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Connecting with Your Community

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Connecting with Your Community Connecting with Your Community Community strategies to employ during the COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the way that food banks and food pantries operate and serve their communities. Need is being felt much more deeply during COVID-19 as more and more Mainers are impacted by lay-offs, furloughs, or reduced hours, and families with school-aged children who used to receive free or re- duced breakfast and/or lunch now have to supply 5-10 more meals per child per week than they did before the pandemic closed schools and daycares. These are stressful times for food insecure Mainers, and our network is seeing more and more people who have never needed assistance before. Along with the challenges presented by the pandemic are opportunities for our network of partners to raise awareness in their communities of the everpresent need for food assistance. We’ve been amazed by the creativity, dedication, and compassion of our network and delighted to hear from you how community members have stepped in with offers of help. This toolkit is designed to provide our partners with resources that can improve your outreach into your community and may help with some of the unanticipated needs your program has had since the pandemic. If you have discovered new resources, we’d love to share them with the wider network; please be in touch with GSFB! Fund, Friend, and Food-Raising To address the increased need, some grantors have created separate pools of funding dedicated to COVID-19 response activities and adjusted their grant application process and award time lines to ensure community organizations can access their awards as quickly as possible. • United Way of Maine: each United Way has created a community based COVID-19 response fund from the United Way in your area. Please visit the link below to find out how to apply for funding: https://www.unitedwaysofmaine.org/covid/. • New England Grassroots Environmental Fund: this grant is restricted to organizations with a budget of <$100k and no more than 2 full-time staff equivalents. https://grassrootsfund.org/dollars/rapid-response-funding. If you would like assistance with a grant application, please contact your Community Resource Representative. If you’ve never established a social media outlet, now is the time. Not only does social media allow you to advertise your needs, it’s where commnity members go to seek information about your hours of operation, what they may need to bring, what the operation looks like, whether you offer home delivery, etc. The more frequently you post, the better, but daily posts aren’t needed to keep your community informed. Facebook: this is a great social media channel to raise awareness on and connect with community members, especially an older audi- ence. Here are several timesaving tricks that will keep your message flowing. • Using the scheduling feature is a great way to spend a minimal amount of time posting on Facebook. You can write a few posts and schedule when they will go out over the course of the upcoming days. ALWAYS know what content you’re scheduling and be aware of what’s happening in the news. You don’t want to automatically post to publish during a time of active crisis when information can change quickly. • Sample post topics: • Thank volunteers/donors • Share resources from your pantry or other reputable websites: • State of Maine and/or the Governor’s office Fund, Friend, and Food-Raising (Continued) • Good Shepherd Food Bank • Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) • Federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Maine CDC • USDA and Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry • Cooking Matters Maine information (share posts) • Ask for help: volunteers needed, list of foods and products needed, transportation, etc. • Share recipes from community members (bonus points for using ingredients from the pantry) • Share images of (receive permission for posting): • Volunteers packing boxes • Volunteers loading cars • Day-to-day activities in the pantry • Community fundraising efforts • A list of pantry needs • Create video on the fly: • Grab a cell phone and shoot some video of: • Distributions (be aware of capturing clients’ cars/faces) • Volunteers prepping a distribution • Pickups from retailers or Good Shepherd Food Bank • Interview staff members or clients (gain permission first) • Share Cooking Matters Maine’s box tips website with your social followers. This site houses instructional videos and recipes using the ingredients found in the pre-packed boxes. https://mailchi.mp/gsfb.org/boxtips. REMEMBER TO: • Be cautious of posting any images with clients or clients’ cars. • Do not post photos of people who are not practicing social distancing/no-touch or are in a crowd. (You can use older pictures -- prior to CDC social distancing protocols -- to honor a volunteer, for example, but be clear in your post that the picture is older.) • Get permission from someone