Dear Friends and Partners,
This is the July 12th update of Wright County’s Care and Nutrition Partnership Support for Seniors (60+). We are starting our 17th week of response to COVID-19. Wright County Community Action (WCCA) has a support line for seniors; please encourage seniors to call:
(320) 963-6500 Ext. 274.
As a community, we want to help with our most vulnerable neighbors’ challenges, including isolation and the impact that results, assistance with grocery access through education, grocery delivery, senior mobile food shelf needs, frozen meal support, prescription access, and needs like housekeeping, chore, and other logistical issues as they present.
As of July 9nd we have had 505 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wright County. Our numbers in the county are not slowing yet after last week’s bump. Please remain vigilant in an effort to maintain social distancing. What we do can have serious and intentional implications in keeping our higher risk individuals well.
In addition, seniors staying home need to hear from you! While thought to be in the best interest of survival for some, it can be quiet lonely when you are self-isolating. As we get older, we notice that if we don’t intentionally exercise, our knees and muscles start to atrophy a bit. Maybe sometimes as we age, not exercising the mental function we have, like critical thinking, might naturally dull abilities we have used all our lives. Encourage a neighbor by giving them a call so they can enjoy a friendly voice and an opportunity to feed their need for social interactions, as well as the prospect of keeping their mind sharp.
Wright County Minnesota Coronavirus Confirmed Cases
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/52d559cfbe6e4ca39558c9b2f877e144
Shout-out to Partners
This week J&B Group came through once again. In the last few weeks we talked about partners stepping up to help solve logistical issues which is exactly what happened this Friday. So many community friends have leveraged their resources and ideas to make us better. J&B helped this week by providing a bulk packing box. In fact, over 1,300 bulk packing boxes- what a huge impact to this community wide partnership effort.
Bulk packing box stock and friendly helpers to move them into place
This box is strong, excellent for freezer storage, and does not require tape. Not only is it going to support lower labor costs, but the safety of partnership volunteers and staff brought about from the reduced box size and convenient handles will make a big difference. It will allow us to pack and store 30 Waverly Café frozen meals per box.
Bulk Packing Box at work
By introducing this box at just the right point
in our production process, we will improve our systems, substantially
simplifying meal counting, storage, transfer, and our repacking process.
Using volunteer packing teams to repack meals in the assortments that our
seniors really appreciate is now very possible. This new process is going
to greatly improve labor costs, leverage volunteers’ time, and freezer space
demand. J&B Group’s partnership is really appreciated and is just
another wonderful example of community giving at work to protect our seniors
against COVID-19.
Senior
Frozen Meal repacking crew and meals ready to deliver
Untiedt’s Vegetable Farms this next week is providing both access to 100 boxes of cucumbers and 100 boxes of zucchini to keep up with frozen meal support and local food security needs. As always – what a great partner!
If you or a potential partner would like to help expand this resource to our seniors expressly on Highway 12, please consider donating to the “COVID-19 Food” fund at the Delano Loretto Area United Way:
Write a check to: Delano Loretto Area United Way
In
the memo line, write: “COVID-19 Food.”
Mail
to:
P.O. Box 578
Delano, MN 55328
Or visit the Delano Loretto Area United Way Website http://www.delanolorettouw.org/ and click “Donate” -- donations via credit card or PayPal (click on “write a note”, write “COVID-19 Food”
If you want to target expansion of frozen meal delivery in other parts of Wright County including the Highway 55 corridor and I-94 corridor, please consider donating to the “COVID-19 Food” fund at Wright County Community Action:
Write a check to: Wright County Community Action
In the memo line, write: “COVID-19 Food.”
Mail
to:
P.O. Box 787
Maple Lake, MN 55358
Or
visit the Wright County Community Action Agency Website (dedicate to: “COVID-19 Food”) https://www.wccaweb.com
The entire community of Wright County is in this together! (see current partner list below)
Indebted,
Jay
Weatherford
WCCA
Executive Director
For more information for Wright County senior support services:
https://www.wccaweb.com/Home/Index (click current programs)
or
email: agingservices@wccaweb.com
or
call:
(320) 963-6500 Ext 274 – Aging Program Manager - Eric Nagel
(320) 963-6500 Ext 241 – Dispatch
1-800-333-2433 – Senior LinkAge Line
Delivered Frozen Meal Program(s) – WCCA at (320) 963-6500 Ext 274 or Catholic Charities Meals on Wheels program located in Maple
Lake: (320) 963-5771, Annandale: (320) 274-3891 and Buffalo: (763) 682-6036
To volunteer:
Contact (320) 963-6500 Ext. 225 –– Jen Liebeck jliebeck@wccaweb.com
Or enroll on Website: https://www.wccaweb.com/Home/Volunteer
New Partner and First Time Reader Overview
Farmers: food shelfs and senior programs can use your support. Please share this email with your Wright County farmer friends potentially able to contribute, or other Food Security Partners that could use this produce to support their efforts. For large donations, WCCA will use its resources to make distributions happen. Again, going forward we hope to expand this list of local food security recipients that could use fresh vegetables when they become available. If you are serving local individuals at no cost and would like to be included in this potential fresh vegetable distribution opportunity, please email me a cell phone number to text. When an opportunity arises, a rapid response will be needed. Based on a first come first serve distribution and availability, Wright County Community Action will do our best to share these resources as they come in and deliver them to partner locations.
Partner support
·
Second Harvest – free
and reduced cost bulk raw food products for frozen meal production.
