Basic Needs Minutes 2/4/19

Basic Needs Committee Meeting

  • Monday, Feb. 4, 2019
  • 2:00-3:00 pm
  • Alexander Valley Room

 

AGENDA:

  • CalFresh Intern hiring update
  • Hot meals in the kitchen planning
  • Basic Needs screens on student portal
  • Schedule of Events:
  1. CalFresh Training, Jan. 31
  2. CalFresh Outreach Day, Feb. 27
  3. CalFresh Outreach CHC Subcontractor Summit, March 5 (Sacramento)
  4. CalFresh Forum: Calif. Food Policy Advocates, March 6, (Sacramento)

 

Members Present:

Toni Borrachia
Erik Dickson
Jesus Garcia Valdez
Allison Goodwin (via ZOOM)
Sue Hardisty
Stacy Heldman-Holguin
Nancy Keller
Gabriela Morin
Stacey Murray
Talena Sanders
Karen Vilma Cortez

CalFresh Intern Hiring Update

We expect to receive funding for 2 interns. 2 applicants came to the Calfresh Training last week. A case manager (still to be hired) will work out of Student Health Center and will oversee the 2 CalFresh interns and outreach efforts.

We have a set of ballrooms set aside for CalFresh pre-screening and applications and verification for CalFresh Outreach Day on Feb. 27.

What would be good resources to have in the room? The county partners have provided some good ideas but these were not shared with the group.

Hot meals in the kitchen planning

  • Payment plan
  • Qualifications
  • Distribution plan
  • Trainer lunch
  • Soup-er Program

Nancy: We have $5000 that will go to Student Affairs for them to establish requirements for how to provide hot meals for X # of days.

Stacy to group: What would the criteria be? Once established, and we deem a student eligible to receive X # of hot meals, we contact Casey Kelly to provide the student with the funds on their ID card (?) to allow them to go to the Kitchens for a few hot meals. This would be a temporary solution for a student experiencing a food crisis. Other campuses require full disclosure of their finances, and others just need to share their story with someone who can make the decision to give them food money. Nancy will type up criteria and back-up plan for when Casey is not here to load the funds onto the student’s ID card.

A member asked Erik about the process for approving temporary housing funds. He replied that no paperwork is required. Usually someone refers a student to them. They are asked how they got into this situation and how they plan to get out of it and what their long term plan is for housing security.

Members suggested:

  • Keep questions open-ended and decide on a case by case basis.
  • All agreed not to make students complete paperwork.
  • Process-wise, we’d refer them to the CARE team.
  • Likewise students could fill out a CARE form and self-refer. When the Basic Needs website is created in Drupal, that’s another resource for students.
  • Also provide resources to faculty because they aren’t always aware. (Talena gave example of the fires and didn’t know about available resources)
  • To swipe, we need their ID # and usually within 24 hours, Casey Kelly is able to load the funds onto the card.

Other resources during Lobo Pantry off-hours are NOAH, Redwood Food Bank.

SOUP-ER:

Erik: JUMP goes to Culinary Services and picks up leftover food which is repackaged for St. Vincent de Paul for their food program. They are looking to revise program to repackage food for students. This happens twice a week, could provide 15-30 meals/week. We have to figure out the logistics to make this happen.  (food permit, refrigeration, how to get packaging containers back, how to clean them, etc.) The Kitchens is the main source of leftover food. 

We do have funding to purchase a refrigerator to put in the Pantry but we need to get a permit.

Basic Needs screens on student portal

A screen pops up on the MySSU student portal asking if they’ve heard about CalFresh. If a student clicks the button, we can then pull information that they are interested in learning more about CalFresh. Some campuses redirect them to their campus website but right now it goes to Calstate Basic Needs Initiative website. Then students click on their campus and eventually they get to their campus Basic Needs site. We can put a bounce message in there to direct our students to wherever we want them to go.

Or for active programming, such as the Feb. 27 Calfresh Outreach Day we can pull out the info and then we can see if they are the population that might be eligible.  CSAC sends letters to students who get Cal Grant A or B that that are prequalified for CalFresh. In advance of Feb. 27, we can call Financial Aid and get a list of Cal Grant A and B students to invite to the event. Good event for students to volunteer at.

Schedule of Events:

  • CalFresh Training, Jan. 31
    • Chico is one of the five major contractors in the state of California and they are providing grant funding and training to SSU to be a subcontractor for the CalFresh program. Their training team gave an all-day training on Jan. 31 on campus. The goal of the grant is to increase pre-screenings and applications for CalFresh. Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB) does this in Lobo Pantry, and Petaluma Health Center (PHC) provides application assistance to EOP students. We are partnering with the Rohnert Park campus of PHC and the REFB to share resources to meet grants requirements for each entity.
  • CalFresh Outreach Day, Feb. 27, 11a-2p
    • We will have 8 tables for on and off campus resources for students who are lacking basic needs. We will also be tabling on the plaza to encourage people to come in and sign up for CalFresh. We will prescreen them for eligibility, help them fill out the application and collect documentation. County staff will be there to interview and determine eligibility.

IDEAS TO PROMOTE:

  • Bring flyers to CAASE (which includes EOP, DREAM Center, Puerta Centro, Seawolf Scholars and Students for Success) meeting so advisors could have them for their students to promote the event and inform about the CalFresh program. Erik will attend the CAASE staff meeting to share information about this event.
  • Have a preliminary eligibility cheat-sheet available.
  • Culinary Services will provide a case of oranges.
  • Could have a pop-up pantry on the 27th.
  • Mo and Casey Kelly can promote on Seawolf Living
  • FLC classes – could have one of the interns come to a class and talk about Calfresh and Feb. 27 though most first year freshman probably won’t qualify since they are on a mandatory meal plan. SYRCE (under Alvin) is Second Year Research and Creative Experience
  • Also, include Transfer and Transitions Center and Military Veteran Program
  • Erik will ask MAC team to help create a flyer for the Feb. 27 CalFresh Outreach Day.
  • Erik has 10 laptops we could use, and a printer.
  • Toni will bring first aid kits.
  • Nancy may be able to bring fruit.
  •  
    • CalFresh Outreach CHC Subcontractor Summit, March 5 (Sacramento)

Who shall the committee send to this?

  • CalFresh Forum: Calif. Food Policy Advocates, March 6, (Sacramento)

Who shall the committee send to this?

Members will consider and get back to Stacy.