing relationships. ACAM received MOUs from Urban Harvest and Houston Tomorrow's Food Policy Workgroup - a policy group comprised of farmers, growers and policy makers in the region. Forging these partnerships is a meaningful step to having a greater understanding of the food market as a whole and the mindset of others in the fight against food insecurity and the advocates of farm and produce distribution prosperity. Objective 4: Three ministries indicated an interest in providing gardening information to clients: St. Vincent's House, St. Vincent de Paul of the Archdiocese of Galveston/Houston and Wesley Community Center. Interfaith Caring Ministries is currently providing gardening information to their clients. These four ministries would be ideal collaborative partners for the pilot project. Goal 4/ Objective 1: On March 19, 2015, Ms. Zachary reviewed the Disaster Plan with the Advocacy and Outreach Workgroup (AOW) in detail. The importance of clarity of communication to funders and to community assistance ministries (CAMs) was noted as was the need for adding additional reporting requirements. As a result of this meeting, ACAM began development of a list of important disaster related contacts to include as an Appendix to the Plan.ACAM has since developed a comprehensive list of emergency contacts for all counties served by the ministries within the Disaster Response Plan. ACAM has also become involved in the Greater Houston Storm Recovery Network (GHSRN), a collaborative created within the membership of Texas Gulf Coast Region Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster, to support the unmet needs of vulnerable populations within the region after a storm or other disaster. Objective 2: May 14, 2015 Mr. Michael Walter of the City of Houston's Office of Emergency Management conducted a table top exercise on disaster preparedness and provided recommendation of items reviewed within the ACAM Disaster Plan. It was recommended that an internal roster with cell phone numbers be distributed to the ACAM Executive Directors to be used in the event of an emergency. Mr. Walter offered to facilitate the development of a contact list of emergency management contacts within each of the ACAM ministry service areas. These items were included as an appendix to the ACAM Disaster Plan. Objective 3: The disaster preparedness research completed in 2015 under this planning grant was of high value to ACAM's network of ministries. The research pointed out the gaps in current readiness that will take time, funding and practice to fully integrate into ACAM's response model. ACAM added a policy in regard to the acquisition of food for distribution, a detailed county contact list and a food pantry specific report form to be completed after receiving funding through ACAM (from the philanthropic community) to serve emergency and unmet feeding needs of the community. ACAM has already selected a consultant to assist with getting ACAM ministries involved in developing procedures around crisis communications with ACAM, each other and their respective communities. The ministries have expressed interest in becoming FEMA-certified through National Incident Management System (NIMS) training offerings.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: USDA NIFA Community Food Projects: Resources for Reducing Food Insecurity