before taking their picture (written is best). Fund, Friend, and Food-Raising (continued) For Experienced Facebook Users: • Facebook Pages Manager app should be installed on mobile devices to allow for easier access and constant monitoring of engagement on your page’s posts, photos, videos, etc. • Review Insights data to ensure timely posting. Making the most of your organic reach is key, knowing when your followers are looking at your page is important to making sure your posts are being seen without putting money behind them (boosts or ads). Instagram: this platform is fantastic for sharing visual content - pictures and some text -- and connecting with a younger audience. We recommend posting here once a day if possible to keep the content fresh. • Use Facebook’s Creator Studio to schedule Instagram posts. This will help save you time and keep your message flowing. Only schedule about a week ahead of time, and stay aware of what you have publishing on what days, as well as any national or global news. • Research and create a list of hashtags. Save this list to a note on mobile devices for easy access. • Share vibrant and beautiful photos on this platform for increased engagement. • Interact with organizations like yours. Comment, double-tap, share resources, etc. • Follow hashtags that will be important to link to your posts: • #FoodPatries • #FeedingMaine (GSFB’s hashtag) • #FoodPantry • #MainersFeedingMainers • #FoodBank • #MainersHelpingMainers • #FoodInsecurity • #CookingMattersMaine • #GrowingToGive If you are an experienced Instagram user, try a link tree service to expand your offerings of information. Lnk.bio is a free service that has superb design features when paired with Canva.com (free design service) and will allow you to share multiple links with your followers. Fund, Friend, and Food-Raising (continued) Twitter: Good Shepherd Food Bank uses this platform to connect with media, both Maine and national/international. This is where you’ll find media most active. There are no limits to tweeting! We tweet, retweet, have conversations, etc. through this platform daily. Out of all the platforms, this one operates at lightning-fast speed and only needs weekly posts to look maintained. • You are limited on character space, so create an infographic, attach a photo, or add a link to create an attention-getting post. • Use the above hashtags and tag well-followed accounts for increased visibility. • Be sure your privacy settings are set to public. • Follow and interact with others, especially local media. Tweet at them or send them direct messages to supply newsworthy information about your pantry. • Tag Good Shepherd Food Bank for increased visibility and retweets. Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of managing social media? Now is the time to tap into younger members of your community who are not working or are out of school – high school or college. The good news about social media is you don’t have to be on-site every moment to manage the flow of information. Ask your current corps of volunteers for help. You can also register with Maine Ready for skilled vol- unteers – information appears on page 9 of this toolkit. Fund, Friend, and Food-Raising (continued) For those who want to contact local media outlets, contact information is below. Don’t forget your local public access channels, which many older citizens may monitor regularly: • NEWS CENTER Maine – WCSH • NEWS CENTER Maine – WLBZ Portland Phone: (207)828-6666 Bangor Phone: (207)942-4821 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] • WMTW • WABI Phone: (800)248-6397 Phone: (207)947-8321 Email: [email protected] Website: wabi.tv/about – for all contact information • WGME Phone: (207)797-9099 • WVII/Fox Bangor Email: [email protected] Phone: (207)945-6457 x3122 Email: [email protected] • Portland Press Herald Phone: (207)791-6650 or • Bangor Daily News (800)442-6036 Phone: (207)990-8175 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] • Mainebiz • WAGM Phone: (207)761-8379 Phone: (207)764-4461 Website: mainebiz.biz/staff – for all Website: wagmtv.com/station/contact – email addresses for all contact information • Lewiston Sun Journal • The County – Aroostook Republican, Phone: (207)364-8728 Houlton Pioneer Times, Email: [email protected] The Star-Herald AR Phone: (207)496-3251 • Kennebec Journal HPT Phone: (207)532-2281 Phone: (207)623-3811 SH Phone: (207)768-5431 Website: centralmaine.com/contact – Website: thecounty.me/contact-us – for for all contact information all contact information • Morning Sentinel Phone: (207)873-3341 Website: centralmaine.com/contact – for all contact information ALTERNATE WAYS TO SOURCE FOOD Sourcing food for your food pantry or meal site during COVID-19 requires new methods. The traditional food drive isn’t a viable model in the days of social distancing and the need for careful handling of donations. “Virtual food drives” - creating an online food drive with a “shopping list” and “prices” for food or meals - is one way of raising awareness and giving people a tangible way to help.
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