Examples of Good Reporting:

Narratives: (Please write a brief narrative of your accomplishments during this reporting period. Include measureable results as much as possible. Ex: I recruited 10 volunteers. I completed (a specific task) that will provide (result) to ## people living in poverty; I wrote 3 grant proposals totaling $45,000; I initiated (a specific task) that will increase the capacity/sustainability of my nonprofit by 20%.)

During this reporting period I finished planning and solidifying a program plan for the West End Center for Youth's Leadership Open House event. This program plan included marketing materials (press release), volunteer materials (recruitment emails, volunteer spreadsheet which was updated up until the day of the event), donation plan (donation letter used to inquire about donations at 16 businesses for the event and a donation spreadsheet which was updated until the day of the event), logistics plan (guest sign-in sheets used to keep track of attendance and information to be used for further cultivation, event agendas used during the event and sent out after event in thank you letters for further promotion, equipment/supply lists, table scripts and volunteer/staff roles and responsibilities were made to make sure event went smoothly).

We conducted the event on August 2nd. There were 3 volunteers who were recruited and participated for approximately 3 hours each. The event had approximately 28 people in attendance. The total value of the in-kind donations for the event averaged at $149.89. Thank you letters were sent to all attendees, board members, VIP invitees, volunteers, and donors was further promotions and cultivating for West End Center awareness, volunteer encouragement, future donor opportunities, and sponsorships opportunities. There were a total of 27 thank you letters sent by email and 13 thank you letters sent by direct mail. I created, designed, and mailed a West End Center Leadership Initiative direct mail brochure which was sent to approximately 1,200 potential donors. I created and designed an E-blast marketing/promotional email for the West End Center Leadership Initiative which was sent to approximately 1,455 potential donors and supporters.

I have attended 6 meeting this month- West End Center development committees, The Advancement Center staff meetings, Charity Cottage Thrift Store Open House event planning meetings, and West End Center Spooky Sprint 5K fundraiser planning meeting. I have helped to created and design a website for the West End Center's Spooky Sprint 5K fundraiser and am continuing to work on this project.

I have started an outline for the program plan of the Charity Cottage Thrift Store open house event, which will be an event to build awareness, encourage community involvement and volunteerism, and hopefully build partnerships. I have also completed an E-blast marketing/promotional email for The Advancement Foundation's new VISTA members; this E-blast will be used as a marketing and awareness tool and will be sent to approximately 1,455 potential partners and supporters.

Partnerships: (Please list any partners who have been active in your work this quarter, along with a sentence or phrase about how each partner is involved. Avoid acronyms. Are other Corporation and non-Corporation programs collaborating with the AmeriCorps*VISTA project? (ie: AmeriCorps, NCCC, RSVP). Please also list all meetings that you organized or meetings that you attended where you developed a significant partnership for your organization.)

Groups of volunteers from the Blue Ridge Job Corps have continued to come in on Tuesdays to help sort food. I have been in regular contact with the Emory & Henry College Appalachian Center for Community Service this month. A group of around 20 incoming freshman from Emory & Henry College will help distribute food in Saltville as part of their Service Plunge this weekend. A group of Bonner Scholars from Emory & Henry College came in to help repackage bulk noodles for two hours one morning in the warehouse earlier this month.

I also worked with the Appalachian Center for Community Service to recruit a fall semester intern for the agency relations department. I will meet with the director of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center this Friday to discuss doing a presentation about Americorps and the Food Bank at the Higher Education Center later this fall. We will also discuss the possibility of the Higher Education Center donating some of their leftover catered food to the Food Bank's soup kitchen in the future. The Food Bank has begun working with the Abingdon Farmers Market to start collecting leftover produce at the end of each market day. I have talked with the market manager on several occasions this month to thank him for all of his support of the Food Bank.

Sustainabaility: (Describe specific organizational strategies that are in place to sustain the results of the project. What are you doing to transition your organization away from dependence on the VISTA position by the end of the position’s third year (and on you by the end of your year).

The program plan I have developed and finalize for the West End Center's Leadership Initiative open house event can be used again in the future for similar events. The marketing materials that I have developed have been saved and can be used as templates and references for future use. The marketing materials which have gone out will also hopefully result in the attainment of sponsorships and donors to sustain the nonprofits they represented. Also all the volunteer and donor information has been saved in databases for future use and updating abilities.

Stories, Quotes, and Reflective Observations: (include a story or two about your most significant accomplishment or something you felt was particularly interesting or inspiring. The story should communicate to the public how VISTA members get things done in your community. Particularly helpful are stories that include numerical results and sustainable solutions.)

  • On Thursday, August 18, I visited food bank agency Heritage Cares in Dublin. On little to no budget with an all-volunteer staff, in a tiny space in the basement of a church, they distribute food to 50-150 individuals each week (open each Thursday). They had neatly organized their food supplies in two rooms the size of my office, labeled USDA commodities and non-USDA commodities for federal compliance. They let absolutely no product go to waste - even though they lacked the funding for a walk-in cooler and thus the ability to store produce long enough for everything to keep, they donate spoiled product to farmers to feed their hogs and save on feed expenses. Their director kept three sets of meticulous records and completed all the necessary paperwork at home on her own time. I heard stories about desperate attempts to apply for grants and look for local donors. Having personally known someone who grew up in drug- and poverty-ridden Pulaski County, Virginia, I felt very inspired to see the staggering efforts of this small group to provide support to the less fortunate families of that area.
  • "It didn't even feel like work." quote by Feeding America Southwest Virginia staff member who volunteered at the second "GrandinChillage". This concert series has a simple equation for benefiting the food bank: volunteer time in exchange for food + funds + awareness. Food bank volunteers and staff put in between 2.5 and 4.5 hours volunteering on-site selling beverage tickets, accepting admissions, etc. We were provided with a table and tent for our info table (normally we have to secure them donated and bring them ourselves). Staff and volunteers enjoyed a friendly environment with plenty of water and free live music - all while generating awareness of our mission, accepting food donations, and receiving proceeds from the event. My work as a VISTA has given the organization the flexibility to coordinate and staff this event without distracting us from the many other projects procuring food - all while having a good time.
  • The Sprint TeleCenter in Bristol, VA, called on their competitive natures to raise food and water to help replenish the Food Bank’s supplies after the tornados in Pulaski and Glade Spring. Competing in teams, they battled it out to collect 2,586 pounds of food and 26,018 pounds of water. The Sprint employees, then, joined together, working together at the food bank to sort through all the food and water raised.

Challenges: (Describe any challenges encountered during this reporting period. Be sure to include whether challenges have been resolved, or, if they remain unresolved, the plans to address them. This is an opportunity to document challenges not only for VISTA and The Advancement Foundation, but for future VISTAs who will work with your project, and all others involved in the project.)

At the beginning, I found my priority goal and role in this organization a bit challenging. It was a little bit of a struggle to truly grasp where I fit in or what type of impact I should be having on this organization. But as time went on, I became more and more involved with projects and noticed that I felt I had more of a place and role here. So this challenge was resolved, and I feel much more assured with my role and work here at Feeding America.

One other challenge that I am currently facing is effectively using constructive criticism to suggest a few changes to our Quality Assurance Coordinator and our Salvage Room/Volunteer programs. I need to reassure that I am here to work side-by-side together to accomplish and improve the flow and processes in our Salvage Room, and not to take over and change everything from the norm. I will be working more with Bob, my supervisor, on how to go about improving this communication so we can continue to improve our volunteer programs.