United Way of Tompkins County Affiliate Member Organization

NUTRITION FOR THE ELDERLY

IN TOMPKINS COUNTY

FOODNET

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

October 7, 2003

Gertrude Armbruster, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m., as we tasted Chocolate Zucchini Bars developed by Intern Allison Parker.

Present: Board Members: Gertrude Armbruster, Loren Colbert, Kay Friedlander, Anna Holmberg, Marian Kira, Liz Norton, Mary George Opperman, Carolyn Peterson, Elaine Saunders and William Tomek. Staff:  Stephen Griffin, Allison Parker.

Excused: Board Members: Bob Baker, Chris Decker, Keefe Gorman, and Helene Rosenblatt. Staff:  Carolyn Arnold.

Changes to the Agenda: none.

Minutes of September 11, 2003: Motion to approve the minutes as written. Motion made by Liz Norton, seconded by Loren Colbert. Passed.

Reports of Committees:

Finance Committee:  Steve Griffin gave the balance sheet and income statements current as of September 30.

2004 budget: Steve Griffin reported on the 2004 budget. Comments are needed at one of the public meetings listed on a handout provided to those present. It was suggested that Bonnie Barber might speak about the value of our services, and that we could find some others through the congregate meal sites and from the home delivered meal routes. The handout includes the legislators' addresses, phone numbers and email addresses to help people make contact in a way that is most convenient for the individual.

There will be three special meetings for the public to speak to the county board about the budget:

·          Tuesday, October 28, 7pm Budget Presentation at Boynton Middle School

·          Monday, November 10, 7pm Public Hearing at Boynton Middle School

·          Tuesday, November 18, 5:30pm privilege of the floor at county board meeting followed by adoption of the budget.

Program Education and Personnel Committee: Kay Friedlander reported that the committee met on September 24.

·        Foodnet was not accepted for the Small Business Management Workshop.

·        The Towns of Groton, Lansing and Ulysses have promised new revenues for 2004. We need to wait until November for these to be confirmed. The Ithaca Housing Authority gave $1000 for Titus Towers. The one-day a week service by Foodnet at the Salvation Army will be ended at the end of December because of the budget cuts.

·        All 480 of our Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons have been distributed.

·        The insert in the Ithaca Journal was very well received. We gat some volunteers and clients from it all ready. It was funded by a grant from the Park Foundation and the layout was done by CBORD. It was good outreach.

·        We are designing custom printed lids for the hot home delivered meals, with the Foodnet logo and a place for a stick-on label for the client's name. Applying for a grant to cover the cost.

·        Jon Carlton is training on the Access database program, which we plan to use for the fund raising database and to run the labels for the new lids.

·        The Titus Towers connector between buildings 1 and 2 has been demolished and a new facility is being built. Our deliveries at Titus Towers are complicated by that situation.

·        Quilters Corner is sponsoring a contest to win a sewing machine. You enter by sewing a placemat. Their goal is to have 500 placemats made, so there will be one to give to each Foodnet participant for Thanksgiving.

·        Emergency preparedness with the wider community. Need for a generator to protect our food supplies in case of a prolonged power outage.

·        Allison Parker is doing a research project with Ed Frongillo as part of her internship.

·        A young man named Stavros, who is George Bantuvanis (a former chair of the Foodnet board) nephew from Greece, has visited Foodnet. He is at Ithaca College and working on a project on organizational mission and assessment of how training and communications support the mission.

·        We still have an employee who is out on disability for a medical reason unrelated to a light duty assignment with medical benefits under workers comp due to a minor injury. We need to follow policy on continuation/ discontinuation of benefits.

The next PEP committee meeting will be on October 15 at 4pm at Foodnet.

Buildings and Property: no report

Publicity and Public Relations: no report.

Nominating Committee: Kay Friedlander nominated Jean Blanchard for board membership. Jean will bring good financial skills to the board. She is the branch manager of Charter One Bank at Tops Plaza and is involved in the Breast Cancer Walk, the United Way, and Adopt-a-Family. Her husband is employed at AES Cayuga. Jean learned about Foodnet through a donation event at the bank, where there was some confusion over the difference between Foodnet and the Food Distribution Network of Tompkins County (runs food pantries). The Food Distribution network got that donation, but we got Jean! As a result we also prepared a one-page guide to organizations whose name sounds like Foodnet, to help keep our identity and mission clear.

