Board of Trustees Meeting
Randolph Area Food Shelf
March 13, 2017
Unapproved
President Stuart Edson called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m.
Other Board members in attendance were Tom Cooch, Carol Bushey, Linda Garrett, Ken
Tonnissen, Marie Dunwoody, and Rebecca O’Berry.
Approval of Minutes
Stuart made a motion to approve the minutes of the February 20, 2017 meeting, with one
amendment, and was seconded by Linda and passed unanimously.
Action Items Review
Stuart-Tom made adjustments to the policy for posting
Carol- Has been checking on pricing for SKiP, Market Basket and BJs still seem to be the best
deals. Carol to get the base price to Linda then add additional items such as gas, etc to the cost to
be able to do a true cost comparison. Linda to send Carol and updated list of things we need.
Stuart proposed we pay mileage if people want to accept this.
Tom-Revised the Board committee to reflect the change of the food drives to pantry operations.
Rebecca/Rachel-Reviewed the volunteer handbook and made the change in food drive to pantry
operations.
Tom-Added 2 chest freezers to next year’s budget. We may list this expense in capital expense
reserve.
Stuart-Did not talk to Mike about removing one fridge as he may take the fridge for another use.
Operations Reports
Building – Report submitted in advance by Mike.
Continued monitoring the temperature of the TurboAir freezer with the dye injection. So far, it
has still been maintaining freezing temperatures, and no follow-up with Alpine has been
necessary
·
Arranged for removal of snow that had piled up in front of the building
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At Tom Cooch’s request, reviewed draft FY18 utilities budget
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Contacted Ernst Electric about moving and adding light switches in the warehouse
·
Continued analysis of utility bills and solar panel performance for energy audit
Time spent on the above items was roughly 8 hours.
UPDATE- Mike asked to get switches added for the warehouse and to add another switch
to the garage area. We don’t need to have bids if the cost is under $1000.00. Falls under
building maintenance.
Volunteer –Submitted by Rebecca in advance.
Rachel and Rebecca met to review the current complement of volunteers and outstanding
applications.
We began discussion regarding the appropriate date for consideration of the Board for the
volunteer picnic. The dates available for consideration are July 16th, August 20 or August 27th,
aiming to keep this on a Sunday. We will propose these dates to the Board and the contact the
Rotary for use of Grant’s Camp.
We discussed a bit about how to help Linda find a co-chair for the SKiP program and what our
next steps should be.
Keeping an eye out for our portion of what needs to be done for the Walk A Thon scheduled for
June 24th.
Birthday cards for March were completed.
Volunteer hours for the month 12.
Pantry – No report this month as there was no pantry operations meeting.
Finance – Report submitted in advance by Tom
Highlights for the current fiscal year as of 2/28/17
$172.3k in cash & cash equivalents, plus $20k capital reserve.
YTD net income is $39.3k, which is $22.9k over budget.
YTD revenue is $110.2k, which is $8.0k over budget.
YTD expenses are $70.9k, which is $14.8k under budget.
YTD food costs are $41.1k, which is $14.1k under budget.
These totals represent income and expenses booked through 11 of the 12 months of the current
fiscal year.
Approximately 30 hours
Information Technology – Report submitted in advance by Tom
During the last month Information Technology completed the following tasks:
Performed routine weekly data maintenance
Approximately 10 hours
Community Outreach – Report submitted in advance by Carol
Not much to report. Tom offered to check with some of the local farmers regarding their CSA
offerings . We also had him add a dollar amount to the budget in case we decide to purchase
reusable shopping bags instead of using the banana boxes for the Christmas Boxes.
SKiP – Report submitted in advance by Linda
Number of children served during February SKiP: 55
12 no shows (This is a perpetual challenge. However, those who received foods were most
grateful.)
• Costs: $976 BJs (after $60 rewards) + $170 postage + $132 milk (?) = total $1278
• Thanks to volunteers: Marie & Carol (shopping), Maryann Zavez & Hannah Myers (food
distribution), RUHS Honor Society students (bag packing - Did you see the Herald photo and
article? March 8 edition)
• We had a substantial amount of leftover non-perishables (peanut butter, jelly, etc); so our April
costs should be reduced.
• In early April, the RUHS Honor Society will be offering a food drive, targeted on cereal, peanut
butter and jelly (which we can put aside for summer, if surplus).
• We expect approximately the same number in April.
• Important dates: Tues, April 12, 3-6pm - pack the SKIP bags - RUHS Honor Society students
will assist - to be done in warehouse and conference room
o Thurs, Apr 14, 4-6pm and Sat, Apr 16 9am-noon - SKiP bags distribution - to be done in
warehouse and conference room
Finally, I’m very pleased to report that a SKiP committee will be forming soon! Members: Linda Garrett,
Maryann Zavez, Karen Odata, Wendy Benedict. Others are welcome; anyone interested? We'll meet later
this month
February Volunteer Hours:
SKiP – 25 hours
UPDATE- SKiP and Food Drive-people lined up to help Linda and get things completed.
