Food Pantry Partnership in SE Portland

Hamilton Darnall, LLC recently partnered with a church in SE Portland to help launch a community food pantry. They intend to partner with Oregon Food Bank, which requires demonstrating operational sustainability.

Our role is to help engage community partners, identify funding opportunities and help position them for funding.

Even before the first meeting they had received their first grant.
Small businesses have begun sending donations.
Within two days they managed to leverage volunteers to help collect food.

This is an exciting project and we are pleased they are stepping up to meet needs in this under served Portland neighborhood.

Research: Behind the Scenes

We have been doing some research.

First, we reviewed a new FEMA course and links to the Interfaith Disaster Network which has links to tip sheets. We shared this information with two groups.

Second, in keeping with our interests in sustainability, green practices and food security we researched several grants through the USDA, and read about the farm and pasture educational opportunities through Clackamas Community College.

Third, we conducted some basic research on an Oregon company and made an informal business offer.


 

Abolish Hunger Now

One of Several Community Gardens-See Sponsoring Partners in 3rd Photo

US Marines Grow this Garden For Anyone in Need

This Partnership Makes Gardens Possible-See next Photo

A Closer View of Community Partnerships

Sustainability comes in a lot of packages. It can refer to food security, agriculture practices, green building, finances, energy, transportation and more. Food security is a big concern. Rising prices, pesticides, lack of access, generational poverty, the high cost of public benefit programs all play a role. Churches, nonprofits and businesses can help by developing sustainable partnerships. For instance a local Lutheran church has partnered with one of the largest health care systems in the United States, several local businesses and Thrivent Financial, a Lutheran organization to create a garden that is now serving apartment dwellers. Yesterday a member of our team interviewed the church secretary and looked at available plans and materials. The church has two master gardeners and several garden mentors available to answer gardening questions for apartment dwellers. Many have never grown a garden before and just need a little guidance. No pesticides are permitted in the garden, and gardeners are asked to use organic seeds. Seed sharing is highly encouraged. Soon we will post pictures that explain this partnership. There are many ways to improve food security. Willamette Christian Church in West Linn receives donated food from Whole Foods. They serve a meal on Sundays at 12:30pm and participants may "shop" for groceries after lunch. Some participants also freeze, can or dehydrate foods when quantities are sufficient. The availability of high quality food and produce helps mitigate health problem, and hunger, but also encourages use of fresh food and food preservation. Growing Gardens is a nonprofit that helps persons who have very low incomes become more sufficient by teaching them how to grow some of their own food. There is a long wait list. Mentors are assigned to help teach gardening skills. The organization uses volunteers to build raised beds, provides containers for gardening on decks or patios, tests for lead in soil if needed, and provides seeds to help gardeners get started. The food stamp program now allows participants to purchase vegetable seeds. Our company is challenging small businesses to incorporate sustainable practices in the workplace that build employee skills. We believe this can serve as a training ground that pays rich dividends. Employees that are exposed to the idea of growing food, preparing healthy food and snacks and breaking bread at work improve relational skills, learn about healthy practices, and eat better. They may in turn take some of what they learn at work and incorporate it at home. We also encourage the idea of family days to help children of employees learn new skills.

Urban Solutions: Ministry, Math and Melissa Data

The last post was on Urban Solutions: Creating Strategic Ministry Partnerships. If you have read our mission and vision statement, you already understand that our focus is on helping small businesses, churches and other nonprofits improve their capacity to serve others. Our premise is that employees and members must improve their own resilience in order to improve sustainability. We cannot afford to operate in isolation. Instead we need to transition to a model of healthy interdependence.

So let’s breathe some life into this by understanding the big picture. Once church leadership teams help their members understand how to implement this simple concept in their neighborhood, the steps are repeatable. Try to imagine this. Oregon has 36 counties, 471 zip codes and 1,349 profiles on populated areas. In the City of Portland alone there are over 1,200 Christian churches. By building on the work of the US Postal Service, internet maps and databases, coordination and measuring outcomes at the neighborhood is both realistic and necessary. Here is an example of what how to bring this idea down to the neighborhood level.

First, figure out which of neighborhoods are in your zip code. Then find a map of the neighborhood and identify your location on the neighborhood map. The last step is to dentify several homes and make a commitment to develop some level of relationship with someone in each household. Since that represents such a diverse area, divide the neighborhood into ten sections with the goal of developing a relationship with at least one person in each of the ten sections. If this seems like a daunting task, enlist the help of ministry partners by using entering "nonprofit organization lookup". Melissa Data allows users to enter a zip code to identify all nonprofits within that zip code. This allows church leadership teams to build strategic partnerships closest to them and build out thir resource list in concentric circles.

Investing in Long Term Resilience Builds Sustainability

Human resource departments contribute to the health and welfare of employees and their families. Management may not fully understand the benefits of creating a culture of caring characterized by building long term resilience. Resilience is inherently linked to sustainability. A common example of an on-site enrichment program is a community garden. Other creative options may include an on-site bike shop with mechanic tools and support, preparing and eating family style meals together and providing health, fitness and nutrition information, food preservation classes, employee designed rain catchment systems and innovative environmental solutions. It does not require great expense to have employee’s s dehydrate healthy snacks to share at work, exchange ideas and give demonstrations that benefit the group. Many people have talents from which to draw and would happy to share information.

