Before I continue listing what is wrong at Project Angel Food, I want to acknowledge what they are doing right:
Increasing their clientele (currently 2,500 pr day*)
Expanding their meal plans to include other critical illnesses (currently 13 tailored meals*)
Continuing to reach large audiences & have large connections
Implementing safety precautions like enforcing food handler training for all staff
Continuing to have thousands of volunteers per year and retaining those same volunteers
Creating an employee committee to address employee concerns
Increasing technology to better handle routes and clients
*Stats from Projects Angel Food
With any progress comes transitions, bumps, and curveballs. These issues are nothing new. The problem lies in how they are being addressed-which is either not at all or a little too late. With increasing numbers comes increased work. As mentioned in previous posts, PAF has practically tripled their employee count since before COVID hit. This has helped with the influx of clients that happened during the same time. I recently spoke with a Client Services worker who noted that there used to be only four staff members in their department compared to the current seven. We estimated that each client services worker has about one hundred+ clients. I asked, “Is this doable?” They responded, “We’re doing it.”
As someone on the frontlines (so to speak), there is a major difference between “doable” and “doing it.” In a classroom setting it’s a good practice to have ten kids per teacher. In case management, the max is about fifty but more reasonable thirty. Having over a hundred clients per staff member means things fall through the cracks. On numerous occasions, I and other drivers have experienced unresponsiveness from CS when needing to reach a client due to an issue. Notes from drivers regarding gate codes, parking, or cancellations that CS is in charge of get delayed sometimes for weeks or worse never added. There have even unfortunately been clients who have moved or deceased and are still on our routes. CS does what it can, but what we need is more staff to meet the mark we’re missing. Doable means logical. Doing it means pushing past our limits.
The increase in meal plans has packed our freezers to the brim so much so that we’ve had to permanently install a trailer freezer in the parking lot which limits the already small number of parking spots. Our expansion/building project has already had its “groundbreaking ceremony” but we probably won’t see actual groundbreaking until summer 2024 or so. This will mean taking over the buildings/businesses next door (the same place that just redid their parking lot a month ago). I had suggested we look into the vacant building a few blocks up Vine which already had the building and parking space we needed, but I’m not sure as to why that was declined or if it was even researched.
Increased meals also have meant more products that we now depend on-like cottage cheese, almond milk, and greek yogurt. Just like the problems we already had with the fruit, sometimes the items shipped aren’t up to our standards and have to be returned or simply arrive late. I understand this is a supplier issue, not ours. However, just like the problems we have with our vans-we CAN NOT depend on one source. We need multiple sources for when the first is unavailable. In the long list of funders we have and the powerful members supporting us, I would suggest partnering with grocery stores and mechanics. Continuous changes and substitutions in our food supply more often than not cause confusion among coworkers. Never has there been an all-staff meeting in Dispatch to show how to pack our special breakfast bags. Instead, we rely on sheets of paper with multiple and continuous edits. Soon only one or two staff members only know how these things are supposed to go while the rest of us are in the dark and then they get angry when others aren’t helping. Managers expect coworkers to teach others along with the volunteers, but the issue is that not everyone is a good teacher and even if they are, arguments arise on who is right-her way or his way? In addition to these directed meetings from managers, I suggest a large whiteboard with the lists and labels on shelves.
Working with vulnerable clientele means we must have work conditions that are higher than most businesses/organizations. Our new Dispatch manager has incorporated that in addition to the face masks we continue to wear in the kitchen, Dispatch should also mimic their dress code of hair nets and gloves. This seems like a wise choice; safety is better than sorry, correct? Food Safety requires these items when working with open or ready-to-eat food. The difference between the kitchen and Dispatch is just that-we work with frozen meals and packaged items, placing them into bags to go back into the freezers for the next day’s delivery. Does it really make sense for someone working in a freezer all day to have to wear a hair/beard net and gloves? It seems more like a waste of our resources than being cautious. There are even talks of a uniform which shouldn’t surprise anyone in the workforce. Personally, I take the stand I did when my high school had the same debate. Uniforms take away individuality and are not economical. If the reason for a uniform is to easily identify who is a staff member versus a volunteer, I have suggested that we have name tags with our pronouns. Earlier this year name tags with our pictures were given, but only to a few people and then it stopped. Again, not sure why?
Technology has significantly gotten better since I began but is still behind. It’s been a year now since we’ve implemented driver cellphones (yes, before we used our personal cell phones) with a client delivery app. This (in addition to the phone holders we finally received with them) has helped in many ways. Our hope is to keep lessening our paper usage, which is wonderful. The complaints from many drivers have been that the app is too clouded with information we don’t need, in a format that doesn’t make sense, and has problems with GPS-leading to an approximate location as opposed to a direct one. I and several drivers have transitioned from Amazon and admit that their delivery app is the one thing they do excellently-it’s sleek, simple, and to the point with the information needed for drivers. Our app has cost a lot of money according to higher-ups. My question is must we stay with it? What was the research that went into what apps are out there? Why couldn’t we again partner with a tech company? PAF doesn’t even have a tech department. It wasn’t until a Dispatch meeting that one coworker spoke up saying they loved working with technology and were willing to help with this app/routing. This was of course after two staff members had quit from the frustrations.
I was invited to join the Committee Staff from HR. They said, “You have great ideas. We need people like you who will bring these things to our attention and bring changes. Now it’s not to make your job easier but to benefit everybody.”
This is why I write. To benefit the body that is called PAF.
