August 2011 Volume 11, Issue V

Points of Interest: ♦ Client Resources

♦ Free Food Shopping List!

♦ NBC/Sleep City Food Drive

♦ Order Reminders & Check-ins

♦ Americorps VISTA’s

Inside this issue:

Partner Agency News

2

Free & Reduced Price School Meals

2

New MFBN Staff 3

August/September Delivery Schedule

4

August/September Delivery Schedule

5

2011 Mobile Food Pantries

5

August’s Recipe: Pasta Pomodoro

6

SNAP Application

Webinar 5

Featured Products—Frozen Potato Chips and Canned Salmon

MFBN has two featured products for you in August—one for food pantries and one for meal programs. For food pantries, we have boxes of

frozen potato chips ready to bake, fry, or casserole. Frozen means extended shelf life! For meal programs only, we have canned salmon. It’s healthy, shelf stable, and great in appetizers, salads, soups, and sandwiches! Check out Items 5402 (frozen potato

Chips) and 4246 (canned salmon) on your donated shopping list!

New Free MFBN Shopping List! MFBN is very pleased to debut another shopping list

for Partner Agencies! We are calling it, creatively, the Free Food Shopping List. Items on the list are free of charge and carry no delivery fee, but do have maximum order quantities. The product was purchased using funds from a donor who doesn’t wish to be named, but pro-vides you with a temporary avenue for free food. Enjoy!

Have You Shared these Great Resources with your Clients? MFBN's Get Help Website and Brochure: Our Get Help website (www.mfbn.org/gethelp) provides a user-friendly, one-stop site for infor-mation on SNAP, WIC, Free and Reduced Price School Meals and the Summer Food Service Program. Cli-ents can easily find information on how to apply for programs, current eligibility guidelines, and phone numbers and websites for more information. The Get Help brochure includes a brief description of the programs and refers clients to

the Get Help site for more information, as well as provides our toll-free phone number. Contact Lorianne (Ext. 230) if you would like a supply of Get Help brochures for your office! County-Specific SNAP Materials: Many clients do not participate in SNAP simply because they don't realize they may be eligible or they do not know how to apply. Help address these barriers by posting and distributing our SNAP out-reach materials, which include county-specific application information, current eligibility guidelines, and MFBN's toll-free number for application assistance by phone. Contact Lorianne (Ext. 230) for SNAP brochures or flyers. Online Pre-Screening Tool and Application for SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and Healthy MT Kids: Don't forget that clients can now apply for SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and Healthy Montana Kids online through Montana Connections (www.app.mt.gov/mtc)! There is also a fast, easy pre-screening tool to help clients determine which pro-grams they may be eligible for. If clients need help with the online tools, they can call our toll-free number 1-800-809-4752 Ext. 230.

NBC MT and Sleep City are partnering with MFBN to conduct an ongoing, statewide food drive! The first monthly LIVE event was held in Missoula and carried on local stations across the state. The event resulted in over a ton and a half of food, $7,428 in cash donations and incredible statewide awareness of hunger issues here in Mon-tana. It was a huge effort and many thanks go to the NBC MT Team, Sleep City, and all of the MFBN individuals that worked hard to make the event a suc-cess. The next LIVE food drive will be held in Kalispell, in col-laboration with Lori and the Flathead Food Bank, on August 18th. Here is a link to see an excerpt of the coverage we re-ceived: http://www.nbcmontana.com/video/28620790/index.html If you have questions, please call Kathryn at x244. Together we can do great things!

NBC/Sleep City Food Drive

Page 2 The Affiliate

Back-to-School Season: Don't forget Free and Reduced-Price

School Meals!