Smaller entities may focus on a single aspect of resilience.  Examples include but are not limited to preparing a supply of care packages for special needs, planting a couple fruit trees, a small vineyard and managing a few bee hives, growing a small salad gardening and use of red worm composting bins or even planting a small herb garden, sharing recipes,  and harvesting seeds to share.  Larger entities may use a team approach to helping employees and the community with improvement projects outside of work such as specialized teams to help others recover from adverse situations by checking on their welfare, acting as a care coordinator to schedule needed resources, or bringing a volunteer work crew to offer help. Many large entities have logistics departments or vendor networks that could become a valuable resource especially during adverse conditions. Resilient employees and members are more apt to come to work and focus on their job if they know with certainty their families are able to take care of themselves and that others stand ready to help them in times of need.  Savvy, innovative management teams take the initiative to build a sense of community in the workplace that extends beyond a mere job description. Enrichment opportunities that build resilience are only limited by flexible management and the creativity and interests of the planning team. Employees are the backbone of any business, or non-profit. Sustainability is tested during adverse or unforeseen circumstances. The ability to roll out plans to meet constantly changing conditions requires practice, mental creativity, and efficient team work. A resilient workforce is able to work better under pressure.

Columbia Springs-Rain Barrels

English Estate Winery

Nine Core Values

Nine Core Values

Our operational values include sustainability, efficiency and growth.
Financial sustainability is required to fund operations which includes paying taxes, upgrading technology, reimbursing the cost of gas, paying vendors, meet payroll and improving cash flow. Efficiency has to do with governance. Our company uses a strict formula which balances how resources are allocated. Cash flow is the life blood of any company and though painful, it comes before before us receiving a paycheck. We've made the statement that we are focused on quality, not quantity. Operational capacity comes from a commitment to place quality in the drivers seat and make growth secondary. Although growth is critical to operational capacity, it can never be at the expense of quality.

The next grouping is our service category. These values include diversification, evaluation and mission clarity/brand. This is a family business, so nothing moves forward without agreement of the partners. Family relationships are always more important than money. Here is an example from the property management side of out business. This e-mail correspondence from the office manager is just one way we show respect by keeping each other informed.

"We got a new water heater for 17138. They were not getting hot water so the operations manager went over twice to light it. It did not stay so we called our mechanical guy. Then we realized we might still have a warranty, which we did, until July 12. God takes pretty good care of us!

We had Gabe come because he was a LOT less expensive than the plumbing vendor, and the warranty was only for parts. He got it going, but he said, "If this doesn't do it, there is nothing else I can do. It just means a new one”. Then the renter called and asked when we were coming back. I guess they thought we would have ESP or something to know it did not work. I did mean to call and check with them-- She calls him, then he calls us, because she thinks her English is not okay. He may be in some other state, so some of the communication is interesting. Okay, so the operations manager called the plumbing vendor and told them the situation. They traded the old one for a new one (no warranty) Another tenant helped him get the new one into the space and he had it up and going on the 3rd. He is returning the old one today. With mileage, it will cost more than $100., since we had Gabe come and the operations manager had to buy some tape and new straps (the others did not fit).
If we had not had the warranty it would have been some big dollars, so we were glad we had the papers in the file and glad it had not expired. It was the one you and I bought at the sidewalk sale".

We use cloud streams as part of our planning process. Income streams may be vulnterable to economic conditions such as a recession, inflation or legislative changes which affect taxes. They are also subject to changes in supply and demand. Companies that thrive must be able to adjust rapidly and flexibly to those changes without losing sight of their original mission and vision. Diversity helps to protect against risk, and allows us to offer customers more. Evaluation and improvement is used to scrutinize every decision. We must understand what services are in vogue- their usefulness, who our customers are, our pricing structure, the return on our investment of resources for those we serve, and for our own company. Mission clarity, is essential to our identity, and our ability to communicate effectively. The best services in the world are of little value if customers don't know they exist. This drives research and development practices.

Lastly, we understand the importance of staying in business, so our business continuity plan values the importance of reliable vendor relations, information management and contract fulfillment under adverse conditions. Since we are a relationship-based business, our desire is to take good care of vendor relations. We want to make sure our vendors have plans that will minimize any disruptions to their business and are available to help with that process. To prevent a disruption to our business we may in some instances need to identify alternate vendors, with different logistics networks to ensure the availability of supplies. This also means finding work around solutions to paying our vendors on time if there is a technological failure on a company or regional basis. Information management means working to protect and back up vendor and customer information. It means mainating electronic information we can safeguard and access from a remote location and hard copies in the event of a technology failure. For instance we maintain copies of all business documents in off-site.
Lastly, we are working on succession plans to ensure our ability to fulfill contracts under adverse conditions. This means if a member of our team is working on a project and is affected by serious illness, an accident, a family emergency or natural disaster, we are working to develop plans to continue work seamlessly to fulfill our obligations.