·
Local Farmers –
Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm – contributing produce for senior meal support and
local food security needs.
·
Waverly Café - ingenuity
and giving spirit including their PPP loan directed at paying their staff to
produce senior meals, catering expertise, and use of their commercial kitchen.
·
Catholic Charities
partially funded by Central MN Council on Aging – frozen meals contribution and
Meals-on-Wheels referral partner.
·
Cargill – breakfast
meals.
·
J&B Group – bulk
warehouse freezer storage including bulk prepared meal storage and bulk raw
food storage; not to mention helping us resolve logistical issues, as well as
supplying a really great box with the outcome of providing so many solutions to
challenges we have faced in our production process.
·
Buffalo Crossings LLC,
owner of Oriental Buffet in Buffalo – commercial walk-in freezer, commercial
walk-in cooler, and commercial kitchen to pack and store senior meals.
·
Local Food Shelves -
local frozen meal and bulk food storage, as well as senior services registration
(Annandale Food Shelf, Buffalo Food Shelf, Monticello Help Center, and Waverly
Food Shelf).
·
Trailblazer – daily
volunteer based County-wide local meal delivery.
·
Delano Senior Center –
senior services application fulfillment and frozen meal distribution, as well
as Meals-on-Wheels referral partner.
·
Public Health –
volunteer recruitment, data support, instructional materials design, and
logistics support.
·
St. Cloud Refrigeration
– emergency air conditioning for the Waverly Café kitchen.
·
Local Lions Clubs –
local community freezer development and contributions to the cost of frozen
meals (Waverly, Montrose, Howard Lake, Maple Lake, Loretto, and Monticello).
·
Local Municipalities –
local freezer storage funding support (City of Waverly, City of Montrose, City
of Howard Lake).
·
Health Care Partners –
Allina Health (financial support)
·
Other Local Corporations
– Citizen State Bank of Waverly (freezer funding support) and Walgreens
(shopping bags).
·
Local Faith-based
organizations – many very giving churches for many years have been active in
financial support for food security across Wright County (too many to mention
them all – but you know who you are) . – in addition, Love INC, St Mary’s
Catholic Church, Alleluia Lutheran, Our Father’s Lutheran, St. John’s Lutheran,
North Ridge Fellowship Small Group and friends, Montrose United Methodist
Church have provide support for senior call center activity, B.R.E.A.D program
outreach, volunteer administrative services, food security, food preparation, and
meal and food storage - access and delivery.
·
Initiative Foundations,
Delano Loretto Area United Way, Wright County Area United Way, Mardag
Foundation, and St Paul and Minnesota Foundations including funding for
COVID-19 direct response, Catchafire membership, and B.R.E.A.D. program
funding.
·
State Live Well at Home
Funding and Federal Title III funding support administered by the Minnesota
Board on Aging and Central Minnesota Council on Aging.
·
Wholesale purchase of
recyclable meal trays.
·
Oliver Equipment Lease
for the required equipment to seal the senior meal trays.
·
AMI Group and IDA Foods
– access to airline meal vendors adding senior meal production capacity and
contingency support. This opportunity to purchase over stock of
first-class airline meals due to drop in air travel and our partners sharing
their relationships.
·
Tireless WCCA Staff
support from multiple programs working to braid any allowable resource to make
a difference for our seniors.
· Countless community volunteers - everything from administrative services support, logistics and storage coordination, bulk food and materials transport, senior transportation, local meal delivery, meal packing, senior call center activity, PPE production and product support, volunteer coordination, food rescue, and so many more details where you fill the gap (you too, know who you are – we are so grateful for your courage and willingness to step forward to meet needs).
Call to Action
There is still much more opportunity for local corporate and civic partners to get involved. It’s simple solutions like packing meals in the Walgreens shopping bags or storing bulk meals or protein on the warehouse freezer floor at J&B Group that have made all the difference. Given the chance there are many incredible businesses that have unique resources, relationships, buying power, and experience. We really hope to find more corporate partners willing to leverage their earned knowledge and distinctive talents to improve this support for our seniors during the pandemic. Leveraging what they do best including their marketing, buying power, and connections brings together powerful partners. When we put our heads together, we dig up unique ways like those mentioned briefly above. These often come from you readers. So please share this email with your friend, neighbor, or corporate partner so that this story can be told, and those big thinkers out there have the opportunity to step forward and do what they do best.
Its leaders like Waverly Café, J&B Group, Cargill, St. Cloud Refrigeration, Buffalo Crossing, and Untiedt Vegetable Farm that are showing us ways for other corporate partners to leverage their buying power, innovation, and economy of scale that will most likely take this delivery system to the next level. We need you thinkers to help refine our process as a community, interested in protecting our most vulnerable population by leveraging their lessons learned; those lessons that have brought your businesses to the success they are today. Share this message with your friends: during the same years that many of your companies were established and being built to thrive, the people we are trying to protect were your customers. This might be a great opportunity to now give back to the ones who supported you and help them thrive.
We need to refine solutions in local communities for freezer storage, access to bulk buying, shared and efficient transportation opportunities, HR teams organizing volunteers to support local distribution in their community, corporate giving through community investment and matching. We need volunteered ingenuity from our bankers and other corporate partners that can bring their experience to this effort to shore up and produce a stronger, even more sustainable model than we have today. It is partners with their buying power, innovation, and economy of scale that are now needed to continue to refine our process. There is still local ingenuity to leverage in this crisis seeking local solutions that will only enhance, extend, and sustain the investment of the federal and state agencies.
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