Free and Reduced-Price School Meals pro-vide breakfast and/or lunch each school day. That adds up to five to ten meals a week, per child, that parents don't need to worry about providing. Free and Reduced-Price School Meals are healthy, balanced meals that meet the Federal nutrition guidelines. Participating in the program saves parents time and money. Make sure to ask whether or not your clients have applied! To apply, parents just need to fill out a simple, one-

page application and return it to the school office (or bring in their SNAP award letter - SNAP recipients auto-matically qualify!). Parents can pick up an application from their school office or print one from the Get Help section on the MFBN website http://mfbn.org/gethelp/schoolmeals. If you would like more information, please contact

Lorianne Burhop at (406) 721-3825 ext. 230 or lburhop@mfbn.org.

Partner Agency News Flathead Food Bank in Kalispell has

responded to increased demand and de-creased funding by opening up a thrift store to help provide a source of earned income for the food bank. Located a couple of doors down from the food bank in the mall-turned-nonprofit-center, “Second Helpings” opened its doors in July and is already overflowing with do-nated clothes. Way to go, Lori & Compa-ny! The Tobacco Valley Food Pantry in Eureka has a

new facility! They were given notice to vacate their previous facility but luckily didn’t have to wait too long to find a new site. A member of the community was kind enough to provide a lot with a building and do all of the necessary work to get the food pantry up and running as quickly as possible to keep provid-ing food for their clients. TVFP also helps fund their food pantry through a thrift store and helps out their clients with bargains as well as food boxes. Barb and

Jan from TVFP also received a visit from volunteers from the Troy Community Baptist Food Pantry, who are in the process of

expanding their facility and wanted to learn whatever they could from the experienced ladies in Eureka. Other Partner Agencies with thrift stores include: Pro-ject Hope in Columbus, Community Hope in Laurel, Basket of Hope in Wolf Point, and Wolf Point Thrift Store & Food Bank Livingston Food Pantry took a unique route to raising funds by setting up a sold out benefit concert on July 29th by longtime resident, actor, musician, and anti-hunger advocate Jeff Bridges. Prior to the show,

Bridges toured the Livingston Food Pantry and was interviewed on KBZK Bozeman with Food Pantry Executive Director Mi-chael McCormick, where they spoke on the serious issues facing emergency food providers. To read and view more follow this link: :http://www.kbzk.com/news/actor-jeff-bridges-raising-awareness-money-for-hungry-children-in-montana/#!prettyPhoto[gallery]/2/

These are some great examples of involvement in communities and between Patner Agencies. What’s going on in your organi-zation? Do you have a story that you would like to share? If so, contact Jeff Gutierrez at ext. 232 or jgutierrez@mfbn.org.

Posted MFBN Orders While MFBN does its best to allocate complete orders

from Partner Agencies, not all orders get filled completely. Because of this uncertainty, we would like to help you plan your stock better between 6-week delivery cycles and get a more accurate idea of what product will need to be sourced through alternate avenues. If you would like to know what your posted order is, please e-mail Jeff at jgutierrez@mfnb.org in the 3rd week of the delivery cycle and MFBN will respond with a list of what product you will be receiving on your delivery.

Reporting MAR Households

The question has been posed to MFBN several times recently, with no more FAM Program, do we have to keep reporting on the number of households with children served? The answer is yes, please. Although the data was originally added to the Monthly Activity Reports because of FAM, it has proven to be extremely valuable in other respects. Providing information on the positive impact made on childhood hunger aids MFBN in grant writing and marketing, as well as in Public Policy, where these numbers are put to vital use in convincing elected officials of the value of our work. People are moved by children, and we want to help as many as we can. We also need to continue keeping track of how many we all have helped. Thank you all!

Page 3 Volume 11, Issue V

Lots of New Faces at MFBN!! Welcome Diane Matthews, Agency Relations Assistant!