Motion: to accept the nomination and elect Jean Blanchard as a member of the Foodnet Board of Directors, filling the unexpired term of Lawrence Williams. Motion made by Kay Friedlander, seconded by Marian Kira. Passed unanimously.

Development Committee: Steve Griffin reported for Keefe Gorman who was unable to attend this meeting. The total of gifts and pledges for the annual fund is $44,167.84 which includes $2,384 raised at the Wheel-a-thon. Last year we raised $1,828 at the Wheel-a-thon, so we made an improvement, but we had hoped for a better turnout. The development committee will meet on Monday, October 20 at 4:30pm at Merrill Lynch to evaluate the Wheel-a-thon and begin planning for next year's event. We will also re-focus on individual contacts and grant writing for the 2003 annual fund. Steve has submitted the application to Share Our Strength to be part of the 2004 Taste of the Nation, spoke at the Lansing Lions meeting, submitted a request to the Wiggans fund and is working on additional grant applications.

Executive Committee: Gertrude Armbruster reported that she attended the annual training meeting of the southern tier chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). There were some talented people from Cornell development providing training on how to raise money. Ann Colts from the United Way was glad to see Gertrude there representing Foodnet. Gertrude will be attending the national meeting of the American Dietetic Association in San Antonio later this month.

Dietetic Intern: Allison Parker, Cornell Dietetic Intern gave this report.

Joe Fort, Foodnet Food Service Operations Manager, attended a two-day ServSafe training at Cornell Cooperative Extension, to become a certified Food Production Manager.  He scored 98% on the exam, qualifying him to become a ServSafe Trainer.  The NYS Dept. of Health recommends certification of at least one person at every food service establishment, and may soon require it.

Carolyn Arnold, Foodnet Dietitian, and I represented Foodnet at the Senior Citizens Center Health Fair in September.  We provided copies of nutrition education materials and pamphlets about Foodnet, along with a display of information and a computer slide show.

Last week, I attended a free one-day SYSCO conference on Healthcare Food Service in Syracuse, and a two-day Northeast Regional Obesity Symposium in Rochester (where I assisted with registration and talked with Anne Fletcher, R.D., one of the presenters and a well-known author and researcher).  This week I will accompany Steve and Carolyn to the two-day joint conference of the Aging Services Dietitians of New York State, the New York State Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs, the New York State Coalition for the Aging, and the New York State Chapter of the Meals on Wheels Association of America.  I applied for and received a scholarship to cover my registration fee for this conference.

Today I began conducting home visits to interview new clients about the impact of Foodnet services on their lives, as part of an ongoing research project with Cornell Professor Ed Frongillo.  The Chocolate Zucchini Bars provided tonight, my recipe development project, will be on the menu in November.  Next week I am doing staff training on sanitation with the site managers, and nutrition education at the sites.

The Foodnet luncheon for the Senior Fair at the Southside Community Center is on October 20.  It will operate as a one-day-only nutrition site, with Joe as the manager.

The Lansing Older Adult Program Newsletter for September 2003 included Carolyn’s September nutrition education article, Unplanned Weight Loss: Causes and Solutions (with her permission). 

Executive Director: Steve Griffin asked board members to sign a photo release and have their pictures taken for Foodnet publicity and outreach. He distributed an updated Foodnet fact sheet with our wish list and basic fund raising needs. He encouraged board members to attend the County Office for Aging Senior Fair and Public hearing to be held at the South Side Community Center on Monday, October 20.

Old Business: none

New Business: none

Next Meeting: The next meetings will be on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at 7:00 pm. and Tuesday, December 16, 2003 at 7:00pm. Some of the board members' schedules will be different in 2004 and we will need to find a time that fits our schedules.

Meeting adjourned: Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Stephen Griffin

Secretary Pro-tem

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Last modified: October 31, 2008