Basic Needs Minutes 12/10/18

Basic Needs Committee

  • Monday, December 10, 2018
  • 3:00-4:00pm
  • Dry Creek River Valley Room

Agenda

  • CalFresh Intern hiring
  • Hot meals in the kitchen planning

    • Payment plan

    • Qualifications

    • Distribution plan

    • Trainer lunch

  • CalFresh training plan

    • Jan 31

    • Session topics

    • Who should attend?

Notes:

Members Present:

  • Toni Borracchia
  • Erik Dickson
  • Jesus Garcia-Valdez
  • Sue Hardisty
  • Stacy Heldman-Holguin
  • Stacey Murray

Members Absent:

  • Yatziri Aguilar-Carbajal
  • Maria Fuentes
  • Allison Goodwin
  • Karen Herrera Cruz
  • Nancy Keller
  • Gabriella Morin
  • Talena Sanders
  • Karen Vielma-Cortes

Co-Chair Holguin commenced the meeting at 3:16pm due to a last minute room change. 

  1. CalFresh Intern Hiring. We’ll be posting a job announcement for 2 CalFresh interns, 10-15 hrs /week. Hire by Jan. 31 so they can attend the CalFresh training. We have a grant that is designed to support CalFresh. We also have partnerships with Redwood Food Bank (RFB) and Rohnert Park Health Center (RPHC) which also have grants for CalFresh outreach, as well. We need to figure out how to manage the grants and maintain good relationships with our partners. RPHC offers assistance with a variety of programs including CalFresh, Path to ? (Transportation), healthcare, and vision & dental services.

     

    Borracchia asked if the all-in-one application could include a box for the applicant to check if they are an SSU student? Dickson answered that the interview with Sonoma County Social Services is the most important aspect of the application process.

     

    Borracchia asked if we refer someone to RPC, how quickly can they be seen? Holguin replied that at RPC, Viridiana Perez, an Enrollment Counselor, helps patients through this application process. If students are participatory in a certain program, (EOP, Seawolf Scholars, TRIO) they may become eligible if they meet the income requirements. All partners are willing to come to campus because they need data to support their grants. There is no penalty if we don’t meet our numbers for the Chico grant. The question is, when do WE get to count our student as being served by the grant?

     

    Dickson: Food Bank and RPC offers our students more than we can. Maybe we do a hybrid of the two programs?  One big event for CalFresh, and then take in walk-in traffic. Our interns could supplement the work in the Pantry. We have a lot of returners, and there is someone there to serve them. JUMP volunteers to do staffing for the pantry. There are 4 directors—send to JUMP email and someone will get back to you.

     

    Holguin invited both Food Bank and RPC to Jan. 31 CalFresh training. (Sue asked to send formal invitation to these partners)

    Toni: Does pantry have confidential space to help with applications? No, just a desk. It’s basically to help them figure out if they are eligible. When they meet with the CalFresh rep, they help them understand what they will need to take to the interview with the County. Twice a month in the afternoon, reserve a conference room with phone, computer hook-up, wifi. Feb. 27 is our CalFresh Open House day and have our partners (Food Bank, RPC, Sonoma County Health Services, (Donna Newman?), Santa Rosa Family Justice Center, YMCA, YWCA, come in and tell us what we need to be prepared to help students sign-up. A student intern can help with room reservations. Summer Bridge offers another opportunity to have Food Bank and RPC and Sonoma County Health Services come in and help with sign-ups. Our biggest hurdle to getting students into CalFresh is determining eligibility. If a student is Cal-Grant eligible, they are also CalFresh eligible. They are told at Orientation that they are eligible, then we could have a session for them and invite NOAH, CalFresh, RPC, Food Bank. We may need a draw to get them to go to the CalFresh session. Undocumented are not eligible for CalFresh but they could learn about other services. 29% of our students are Cal-Grant recipients.  Email all of our Cal-Grant, Pantry, program specific students about the Feb. 27 event, Use Seawolf Living, we can also table outside a few days before the event. Find out in advance what students need to bring with them and communicate that. We explored $21000 publication that would help students navigate how to get services in partnership with SRJC and Sonoma County Health Services.

    Approximately 1/3 of our students are Pell eligible.

     

2. When a student is identified to received hot meals, the authorized staff can inform Nancy to approve the charge, and load the meals onto their ID card. When we have a case worker, they can monitor this activity.

 

Questions:

How do we want to go about identifying students?

  • A potential intake could be AS short term loan or transitional housing program.
  • A petition to withdraw may also trigger further investigation. Is it due to lack of basic needs.
  • Hardship housing cases could flag the need for a meal plan
  • DSS
  • Police
  • CAASE
  • Advising
  • Financial Aid

This is crisis planning – 3 meals/day for 7 days or we have a $6000 budget and we give meal cards that give them 5 days for dining venues. Everyone in CAASE would know, and Ashley or Priscilla would call Nancy. We need a designated person to monitor the use of funds. This is just crisis solution. Could give a meal card and make it good for the entire semester. We also need to help them with more long-term planning.

$6000 is specifically for hot meals but Holguin will ask if it can also be used for short term loans. Enterprises will put up $5000. We’ll use grant money first, then dip into Enterprises funds. AS has $50 short term loan program, which is different from a grant program. AS may move to grant program versus loan and could then join the grant pool. Holguin will talk to Denise Bevly about this possibility. We need to loop Financial Aid in on this. A lot of students’ needs in crisis situations are $500 (car breaks down, eviction).

Elizabeth handles hardship housing cases.

Erik: Will send committee transitional housing policy.

Erik: JUMP does Soup-er -take leftover food from the kitchen and repackage it and give it to St. Vincent de Paul, Sam ones Kitchen. Students want to re-tool the program to prepare single use meal for our students. It would produce 15-30 meals a week. JUMP met with Stacy and Dan O’Brien this morning about this idea. Culinary Services is on board philosophically, just need to work out the logistics. Would utilize Lobo Pantry to distribute the meals. It would be available on a drop-in basis. Qualifying for this might be different than for the pantry. It’s also an educational opportunity for the volunteers.

Notes submitted by Sue Hardisty, staff support.