Growing up in Colorado, Diane (2nd from right in pic) has always been drawn to the mountains. When looking for places to attend graduate school, Montana was high on the list. Diane moved to Missoula two years ago to pursue her Master’s Degree in Sociolo-gy, which she completed this May. Up-on graduation, motivated to find a job helping a social cause, she found herself at the Montana Food Bank Network as the Agency Relations Assistant. Diane will be helping with an array of tasks in the department, including Monthly Ac-tivity Reports and ordering. When not learning the ropes of the Agency Rela-tions department, she enjoys skiing, road biking, and exploring the outdoors of Montana with her malamute-mix, Callie. Diane is also a figure skating coach with the Missoula Figure Skating Club and calls the rink her second home. Diane looks forward to getting to know MFBN’s Partner Agencies!

MFBN is very pleased to welcome three new full-time volun-teers through the Americorps VISTA Program, which is de-signed to fight poverty. VISTA’s (Volunteers in Service to America) commit to one year at an organization working to bring individuals and communities out of poverty. MFBN is

proud to have served as a VISTA sponsor in the past and to continue with three more great additions to our team.

MFBN Welcomes Americorps VISTA’s

Sarah Bhimani is an Americorps VISTA working in MFBN’s Develop-ment Department. She will be creat-ing a sustainable recurring donor pro-gram and a public awareness greeting card program, developing a major gifts program event, and grant re-search & writing. Sarah is originally from Minnesota and graduated from Northland College in Ashland, WI in 2009 with a B.A. in Writing. Before moving to Missoula, she lived in Hel-ena for a year and a half, during which time she completed one year of VISTA service with WEEL (Working for Equality and Economic Libera-tion) and wanted to continue working with food systems in the non-profit arena, which drew her to MFBN. She is very excited to be in Missoula, commuting to work on her bike and being close to the backpacking and hiking opportunities in the area.

Jessica Peterson is originally from Missoula and graduated from the Uni-versity of Montana in May, 2011 with a Bachelors in Sociology and a minor in Nonprofit Administration. She has always been deeply interested in inequality and is very excited to work with MFBN’s Public Policy Department. Her du-ties will be focus on working on the End Childhood Hunger in Montana Initi-ative. She is also very excited to be able to engage herself in her interests and hobbies, namely being in the great outdoors, making jewelry, reading, and vol-unteering.

And Here are Our VISTA’s: Sarah Bhimani, Courtney McGuire, Jessica Peterson

Courtney McGuire is working as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Policy Department at MFBN. Her job will involve sharing findings from the 2010 Client Hunger Survey with communities and working with the communities to address hunger, specifically focusing on the creation and expansion of sum-mer lunch and school breakfast programs. . She is originally from Granby, Connecticut but spent the past four years completing her Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Although she really enjoyed her time in DC, Courtney wanted to see a different part of the country after graduation. Her Mom had lived in Montana for a few years in her twenties and she grew up hearing stories about her grand adventures and great friends in Montana. With that in mind, Courtney knew that she would have a wonderful time in this new state!

