smorgasbord fall 2015
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AIB Inspected: Reaching the Gold Standard
We Did It!
Thanks, 18,000Times!
Feeding the
Valley in ...
Its Time to
GROW!
Rock StarReaders at
Kids Caf
Help Feed the
Need!
Hunger Action
Month
Thank YouRobinson
Grimes & Co.
HungerDoesnt take
the Weekend
Off
We Did It!Feeding The Valley just became AIB certified! This is the gold
standard certification in food safely and our warehouse team
passed a rigid audit and inspection with a glowing score of 955
out of a possible 1000. This certification is comparable to an IOS
certification in the manufacturing environment and is mandated
by Feeding America. We are the third Georgia food bank to pass
and be certified. This will go a long way in terms of our credibility
with our major food donors and will help increase food donationsfrom our retail partners such as Walmart, Sams Club, Publix,
Winn-Dixie, Target, Kroger, Smuckers, Kraft Foods and the many
others. Hats off to the FTV team, this is a big milestone!
What is AIB?American Institute of Baking International focuses on
empowering organizations
and people worldwide to
elevate food safety stand-
ards. Scoring well on our AIBInspection shows that we are
committed to doing all we
can to provide clean, safe
products.
Feeding The Valley Food Bank Newsletter
Fall 2 15
A sprinkle of news, a dash of information and smore from Feeding The Valley Food Bank
In This Issue
[Our logo is] fresh, crisp, and
boldly conveys that gathering
food to feed those in need is
our passion and in our hearts.
Check us out!
Columbus:
facebook.com/Feeding-the-valley-206451742698993
LaGrange:
facebook.com/feedingthevalley
Twitter:
Twitter.com/feedingthevally
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Feeding the Valley in ...
Did you know that we opened a warehouse in LaGrange in 2014? With this satellite
warehouse, we have a laser-beam focus on serving Troup, Harris, Meriwether and
Talbot counties in a more efficient manner.
The LaGrange TeamDenn Muncy is our warehouse coordinator and Daniel Saunders is our warehouse
assistant /driver. They are a team of two and in its first year of operation, more than 1
million pounds of food has been distributed from this warehouse. AIB impacts the La-
Grange warehouse also. In early October, they went through the AIB training audit.
The final audit is scheduled to occur in January 2016.
Reaching New HeightsDenn is establishing new relationships in all of these communities and reaching out
to churches and non-profits and introducing them to Feeding the Valley. If you know of
a church or non-profit in these counties that has a food program or would like to start a
food program, please reach out to them and let them know about Feeding the Valley
and our convenient location in LaGrange.
Phone: 706-298-7388 Address: 118 Gordon Commercial Drive, LaGrange, GA
Thanks,18,000 Times!We cannot say thanks enough to the
teams of volunteers who come through
our warehouse on a weekly basis. With
a small staff, and a tight budget, wecould not pack and deliver 7,000 mo-
bile pantry boxes monthly without
them. Last year we logged more than
18,000 volunteer hours, so volunteers
are the life blood of our mission and we
are grateful for their service. In the last
few months we have enjoyed having
volunteers from TSYS, Synovus, Fort
Benning, House of T.I.M.E., Easter
Seals and church youth groups. You
are all a part of the Feeding the Valley
team!
18,000 Thanks to Our Volunteers!
Denn Muncy and Daniel Saunders at Feeding the Valley LaGrange
Feeding the Valley
LaGrange Warehouse
Serving:
Troup
Harris
Talbot andMeriwether counties
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Its Time to GROW!
In the last six years, our food distribution has increased by 400%. We have been in our current location since June
1992, and we are land locked there is nowhere else to grow! We need to expand in order to be more efficient and
offer more cold and frozen storage. Plans are underway to raise local funds in order to be considered for two major
grants being offered to Georgia food banks.
Our new facility will model a state-of-the-art facility built in Thomasville, GA that has won approval by the Georgia Food Bank Associ-
ation. Our new location wont be far from our present location! It will be located on 5.5 acres near Highway 80 and Manchester Ex-pressway, which is convenient highway access for our trucks. Plans are for it to be a 31,000 square foot facility with a five level rack-
ing system that will increase our food storage capacity from 750,000 lbs. to 1.5 million lbs. of food and will include refrigeration space
that quadruples storage capacity for meats and produce. And it will offer plenty of park-
ing! Keep us in your prayers that we will receive the necessary funding for this new facility!
Ms. Lyn Seaman and the Rock Star Readers Program
Rock Star ReadersThings have been rockin at Kids Caf since summer. This sum-
mer, we increased our KC sites to 17 and averaged 1,500 meals
per day. Now that school is in session, we have 13 sites and av-
erage 6,225 meals a week. During the summer months, the
Chattahoochee Valley Library began an outreach program at
some of our KC sites. Ms. Lyn Seaman,
a retired library employee, has started
the Rock Star Readers Program and
brings books to life and sparks the imag-
ination of kids with arts and crafts. What
a great partnership and we hope it will
expand even more to enhance the time
we have these children under our wings!
It doestake a village!
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Help Feed
the Need!
Tis the season for food
drives. Food drives are
essential to help us keep
our shelves full. We re-
ceive food drive dona-tions from generous
retailers, companies,
schools, church groups,
civic organizations and
many others.
Most NeededOur most needed foods
are those that are high in
protein such as peanut
butter, jelly, tuna,
canned meats, soups,
fruits, vegetables, maca-
roni and cheese, rice,
pasta, beans, cereal,
oatmeal and crackers.
Plan a FoodDrive ...Let us know if you or
your organization wants
to plan a food drive. We
can supply the contain-
ers and coordinate pick
up.
Contact: swatson@
feedingthevalley.org
September was
Hunger Action
MonthOrange is the symbolic color to repre-
sent Hunger and we enjoyed seeingmany orange spoon photos on our Fa-cebook page. One in five adults and onein four children are considered food in-secure in Georgia and this is a higherstatistic than the national average. Any-thing we can do even sticking an or-ange spoon on our nose, to raise hun-ger awareness in important! Imagine aworld without hunger!
Feeding the Valley is Gathering & Distributing Food to Feed the Hungry
Hunger Doesnt Take the Weekend Off
As students across Georgia prepare for the upcoming holidays, we are reminded of the many struggling families living in our community. Parents with lowincomes have the added stress of finding ways to af-ford healthy snacks and meals for their children. Anew backpack, lunch box may not seem like much, butif your budget is already stretched to its limit, everyextra expense means cutting back in other areas including food.
Fortunately, our schools provide nutritious breakfastsand lunches through free and reduced priced mealprograms. This resource ensures that students have
the fuel to focus on their studies from the first bellthrough the last class of the day. But what happensafter the school day ends? Thats where friends likeyou come in.
Churches, community organizations and clubs cansponsor our Buddy Pack program. Kid friendly snacksare delivered to the schools and packed in backpackson Fridays for students identified by school administra-tion to ensure privacy. Happy kids leave school on Fri-day with food for the weekend.
If you are interested in supporting this program, contactus. [email protected]
Thank You toRobinson Grimesand CompanyColumbus largest accounting firm, RobinsonGrimes and Company participated in the Geor-gia Accountants Food Fight and raised $1025and donated 125 pounds of peanut butter andjelly.
Perfect Items
PB&J were the perfect food items for the startof the school yearbecause we dontalways get thesefood products fromour national retail-ers. Peanut butterhas high nutritionalvalue as well as
being a goodsource of protein.We are alwayshappy to have pea-nut butter on ourshelves for ourpartner agencies.