Dear Friends and Partners,
This is the October 4th update of
Wright County’s Care and Nutrition Partnership Support for Seniors (60+).
We are starting our 29th 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, chores, assisted transportation and other
logistical issues as they present.
One
way you can help today is to share this email with friends or family that might
be interested in assisting our seniors with their transportation needs.
We are looking for more volunteer drivers to help support this effort. We do reimburse mileage.
Volunteers can contact us at the telephone number above. Dialing zero
will also get you to a staff assistant.
Wright County COVID-19 IMPACT
As
of October 1st we have 1,730 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wright County. This
measurement began March 13th of this year. This week we had 156 new confirmed
cases which is up significantly L from 97 last week and 71 the week before. There are a total of 19 new cases this week over
70 years of age for a pandemic total of 125. L This is the second week in a row that we have seen over a 15% increase in seniors over
70 in just one week. This is a noteworthy increase and we want to
try to understand why, as well as do what we can to pull these numbers
down. In the previous two weeks combined we had only gained 2 new cases. In the
last 2 weeks we have gained 34 new cases in seniors over 70.
September 24,
2020
September
17, 2020
September 10,
2020
September 3, 2020
It
is so important to keep the communication lines open and to work at protecting
this population from the virus. With rising numbers, please share our
information with the seniors (60+) in your life. As the news has
highlighted again this week with the announcement of the President and First
Lady contracting the virus, our seniors have higher potential health risks or
impact from the COVID-19 virus.
Please
share this story so all our seniors know a place to go if they want to
confidently check into resources they may need – also please call the
seniors in your life, they appreciate hearing from you. Separation and
isolation can really start to get to us all, even more for many of our older
family and friends that are not as mobile as they use to be. No matter
how old you are, just ask yourself; are you feeling more isolated? How
are you feeling different from this time last year? The calls are
important.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/52d559cfbe6e4ca39558c9b2f877e144
This chart
demonstrates the second largest surge of new cases (156 cases) in Wright County this week since
the pandemic began. The largest surge came the week of September 3rd
(162 cases) where we only had five
new case of seniors over 70. Unfortunately, our seniors 70+, are significantly
represented in this recent surge of new cases again with a total in the last
two weeks of 34 new senior 70+ cases.
LL
New
Local Delivery Tools
This week we
are working on finding better tools to support local delivery of meals. Below
are photos of our delivery tote test. These seems to be great insulated
food carriers to help support our delivery system.
The largest
tote (shown below) holds 4 packs of 14 meals, each including 10 from Waverly
Café, 4 lunch portions from AMI – IDA Foods, plus breakfast foods
from Cargill for a total of 56
frozen meals (not including the breakfast items). This tote is going to
be ideal for transporting larger quantities in one delivery trip. The smaller
totes hold 2 packs and 1 pack respectively. These can be used for
hotshots and individual trips being made to senior’s homes.
Shout-out to Strategic Partners
Our packing
processes have improved tremendously this week, with the help of warehouse
storage space at J&B Group, Tina Portz, and the volunteers and staff
at WCCA and Wright County Food Shelf at Waverly.
Those Walgreens bags are really helping
too! Thank you Walgreens! They hold 14
meals and 3 breakfast products.
Joel
preparing 2,100 meals for delivery to the local freezers, including the Annandale Food Shelf and Buffalo
Crossings Freezers
Lots of
trips to Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm this week
This week Untiedt’s
Vegetable Farm offered 551 boxes
of Leeks, Tomatoes, Red Potatoes, Sweet Corn, Zestar Apples, Cucumbers,
Tomatillos, Sweet Italian Peppers, Chub Cucumbers, Butternut Squash, Habanero
Peppers, and Poblano Peppers (not including the Watermelon to top off each
load). Just ask Joel: 406
boxes and gunny sacks delivered.
Untiedt’s
Fresh Farm Produce Distributed this week
Employees
loading the van – Thanks Untiedt’s!
Couldn’t do it without your awesome team’s support!
Annandale
Food
Shelf
Maple Manor
in Maple Lake
Buffalo Food
Shelf
Delano
Senior Center
Annandale
Food
Shelf
Monticello
Help Center
Buffalo Food Shelf
Forgotten
Harvest (Looks like Jose is worn out – that sweet corn is heavy)
Last
of this year’s Untiedt’s Sweet Corn crop
Jose
Flores of Forgotten Harvest with Greg at his farm, preparing for the transfer
to North Minneapolis
Grace
Place (Joel, Jose, and Pastor Cathy)
Please let us
know if there are other food security partners that we are not reaching with
fresh fruit and vegetables from Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm. Please forward this email to them or give them
our contact information.
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)
Please forward this email to potential
partners!
Thankful,
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.
·
Delano Coburn’s – weekly
food rescue makes a tremendous impact on food security resources.
·
Local Farmers –
Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm and Dechene Corporation of Big Lake Minnesota –
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.
·
Wright County Human
Services/Public Health – volunteer recruitment support, data support,
instructional materials design, and logistics support.
·
St. Cloud Refrigeration
– emergency air conditioning for the Waverly Café kitchen.
·
Electrical Workers
Union, IBEW Local 292 – brought to the partnership Olympia Tech Electric to
support new electrical service needed at Waverly Café
·
Olympia Tech Electric –
installing new electrical services at Waverly Café needed for additional
freezer capacity
·
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), HWY 55 Trailer Sales
of Buffalo, 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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