Courtney McGuire, Jessica Peterson, Diane Matthews, and Sarah Bhimani at MFBN

Page 4 The Affiliate

August/September 2011 Delivery Schedule Date Time City Partner Agency 16-Aug 9:00-10:00 Stevensville—Pantry Partners 16-Aug 10:30-11:00 Victor—House of Praise 16-Aug 11:15-11:30 Hamilton—Bitterroot Valley Calvary Chapel 16-Aug 11:45-1:15 Hamilton—Haven House, WMMHC West House 16-Aug 1:30-2:00 Darby—Darby Bread Box 18-Aug 10:00-10:45 Bozeman—Gallatin Valley Food Bank, Gardiner Food Pantry, Headwaters Area Food Bank, West Yellowstone Food Bank, Yellowstone Social Senior Center, Big Sky Youth Center 18-Aug 12:45-1:15 Helena—Helena Food Share, Helena Pre-Release, Montana Youth Homes, Elkhorn Treatment Facility, Transitional Living Facility, Rocky Mountain Development Council, Helena Salvation Army, Lewis and Clark Group Home 23-Aug 8:30-9:00 Dillon—Beaverhead Community Food Pantry, (Dillon School Back Pack) 23-Aug 10:30-11:30 Butte—Butte Emergency Food Bank 23-Aug 11:30-11:45 Butte—Butte Rescue Mission 23-Aug 12:30-1:00 Anaconda—Project Care, Discovery House 23-Aug 1:45-2:15 Maxville—Face to Face Food Pantry 25-Aug 9:00-9:30 Thompson Falls—Community Harvest Food Bank, Thompson Falls Seniors, Thompson Falls AOG Church, (Thompson Falls School Back Pack) 25-Aug 10:00-10:30 Trout Creek—Trout Creek Seniors, Open Gate Ranch Youth Group 25-Aug 10:45-11:30 Noxon—Community Services Fellowship, Noxon Seniors, Heron Seniors 25-Aug 12:15-1:15 Troy—Troy Food Pantry, The Food Cupboard YAAK 25-Aug 1:30-1:45 Troy—Troy Community Baptist Church Food Pantry 25-Aug 2:15-3:30 Libby— Libby Food Pantry, Libby Christian Church, Kootenai Valley Head Start, Libby Seniors 30-Aug 10:15-10:30 Livingston—Livingston Food Pantry 30-Aug 12:00-12:30 White Sulphur Springs—Meagher Country Nutrition Coalition 30-Aug 3:00-3:30 Lewistown—Central Montana Community Cupboard, B/G of Lewistown, FCCOA 30-Aug 5:00-5:30 Roundup—Musselshell County Food Bank 30-Aug 5:30-6:00 Roundup—Youth Christian Home 31-Aug 7:30-7:45 Hardin—Helping Hands 31-Aug 8:15-8:45 Garryowen—Center Pole Foundation 31-Aug 10:00-10:45 Billings—Family Services INC., Alternatives/Passages, Montana Rescue Mission, Salvation Army 31-Aug 11:15-11:45 Laurel—Community Hope 31-Aug 12:15-12:30 Joliet—Joliet Food Pantry 31-Aug 1:00-1:30 Columbus—Project Hope 31-Aug 2:15-2:30 Big Timber—Big Timber Community Food Bank 2-Sep 8:00-8:15 Alberton—Alberton Seniors 2-Sep 8:15-8:45 Alberton—Alberton Community Food Pantry 2-Sep 9:15-9:45 Superior—Community Food Bank of Mineral County, Superior Seniors 2-Sep 11:00-12:00 Plains—Plains Community Food Bank, Shekinah Kitchen, Hot Springs Food Pantry, Plains-Paradise Seniors, (Plains School Back Pack) 2-Sep 12:45-1:00 Hot Springs—Hot Springs Food Pantry 2-Sep 11:30-12:00 Seeley Lake—Seeley-Swan Food Bank 7-Sep 8:00-8:15 St. Ignatius—St. Ignatius Seniors 7-Sep 8:15-8:45 St. Ignatius—Mission Valley Food Pantry 7-Sep 9:15-9:45 Ronan—Ronan Bread Basket, Mission Valley Seniors 7-Sep 11:45-12:15 Columbia Falls—Columbia Falls Food Bank 7-Sep 12:30-1:00 Whitefish—North Valley Food Bank, Whitefish Four Square Church 7-Sep 2:00-3:00 Eureka—Tobacco Valley Food Pantry, Eureka Four Square Church, Tobacco Valley Seniors

August/September Delivery Schedule All delivery times will be published online and in the Affiliate concurrently to scheduled delivery dates. If for any reason your scheduled delivery time changes from what has been

published, MFBN staff will notify you immediately.

Page 5 Volume 11, Issue V

Important Dates and

Reminders

ORDERS: Due August 12th!

MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORTS:

Due August15th!

