How long Food Banks Spots take to Open? Food banks are important charitable establishments to supply food and other necessities to people and households which have no means to obtain or afford proper food. Since the outbreak of pandemic with increased unemployment and thus economic instability more people are reaching out to food banks. There it is, however,
because of the high demand for food aid, many organizations offering this assistance have put in place long queues. In this article, you are to learn when to wait for the slots to appear in order to gain access to food banks and some additional tips for getting help from a food bank faster.
How Long to Wait for Food Bank Spots to Open:
Food banks, as a rule, are a limited resource, and waiting time depends on the food bank, the location and on what’s going on in that community. Still, it may take some time, and we are talking weeks or even months, before one gets an opportunity to join a food bank.
Many food banks may implement a system where the clients are given tokens similar to lotteries so that no one is entitled to get food from them without going through the token system. Some may schedule appointments on an as needed or ‘walk-in’ basis, where a number of people can come to get an appointment as soon as a slot for serving is opened.
How It Works
So here at Tabitha’s Way, I come here, I see the entrance. What do I do? Yeah, well, one is, there’s 200 food pantries in the state, so wherever they are, they can go find one. If they haven’t, a struggle because a lot of people get in a situation where they don’t have any savings, they’ve got lots of bills, and they say, “Do I pay my electric bill or buy food? Do I pay rent?
Do I pay my medical bills or buy food?” And hunger is when you get the pain, but food insecurity is when you don’t know where that next meal Food Banks is coming from. And that’s what most people struggle from, and it really impacts children. So we really want them to come if they have that problem.
The Intake Process
When they come, most people actually come, they feel, you know, they show signs of a little embarrassment or even shame, and they shouldn’t. You know, this is what our mission is about, is to help them through tough times. So when they come, if they just come, and they’ll meet somebody, and when they come inside, we do have a little intake process, a little interview. I could just show up. Yeah, I just I just open it up and just show up. No appointment. We never turn down anybody. The first time ever, sometimes when they come, we say,
“Well, did you know that you drove by two other food pantries to get here?” And so we really refer them to The Pantry in our city, but we help anybody. Food Banks And then once they’re actually in our system, uh, we do it by appointments because we have over 2,000 people come a month. Wow. So we need to do it by appointment, and so it helps facilitate it.
Shopping
But the intake, the first time, we can just show up. Just show up. When someone comes, they come in, we welcome them in, we greet them, and before they shop, we uh, we do have a little intake process, okay? We get to know their name, where they live, how many in their family, you know, if they have children and diapers, what sizes, why they’re coming, how long they think it will be,
and uh, then they’re ready. And many pantries in the state, that they come, and they give them a box of food, and for three or four days, here, they can come Food Banks every other week, and they get a two-week supply of food assistance. And as you can see, it’s a client choice, they call it. They shop it just like in a small market. So it’s relatively painless intake process.
In some regions, people who are in need of the services of food banks can be served after several months. In such instances, food banks may accommodate only those who fit into the conditions such as being single the parents, the seniors, or the disabled people.
Food Selection
So when you’re talking about people coming in, how many people are here for the short term, how many need long-term help? Well, it’s really interesting. 50% of our clients come three times or less. 35% of our clients come eight times or less. That’s four Food Banks months. Then they’re back on their feet. So they have that extra income in that runway, so they can pay the electric bill, they can pay this, they can, you know, do that. So maybe if they have, like, an unexpected medical bill, and money is tied for just a few months, this is an option for them. Exactly. Exactly.
And 25% of them, or you would consider long-term, but these are refugees, seniors on fixed income, people going through chemotherapy, back surgery, you know, victims of addiction in their family, abandonment, divorce. And so those are people who take a little bit more, but we recommend resources. There are organizations that are expert in helping people with, you know, ABCD, on some of these needs.
Goals and Progress
You had a little card that you can fill out, and every person kind of gets tracked, or you can so that you can follow them. But there’s an element of it where you talked about goals that you set. Right? You tell me about that. Besides the intake, about every eight Food Banks visits, we do a review where we say, “You’ve been coming here for a while, what’s your progress?” And then I said,
“You said a goal that you were going to polish up your resume,” and we showed you a couple of places where you can get help to get a job. Did you do that? So they set goals, they work on their own self-reliance, and we encourage them to do that.
Why Self-Reliance is Important
Why is that so important? Why is that an important element of it versus just, “Here’s a box of food?” Well, our mission is to help individuals and families through tough times. And you can imagine them tough times. I just mentioned a lot of them. By one, providing temporary food assistance, and really, they come for a short time, most of them. Two,
recommending Food Banks resources for self-reliance, because there are experts who are able to help people get through the difficulties. And four, we help neighbors help neighbors. So it’s part of our mission to help people get to self-reliance and not… I think there’s a misconception of who comes here, but these are working poor people who are struggling through tough times, and they can get through tough times.
