News From the Network

Hats off to SVDP Emergency Food Center who Recently Converted to a Client Choice Pantry!

After many years of offering pre-bagged food to their clients, the SVDP Emergency Food Center staff converted to client choice.

The group attended one of the Food Bank's workshops on making the move to convert to client choice, visited another member agency partner who recently made the conversion, and this past month made the change to choice themselves.

Congratulations to Richard Bianco and his entire staff of volunteers who continue to meet the food needs in their community!

RI Center Assisting those in Need Opens The Community Shoppe

The Rhode Island Center Assisting those in Need (RICAN), a Food Bank member agency located in Charlestown, provides emergency social services to at-risk individuals and families throughout Washington County. However, their programs focus not only on assisting people at times of crisis, but also helping folks move toward sustainable stability - specifically, through securing gainful employment.

The group's latest effort to promote self-sufficiency is through a special purpose business venture, The Community Shoppe, a thrift and antiques store that will offer supportive training and employment opportunities while generating revenue to support the organization's assistance efforts.

This project will offer training for job opportunities most available in their local suburban community, including clerking, bookkeeping and customer service. It is the hope of RICAN that offering on-the-job training, education through real-life experiences along with motivation through peer support, working with people from similar situations, will lead to empowerment and stable employment - thereby breaking the cycle of poverty!

For more information about RICAN, and The Community Shoppe, please visit their website by clicking here.

New Group Home Food Center Conversions!

Over the past several months we have been working to help our group homes stretch their food dollars when using the Food Bank. The GHFC model consolidates individual homes into one central food center, saving almost 50% on shared maintenance fees and allowing for more bulk buying power.

Congratulations to the following agencies for working to convert over 35 homes into 7 new GHFCs: Looking Upwards Inc., Refocus Inc., West Bay Residential Services Inc., Family Service of Rhode Island, and Riverwood Rehabilitation Services. (Pictured: Matt Tirrell of the West Bay Residential Group Home Food Center in Warwick.)