9-Sep 8:00-8:15 Polson—Polson Seniors 9-Sep 8:30-9:00 Polson—Polson Loaves and Fish Food Pantry, (Polson School Back Pack) 9-Sep 9:45-10:15 Lakeside—Westshore Food Bank 9-Sep 10:45-11:30 Kalispell—Flathead Food Bank, Light House Christian Home, Samaritan House, (Kalispell Schools Back Pack) 9-Sep 11:45-12:00 Kalispell—N.W. MT. Veterans Stand Down 9-Sep 12:30-1:00 Bigfork—Bigfork Food Pantry 9-Sep 2:30-2:45 Arlee—(Arlee School Back Pack) 13-Sep 8:30-9:30 Great Falls—Great Falls Community Food Bank, Salvation Army, Fish, St. Vincent DePaul 13-Sep 10:30-11:00 Choteau—Teton County Food Pantry, Pondera Food Pantry 13-Sep 12:15-12:45 Browning—Blackfeet Food Bank 20-Sep 1:45-2:15 Ashland – St. Labre Food Pantry 20-Sep 2:45-3:00 Lame Deer – Boys and Girls of the Northern Cheyenne Nation 20-Sep 3:30-3:45 Colstrip – Colstrip Community Food Bank 21-Sep 7:30-7:45 Miles City – VA Warehouse, Custer County Food Bank 21-Sep 9:45-10:00 Wibaux—Wibaux Food Bank 21-Sep 10:30-11:00 Glendive – Dawson County Food Bank, Boys & Girls Club of Dawson County 21-Sep 12:45-1:15 Culbertson—Culbertson Food Bank 21-Sep 1:45-2:00 Poplar—New Life Mission 21-Sep 2:30-3:15 Wolf Point—Point Thrift Store & Food Bank, Wolf Point Seniors 21-Sep 3:15-3:30 Wolf Point—Basket of Hope 21-Sep 4:30-5:00 Glasgow—Valley County COA 21-Sep 5:00-5:30 Glasgow—Valley Community Food Bank 21-Sep 7:00-7:30 Malta—Malta Food Bank 22-Sep 8:00-8:15 Harlem—Harlem Food Pantry, Harlem Area Senior Citizens Center 22-Sep 8:45-9:15 Chinook—Chinook Food Pantry 22-Sep 9:45-10:30 Havre—Havre Food Bank, Feed My Sheep, Boys and Girls of the Hi-Line ??-Sep TBD Missoula—Missoula agencies begin scheduled pick ups

Due to the change of delivery fre-quency we implemented a stop-gap procedure to make sure that no Part-ner Agency runs out of food between deliveries. If you are in critical need of food between our deliveries to you, please log on to insidemfbn.org and click on the “Need Food Now” block on the left. From there, fill out all the required information and a staff person from MFBN will be in touch to begin coordinating the de-livery.

Upcoming Events and Updates

Include Agency name on All Orders! Partner Agencies – Please be aware and be absolutely sure to include your Agency name on every order you submit to MFBN. If you don’t write in your name before you click send there is no way for us to know whose order it is. Thanks!

Please pay close attention to your shopping lists and the prices marked on products before you order! Pioneer FBS is a great re-source for food but may not be what you are looking for, so please be sure that you are aware from which list you are ordering.

Do you have any new staff or volunteers? Would you like a re-fresher? Good news! The webinar will be offered on a quarterly basis, with the next one planned for Sep-tember. Please stay tuned for more information including dates and times. As an emergency food provider, YOU have

the perfect opportunity to help connect clients with additional resources and programs. SNAP (food stamp) benefits can make a tremendous difference as families work to stretch their budgets every month. SNAP benefits help free up money for other necessities such as rent, utilities, child care, and medical costs. Please help connect your clients with this valuable resource! Learn how by participating in our SNAP Application Webinar in September. Questions? Contact Lorianne Burhop at (406) 721-3825 Ext. 230 or lburhop@mfbn.org.