Tour of the Facility
All right, so we were walking in… Yeah, well, then it’s time to shop. And there’s the shopping. That’s the fun part. Yeah, now it’s time to shop. So, uh, over here, people who need diapers and things for infants, they get a cart, which is over here. They get a cart, they get some bags, they go through here, these are hygiene kits. Then they start getting food. Here’s the meats, and there’s categories, and you can see that we ask them to stay within certain guidelines. So if they’re a family of one to two, they can get two of these, and if they’re a family of…
they can get up to four. And sometimes we have to very much… how much we do on terms of how much we have, okay? But they typically take an overflowing shopping cart on the way out. And so then we have, uh, you know, soups and baking, and so these are divided up into…
so yeah, you got the noodles and pastas here, soups, uh, fruits, the peanut butter… do they can grab from each, uh, category. Yeah, yeah, each category. You’ll notice on the next side, we have what’s called “Soft.” And so there’s box meals, and Rices, and condiments, and cereals, and these are the bakery, and the bread. Let me just tell you, right now, the Noriega family…
we obliterate the Rice-A-Roni. This is like every week. That’s really good. And look at it… my kids, I got, I got an eight-year-old that, when he was eight, he used to make this. I, I have teenage children that… it says two and a half servings per container. One, yeah, that’s exactly what it is. It is, but what I like about it is, uh, this is the stuff we eat. This is what our, this is what our families eat. This is not… well, let me tell you about food acquisition. Um, last year, we did 1.9 million pounds of food. A hundred thousand pounds or so came from the Utah Food Bank.
500,000 pounds came from local food drives, and a million plus came from 15 grocery stores that we send a 26-foot box truck to every day. Now, there’s a process called “grocery rescue” where these grocery stores donate a lot of this stuff that’s Food Banks near expiration.
And, uh, so 1.9 million pounds of food. Every month, by the way, we get about 600,000 meals worth of food as part of the food assistant. Well, there, I mean, so it… it comes from the same space. Exactly.
Well, and it’s not just the dry goods and the staples of rice and beans, but I mean, you’ve got drinks here, you’ve got ketchup… this is kind of wild, too. I was not expecting to see the croissants. I think, and, and again, we haven’t loaded up the bread. The bread will come in on the first, and they’ll, they’ll load it up, and we’ll get some more produce. Produce, by the way, produce is the thing that we
Produce and Food Distribution
Produce, by the way, produce is the thing that we most need. We’re going to try to organize the North Utah County here, all of the people who do gardens, so we can get more produce. It’s really something we very… get it from local gardens. That’s what we’re trying to do Food Banks, is get local gardeners to bring it in. This stuff typically comes from grocery stores or from the bishop storehouse,
actually. The bishop storehouse provides us with a lot of good stuff to bless their hearts. I see some sour cream availability. Well, it tends to come in in big bundles, and we can get rid of it, and sometimes there’s a lot of variety, and sometimes there’s not. And then over here, um, they, they come here Food Banks, and this is the meat, chicken, pork, and turkey, beef, and fish is in here.
And you can see what, what they can get. Then we get deli, and in the deli, uh, there’s pizzas, and let’s see, vegetables, oh, and fruit. Oh, these are, oh, that’s great. See that Food Banks? And then over here will be dairy, and there’s milk, and eggs. This is about what we go through in a week. There you go. We love our milk and eggs. Then they take it out to their car. Some many times,
we have volunteers that do shopping assistance. We have volunteers that help them get out and take their, uh, food to their car, bring the carts back Food Banks, and, um, we’re so efficient that we do about, uh, 30 an hour, about every two minutes, someone starts, and someone goes out. Wow. I mean, we’re talking about Chick-fil-A numbers. You know, it really is Chick-fil-A numbers. That’s efficiency. Yeah, white Tabitha’s Way…
The Name and Mission
…the name, and then comes. She’s a heroine, a hero in the New Testament, Acts chapter nine. It talks about how Tabitha’s way was well known for charity and her good works, and her caring, and dealing with widows. And why not? Then she dies, and they lay her in a room Food Banks, and they’re mourning, and someone says, “The Apostle Peter’s a few cities away,” and they go get him, and he listens to them say, “Oh, she made this for me,” and whatnot, and he’s touched,
so he kneels down, and prays, and says, “Tabitha, arise.” She comes back to life. And so she’s just in the New Testament, she’s just a heroine of charity, and caring, and we thought it was a good name. Wendy Osborne, who was the founder of Tabitha’s Way, in Spanish Fork, is the one who created the name.
Conclusion:
It may take some time to secure an appointment at the food bank, but knowing what influences the spots’ access and following the tips provided in this article, those with food limited options will find the help they need. People experiencing some level of economic stress and food insecurity can find solace at the food bank once they have waited for an opportunity to occupy the available space. If we keep on insisting for more funding for the food banks then every individuals and every families can be feed and be given the support the need.
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