Great Plains Food Bank : Our Partners : Partner Agency Resource Center

COVID-19 UPDATES

Funding Opportunities

The No Kid Hungry/Share our Strength Campaign is offering emergency grants to school districts and community organizations to ensure that all children have access to adequate nutrition. Interested districts or agencies must submit an Emergency Grant Request Form. https://www.nokidhungry.org/coronavirus-grant-request

Otto Bremer Community Benefit Financial Company Emergency Fund - “In response to COVID-19, the Otto Bremer Trust (OBT) has established a $50 million emergency fund through its Community Benefit Financial Company (CBFC) subsidiary to provide financial support to Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Montana nonprofits and other community organizations impacted by and responding to the pandemic. The fund will provide resources in the form of short-term loans, lines of credit, and emergency grants.” Full details at: https://ottobremer.org/emergency-fund/

Northwest North Dakota Community Foundation (NWNDCF) Relief Fund (For the counties of Williams, Divide, McKenzie, and Mountrail) a fund created to support residents in need through our partner nonprofit and community organizations. The Relief Fund cannot award grants to individuals. Grants will only be awarded to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations; units of government, such as cities or counties; religious organizations - only for non-religious purposes; and other community and volunteer groups. Immediate needs that we will currently support include: Access to Food; Human Services Sector Support; Healthcare Sector Support; Organizations Supporting Individuals and Families to Self-Quarantine

Great Plains Food Bank General Updates:

GPFB will continue to provide general order and delivery schedules with our feeding network. GPFB will also continue regularly scheduled Mobile Food Pantries and Pop-Up Perishables with proactive guidelines in place to protect the health and well- being of staff, volunteers and clients.
The Great Plains Food Bank is committed to increased efforts toward safety and sanitation. This includes limiting volunteers groups to 10 or less. GPFB will be continuing orders and deliveries as scheduled, but will be limiting some items to ensure they are available to partners across the service area. GPFB is also continuing Mobile Food Pantries.
At this time, GPFB is not allowing additional orders outside of your order time. With the uncertainty of the virus, we are being cautious to ensure we maintain product for all partners should there be disruptions in the supply chains. We have purchased additional food that is available on the order guide.
ND TEFAP – we have obtained a signature waiver for North Dakota TEFAP. During the pandemic situation, you do not need to collect signatures from clients. MN TEFAP partners, please reach out to Anna if you have any questions. Information was sent separately to you on changes to the program.
We will be hosting a call every Wednesday at 4:00 for the foreseeable future.

SNAP: If you are looking for more ways to help people access food during this difficult time, connect them to SNAP! SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program, is the nation’s largest federal nutritional assistance program. It assists single people and families with little or no income to buy food. Our SNAP Outreach Coordinators will help them through the application process. Many people who have not accessed food assistance before are coming to pantry’s for help and might not be aware of where to go for additional assistance. Please consider adding the flyer attached below to the boxes you are prepacking or handing it out to those coming to your sites!

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Flyer

Food Pantry Updates:

Have a backup plan for when employees and volunteers are sick. It’s good to have a plan for when your regular volunteers aren’t available because they are either sick, in an at risk population, or are self-quarantining at home
Consider appointment-based systems or be on-call for emergencies only to minimize the number of people in the pantry or waiting area.
Pre-pack food boxes to distribute instead of having clients walk around the pantry to choose their items. This will decrease the amount of time volunteers, staff, and clients are coming into contact with each other.
There is lots of food available, use it! We have a lot of TEFAP available, so think about ways to order and distribute more food. Help the individuals and families you serve prepare to be isolated by giving out extra supplies now so they have to go out less often for supplies.
If you change your hours, post the change on your social media profiles, put posters around town and on your pantry door, update your voicemail message, and let your Regional Service Manager know.

Congregate Feeding Sites: Many feeding sites have chosen to go to delivery or take out methods. Please contact your Regional Service Manager if you have questions or concerns.

Retail Rescue: The GPFB is continuing all Retail Food Rescue pickups at this time. We encourage those of you that do food rescue to do the same as you are able. Please use caution and best practices as advised by CDC and health department on sanitizing/washing hands, using gloves, and maintaining safe distances. Agencies that pick up at retailers on behalf of the GPFB, please keep us updating on changes you are seeing at the stores. If you are unable to do pickups, please let your retail partner know as soon as possible, and let us know as well and we can see if another partner in your community is able to pick up.

Donations: Per Feeding America, we are accepting food donations as we normally do. Feeding America has not placed any restrictions on food donations or that we need to hold food for a holding period at all.

Resources:

Below are flyers from the CDC and NDDH on ways to stop the spread of COVID-19. We recommend printing and hanging in public spaces.
Use trusted sources information and guidance:
- Centers for Disease Control (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
- North Dakota Department of Health (NDDH): https://www.health.nd.gov/diseases-conditions/coronavirus
- Minnesota Department of Health (MDH): https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html

Nancy Carriveau - (701) 476-9126 ncarriveau@greatplainsfoodbank.org (Program Director)

Anna Johnson – (701) 361-1004 ajohnson@greatplainsfoodbank.org (Eastern N.D.)
Rachel Monge – (701) 390-2513 rmonge@greatplainsfoodbank.org (Western N.D.)

2020 Partner Agency Calendar

Click to view and print the partner agency delivery calendar for 2020.

Food Bank Announcements

2020 ORDER AND DELIVERY CALENDAR -- Delivery dates reflect the week the deliveries will START, it does not mean you are getting your delivery on Sunday. We know that many of you are typically used to getting your delivery on the same date, but we want to let you know that as we grow and bring on new partners, that may affect the typical day you are delivered to as we will have to make changes to current routes.
Click HERE to download GPFB Holiday Schedule.
Milk Crates – if you have received TEFAP milk in crates they will need to be returned to the Great Plains Food Bank. Please return with your next delivery or per other arrangements made with your Regional Services Manager.
WELCOME into the network Garrison Area Resource Center & Food Pantry, Selfridge Assembly of God, Bismarck Emergency Food Pantry, Wanna Wota in St. Michael, Country Community Cupboard in Elgin!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PWW

Place order
- Second or Incorrect Orders: email or call John Stone, Inventory Manager at jstone@greatplainsfoodbank.org / 701-476-9124. We ask that you do NOT place a second order through PWW. Please note the product number and quantity of items needed or missed.
Enter statistics
- NEW for 2020! Voucher Reporting - To better capture the great work our partners are doing community by community, we are asking you to report on voucher programs in partnership with local grocery stores. Currently these innovative partnerships to connect families with fresh and perishable food is not being captured, and we feel it is important information in sharing the story of how together we are ending hunger. When reporting your monthly statistics, there is a line at the very bottom for reporting the dollar amount given in vouchers that month. We do not need information about who your partnership is with or what product the vouchers are for with this reporting, though we would love to hear about it to share with our network. Interested in learning more about voucher programs community partners have established with their local grocery store? Contact your Regional Service Manager to learn more!
Enter Retail Food Rescue receipts
- Preferred weekly
Access invoices and statements
- Under My Docs Tab

Recalled Item Log

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Partner Agency Resources

Sample Documents

Food pantry intake form

N.D. TEFAP

Minn. TEFAP

Hunger Solutions Minnesota partners with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Minnesota Department of Human Services-Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), food banks and food pantries to administer Minnesota’s TEFAP program.

Click here to find resources and forms.