SNAP Application Webinar

MFBN is hitting the road again with help from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans for another round of MFP’s around the state. Here are the scheduled upcoming 2011 MFP’s: Aug. 5– Hamilton Sept. 16– Lewiston

2011 Mobile Food Pantries!

Partner Agencies – Please be sure to mark the correct month on your MAR’s! Especially if you are miss-ing a month or two (hint, hint) we won’t always know where we should enter the numbers.

Delivery Schedule continued...

*REMINDERS!*

MAR’s

Shopping Lists

Need Food Now?

Page 6 The Affiliate

The Montana Food Bank Network

5625 Expressway Missoula, MT 59808

Phone: 406-721-3825

800-809-4752 Fax: 406-542-3770

agencyinfo@mfbn.org

Log on to our website!

www.insidemfbn.org

www.insidemfbn.org For the latest information and updates on new prod-ucts, special offers, delivery schedules, shopping lists, Montana’s Pantry, Pioneer Food Buying Service, grants, media featuring issues in food banking today and cur-rent outreach programs, log on to our website www.insidemfbn.org. You can even submit your month-ly activity report and grocery rescue numbers online!

Find more recipes at www.insidemfbn.org/

recipes

Directions: Heat extra-virgin olive oil in a 12" skillet over medium-low heat. Add minced onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 2-4 minutes. Add crushed red pepper flakes; cook for 1 minute more. Increase heat to medium, add puréed tomatoes and season lightly with kosher salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens slightly, about 20 minutes. Remove pan from heat, stir in basil, and set aside. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a 5-qt. pot. Season with salt; add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until about 2 minutes before tender. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water. Discard basil and heat skillet over high heat. Stir in reserved pasta water to loosen sauce; bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook, stirring, until sauce coats pasta and pasta is al dente, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat; add butter and cheese; toss until cheese melts. Transfer to warm bowls; serve with more cheese, if desired.

Ingredients: 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, minced 4 garlic cloves, minced (or ½ tsp garlic powder) 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes

August’s Recipe - Pasta Pomodoro

Chief Executive Officer Peggy Grimes x225 Chief Development Kathryn x244 Officer McCleerey Development Coordinator Ben Darrow x226 Development Coordinator Kattie Kingsley x228 Development VISTA Sarah Bhimani x239 Chief Finance Officer Clark Tower x223 Accountant Morgan Brennan x224 Chief Policy Officer Kate Devino x231 Public Policy Manager Lorianne Burhop x230 Public Policy VISTA Courtney x227 McGuire Public Policy VISTA Jessica Peterson x250 Chief Operations Officer Brent Weisgram x233 Transportation Manager Rob Shipley x240 Inventory Control Stacey Strang x251 Coordinator Agency Relations Manager Jeff Gutierrez x232 Agency Relations & Nate Merkt x252 Volunteer Coordinator Agency Relations Assistant Diane Matthews x222 Warehouse Chuck James x237

MFBN S ta f fMFBN S ta f fMFBN S ta f fMFBN S ta f f

Food for thought

is no substitute for the

real thing.

~Walt Kelly

” “

Nutrition Facts Recipe makes 4 servings Calories (kcal) 560.4 %Calories from Fat 34.5 Fat (g) 2 1.5 Saturated Fat (g) 5.8 Cholesterol (mg) 15.0 Carbohydrates (g) 76.2 Dietary Fiber (g) 6.2 Total Sugars (g) 8.3 Net Carbs (g) 70.0 Protein (g) 14.1 Sodium (mg) 426.8

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000

calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs

Please Remember— we try to choose each month’s recipe based on product we have in stock. Be sure to stock up on crushed tomatoes and spinach linguini —I 5738 and I5415 on this month’s Donated Shopping List!

1 28 oz. can peeled tomatoes, puréed Kosher salt 3 large fresh basil (or 1 TB dry basil) 12 oz. bucatini, or other “long” pasta 2 Tbsp. cubed unsalted butter 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

MISSION

Working to eliminate hunger in Montana through food acquisi-tion and distribution, education,

and advocacy.

VISION Building a unified force to address hunger in Montana.