Thursday, November 21, 2024

Lunch Buffet

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Sara is a community development professional with more than 12 years of senior leadership experience working with underserved populations who are pursuing growth in the community. 

 

By Renee Burns

 

A large, happy group of Rotarians, along with three of our Junior Rotarians, visited the soon to open Second Harvest Northland facility for lunch and a hard hat tour.

 

Rotarians and Jr. Rotarians enjoying lunch and fellowship at Second Harvest Northland.

During lunch and fellowship, we learned from Past President Gary Melander that the rose sale raised about the same amount of money as last year’s sale.  It was noted that online sales are up 25% this year, which is encouraging.  The final Rose Sale numbers will be revealed next week, so don’t miss the meeting!

 

Dan Dock is looking for one more server for the Life House Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday, November 26 and he could use a little more putting up the tree at the Boys and Girls Club on December 3 from 1:00-3:30pm.  Both events are very important for the youth the organizations serve and bring joy to the Rotarians that participate.  Look for information about the Life House Christmas Party soon, it will be held on Wednesday, December 18.

 

After lunch, and before the tour, we heard from Second Harvest Northland President/CEO Shaye Moris about how the building expansion from the Air Park to West Duluth came to be.  She shared sobering statistics with us that brought into focus the need to expand their services.  Second Harvest Northland serves 15 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin and currently delivers 7 million pounds of food out of the building in Duluth and another 4.5 million pounds of food from their Grand Rapids facility.  There are 64,000 people in their service area that are food insecure, including 18,000 children, 1 in 9, who are food insecure.  Let that sink in for a moment……

 

The search for a new facility began in 2019 when it became abundantly clear that the needs had outgrown the building, and a capital campaign was started.  COVID brought a halt to the plans, and they focused instead on serving the needs of many more people who required help due to the pandemic.  In 2021 the campaign restarted in earnest and the search for a location to build, or an existing building for purchase began.

 

In July 2021 they discovered the former Ikonics building, which was absolutely perfect for what they envisioned their service to the community would be in this next iteration.

 

The capital campaign is in Phase I and has a goal of reaching $16 million dollars for the build out, to date $10.5 million has been raised and they are well underway getting the building ready for their January 1, 2025, relocation.

 

Shaye Moris describing the work getting the building ready for occupancy.

Phase I has impressive numbers:

 

Inside the vast new freezer/cooler room

 

Did we say “vast”?

 

It was interesting to learn that they do not have as many canned goods, there has been a healthy shift to more fresh produce, in fact a third of their food is fresh produce, for which the vast new cooler will be used.

 

Phase II is a campaign to fund the direct program space to better serve the needs of the community as well as the volunteers who contribute time and resources.Volunteers provide one third of their workforce at a savings of $500,000 in staff costs annually.

 

The new programs add to the current drive through food program and include an order ahead/pick up option as well as a Market Style model where folks can come in to shop for their needs.When asked if this approach will lead to people taking more Shaye noted there is precedent for this style and people really don’t take more than they need because they are aware of their neighbors’ needs for food as well.

 

Of great interest to the group was the new Volunteer Community Engagement Center, a dedicated space for volunteers to gather before their work, as shown in the rendering below.

 

 

Just off the volunteer space is an aseptic room, a place that is clean to the standards required to pack bulk foods in smaller packaging.  This is just one of the many advantages that comes with a much larger facility.  In the current, soon to be old building, the ongoing work of the staff must stop so that the volunteers can work.  This space will have both groups working in harmony as there is ample room for both!

 

The great work of Second Harvest Northland continues with this new state of the art facility!

 

Rotarians standing close together warming themselves with smiles and fellowship

Thank you, Shaye Moris, for a wonderful tour!

 

Rotarians in service to our community!

 

 

Our 2022 Christmas Party was held at Pier B Resort.