Dear Friends and Partners,
This is the November 1st update of
Wright County’s Care and Nutrition Partnership Support for Seniors (60+).
We are starting our 33rd 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.
This week a team
member met a very sweet 89 year-old woman, living by herself at home in the
Rogers area with no local family support. A perfect example of someone
that would benefit from your calls and community support. Who do you know that fits this description?
Since March 30th,
the Care and Nutrition Partnership has received 1,381
nutrition applications. We want to highlight again that NourishingHOPE
has extended frozen meal support just beyond the Wright County Line to the east
into Western Hennepin County. Seniors there in Western Hennepin County
can reach out to NourishingHOPE to learn about frozen meal support in
their local community. Communities in Western Hennepin include: Corcoran,
Greenfield, Hamel, Hassen, Loretto, Rogers, Delano, Hanover, Maple Plain,
Otsego, and Rockford. For more information about Western Hennepin services,
please contact nourishinghope.oflc@gmail.com or call (763) 477-6300.
Wright
County COVID-19 IMPACT
As of
October 22nd we have 2,731
confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wright County. This
measurement began March 13th of this year. This week we had 397 new confirmed cases which
is seriously up 206 L more than doubling last week’s new cases at 191. 397 is a new
record high substantially surpassing the last record of 228 the week of October 15th.
LL
October 29,
2020 October 22,
2020
There is
a total of 22 new cases this week over 70 years of age for a pandemic total of 203. Adults over 30
currently are gaining at a higher rate of new cases than our school age
students and seniors over 70.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/52d559cfbe6e4ca39558c9b2f877e144
October
has really been a rough month. This week’s surge is significant and our
seniors particularly should take notice. The previous one day record
increased 50% from 50 cases on October 11th to 75 cases on October 29th.
As we
illustrated in last week’s graph, our seniors’ outcomes from this pandemic are
more concerning. Separation and isolation is important in the protection
of this vulnerable group, but we need to recognize the fact that isolation also
has a negative impact on mental health. No matter how old you are, just
ask yourself; are you feeling a little less stable since this pandemic
began? 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.
Senior’s
Spicing up Life for Halloween
Children are not the only ones that love Halloween and the fall season
If you
have a team that might want to help us pack meals on a Wednesday or Thursday
morning please let us know.
Packing happens about every week and takes less than two hours. It can be
a lot fun. Each packing can be done with up to 4 or 5
volunteers. Call 763-658-4414 if you want to learn more about this volunteering
opportunity.
Shout-out
to Strategic Partners
Waverly Café is putting that trailer freezer to
good work. Waverly Café has already produced 35,545 meals for Wright County and Western Hennepin
seniors since May 20th.
Sarah – wearing that Waverly Fire & Rescue Jacket is so
appropriate for the difference Waverly Café is making for our seniors
Credit is also due this
week to NourishingHOPE for showing us a new and safer way of handling
some of the larger bulk distributions. What a great way to support
volunteers.
NourshingHOPE’s
Untiedt’s Delivery
It’s
Fall and there are pumpkins everywhere at Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm
The Untiedt’s
Vegetable Farm has offered well over 100,000 pounds of fresh farm produce to food security
partners this growing season. This week Untiedt’s offered a record
number of 590 boxes of produce and
WCCA’s Joel delivered 426 boxes
including Kohlrabi, Celery, Cauliflower, Red Cabbage, #2 Green Peppers, Zestar
Apples, Brussels Sprouts, Fennel, Cucumbers, Roma Tomatoes, Jalapenos,
Butternut Squash, and Buttercup Squash.
The
loads were heavy this week…can’t wait to get that refrigerated
truck.
Love
INC
Heartland
Monticello
Help Center
Big
Lake Food
Shelf
Annandale Food Shelf
Delano Senior
Center
Forgotten
Harvest and Farmer Greg
The
Twin Cities Rescue Team
🍅 🍅 🍅 Farmer Jerry 🍅 🍅 🍅 offered an extra and very special
treat for our families this week. Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm has
offered 475 boxes of tomatoes which
represents “the last pick of the Untiedt’s Fall tomato crop”. We
have Yellow Slicing Tomatoes, Red Grape Tomatoes, Yellow Grape Tomatoes, Roma
Tomatoes, and Red Slicing Tomatoes. To top it off we have an extra 50 cases of Potatoes to distribute.
Please let us know if
there are any 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!
Overjoyed,
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.
·
NourshingHOPE – senior
services applications fulfillment, frozen meal distribution, and produce
distributions.
·
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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