Nonprofits rein in logistics of feeding thousands during holiday season
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During three months — October, November and December — more than 11 million pounds of food will be distributed by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank to over 800 food pantries and shelters in a six-county area.
That's a lot of yams going from the nonprofit food bank's East 152nd Street headquarters in Cleveland — and mash potatoes, and pies and turkeys (7,000 of those, to be exact).
Across town at the St. Augustine Hunger Center in Tremont, organizers are preparing for the Thanksgiving Day serving and distribution of 14,000 meals. About 5,000 of those meals will be served in the center's small, basement hall, and the rest will be sent out through 28 different agencies.
Both of these endeavors — which serve the estimated 1 in 8 people in Northeast Ohio who turn to hunger centers for assistance — require planning and in some cases specialized computer programs to keep the assistance flowing in an organized and efficient manner.
The numbers are daunting. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank expects to prepare 53 million meals in 2016, with officials hoping to increase that number to 58 million meals annually by 2018.
"In October, November and December, our kitchen prepares (and distributes), on average, the equivalent of 5,000 meals a day to hot-meal agencies," said Karen Pozna, director of corporate and public relations for the food bank.
The food bank is housed in a 120,000-square-foot facility filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves and dozens of beeping front loaders, plus a fleet of 14 trucks. Upward of 16,000 volunteers donate 72,000 work hours per year, and hundreds of visitors flock to the free-food store every weekday.
That's a lot of activity to coordinate. That's where food bank vice president of operations Dwayne Brake comes in. Tall with a ready and warm handshake, Brake is the calm in the storm. And his system would make any large business hum a happy tune.
"Technology is allowing us to be extremely efficient," said Brake, who has worked at the food bank for seven years.
In particular, he said, the food bank uses a routing software called Appian Route Optimization for Delivery Fleets. With the food bank's truck fleet making 31,000 stops a year to deliver food, agencies place their orders electronically and the software works out a specific route map for each truck and each delivery.
"We used to have to type in the orders," said Drake. "This system automatically imports it."
In the warehouse, Drake also supervises a computer system that tracks inventory, including government-supplied items (monthly), purchased items and donated items (bimonthly).
"This satisfies the (legal) requirements for inventory, so we do not need to shut down once a year to do a manual inventory," said Brake.
Another business-minded move that has saved the food bank time and money year-round and is especially vital during the holiday season is the use of software called Voxware. This program enables headset-wearing workers using the front loaders to efficiently fill orders in a systematic, organized way, aisle by aisle.
"This system ensures that the heavier, bigger items are on the bottom, working up to the smaller, lighter items," he said.
The food bank also is constantly evaluating its processes.
"Once a month, we participate in a nationwide conference call with food banks similar in size," said Brake. "There are about 20 of us from such cities as Oklahoma City, Kansas City, New York City, Houston and Santa Clara, Calif. We are always looking for ways to improve and be more efficient."
The old-fashioned way
Across town, at the nonprofit St. Augustine Hunger Center on West 14th Street, Sister Corita Ambro and her brother, retired industrial engineer Bob Ambro, sat in the nearly empty dining area. While a smaller operation, the hunger center deals with the same logistical problems as the food bank — how to efficiently distribute thousands of meals a year.
Both laughed when asked if they used a computerized organizational system.
"Oh no," said Bob Ambro. "This is my system."
Saying that, he pulled out a pink binder and flipped it open. Inside, in neat order, were spreadsheets listing in detail what is needed for Christmas Day, when 9,000 meals will go to 28 shelters and centers across Northeast Ohio and 5,000 meals will be served at St. Augustine.
Ambro calls on what he learned as an industrial engineer with the Lithonia Lighting Co. in California to help organize the food distribution.
"This is my 13th holiday here. And I thought I was going to retire," he added, laughing.
"Everything I did working as an engineer, I use in organizing these meals," he said. "It's all the same principles. I helped build a plant for Lithonia in California. I had a year and a half to do that. Here, everything happens on one day."
As Thanksgiving Day preparations kick into high gear, food pantries big and small across Northeast Ohio are getting ready to serve those in-need.
And after that? Well, there's always Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Easter and, well, even the summer school holiday.
"That's another really busy time for us," said Pozna of the food bank. "We have a lot of children who, when they do not have access to a hot lunch at school, may do without."
Whether it be a computer inventory and routing system or a good old pen-and-paper spreadsheet, the job is getting done — for the good of all.
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