•
•
Discussion regarding sending emails so that the reply comes to the food drive email rather
than to one person individually.
Current/Recent Food Drives
Exciting news... A new food drives committee is forming! I (Linda), Jo, and Karen Odata met the first
week of March. Jo will play an integral role, working alongside Karen (a new FS volunteer, taking on
several tasks). I think they would like one more member, ideally. Linda will be passing the torch, so to
speak; though she’s happy to ease the transition.
February Food Drives: none
Possible March Food Drives:
• Playhouse Theater - a special drive and movie showing in March, I believe - Carol is leading this
one.
• Curves - through March - proceeds to be shared with Bethel Food Shelf - probably a modest
collection
February Volunteer Hours:
Food drives – 3 hours
Other Business
Cold storage room progress-Field trip to the cold storage unit, looks great. We have insulation
going in soon.
CSA-We need a coordinator to connect with the farms who are looking to share their produce or
who we will buy produce from. We could advertise on FPF and Facebook to see who may be
interested in participating. We have had several people reaching out to us to plan for donations as
they plan their gardens. Carol to follow up with Kara regarding her initial inquiry (Pete’s
Greens). Tom checked with Megan O’Toole as she and her husband have a farm that could sell
wholesale or CSA to us if we gave them a list of the produce we really need they could focus a
specific dollar amount for us to have.
Charity requests to RAFS-We receive requests for donations. Since we have money available are
there any groups we would like to financially support? We received $7500 from the Hoehl
Family Foundation. This is funding to help increase food access for Orange County. Talk with
Rachel to see if we applied for the grant and then reach out to the Hoehl’s to understand the
intent of the grant.
Update on parking-Stuart reached out to Brad Atwood, the attorney, and he read the declarations
and condo site plan. His advice is that the loading dock belongs to the building not the common
area. Declaration states others have no right to park in front of the loading dock. The no parking
signs have not been put out for 3 weeks in the morning. Steve said that since the restaurant has
closed, there has not been a problem. The declaration states how many spaces each condo unit
has available to them. Not specific places for the spaces, but just notes how many per unit.
Tenant leases-Brad Atwood is going to review the leases and increase rent by 3%, add the clause
to not bring vehicles into the building, and if you sublet or lease your space, it must be stated that
a tenant cannot use the space as a residence. Stuart will speak to the tenants regarding the term to
their lease. The leases are up at the end of April.
Budget review-Discussion regarding the presentation of the budget for 2017 as presented by
Tom. Highlighted changes to specific areas. This is to be approved next month.
Succession plan-Discussion regarding a vote on the slate of 4 officer positions, or should there be
some sort of nominating committee. Stuart suggested having Joy Kacik help us with the creation
of this process. The officers’ job description is driven by the bylaws. The group decided Stuart
would reach out to Joy to schedule a meeting.
Freezer Grant-Marie shared at the end of February trying to track down the Food Bank,
apparently we submitted a grant to reword our grant to state we needed a freezer. Peter and
Rachel had submitted this grant originally. Peter forwarded to Rachel who reworded the grant
for submission. We submitted this now and we are awaiting the reply.
Linda Garrett-noted the Herald article about SKiP and the honor society coming to help.
Marie-Noted we should discuss the layout of the pantry itself to make the flow much better.
Stuart made a motion to adjourn, which was seconded by Linda, and the meeting was adjourned
at 6:31p.m.
Next Meeting: April 10, 2017, 5pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Rebecca O’Berry, Secretary
Other items
-We are unable to consistently get reclaimed meat from the Food Bank. The meat we are giving
out is not the highest quality. We have dollars in the budget to purchase food and we could
ensure there are appropriate dollars to focus on this improvement for our clientele. Linda could
give us good info from the Farm to Table coordinator at the school. Carol to start talking to Jo
about coordination for this process.
-Carol began a discussion regarding the cost of the list we purchase to mail annual appeal letters
since the cost of the returned items was several hundred dollars. We would like to review the list
of addresses and have Beacon print the letters, then we can fold and stuff ourselves after printing
the labels. Find out if there is a way to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
ACTION ITEMS:
Rebecca-to talk with Sharon/Warren regarding the August dates for the volunteer picnic
and then to follow up with the Rotary for Grant’s Camp dates.
Marie-Track down Wayne to get an update on the video.
Stuart-To connect with Joy Kacik to schedule a retreat for our succession process.
Linda-To connect with the coordinator from the school’s Farm to Table program.
Carol-To speak with Jo about the coordination of obtaining food from local farms.
Sharon-To find out what happened regarding the amount of money spent on the returned
mail from the annual appeal last year.
Carol-To talk with Kara regarding her information about the CSA/Pete’s Greens.
Rebecca-To speak with Rachel to see if she knows something about the grant dollars
received from the Hoele foundation.
Stuart-To speak with the tenants about upcoming changes to the lease.