November 2020

FROM THE EDITORS

Cool Days, Dark Nights, and Lots of Hygge

By Aishani Srikumar and Crystal Huang

It’s November: time to crack open your cranberry sauces and start roasting your turkeys! As the holiday season approaches, we want to continue sending warm wishes your way, starting with our November Verbatim publication. Our feature story this month deals with the very serious issue of food scarcity, which is a crisis in our community that often goes unobserved. We hope that this feature story will raise awareness for this issue in our region, and inspire the BT community to do its part to help those in need—please see the announcement for the annual NHS food drive in the Community section for more information on how BT students can help.

On a lighter note, we are also encouraging readers to embrace "hygge"—and no, we are not just making this word up. Hygge is a Danish word that emphasizes community and coziness. From sitting by the fireplace to sipping hot chocolate with family, hygge is everything you need to keep an upbeat attitude as the colder weather and shorter days start to creep in. To learn more about maintaining this festive attitude, you can read our BT voices about following hygge during these trying times, go out and enjoy the last few weeks of wonderful fall foliage, and then gather your family in the kitchen to bake some of the delicious recipes featured in our Culture section.

FEATURE

Helping Harvest: Area Agencies Fight Food Scarcity

By Audrey Klinefelter, Mia Hatcher, and Sidra Miller

Food scarcity is an issue that has worsened in our area and around the country, especially since the arrival of COVID-19. Food scarcity is a shortage of food which can be due to both economic and environmental factors. Completely Kids and Food Bank for the Heartland are two area organizations that work together to help provide children and families with food and other necessities. Representatives from these organizations generously shared their time in interviews with Verbatim students to lend insight in what the BT community can do to help address this issue.

Angie Grote, the Communications Manager at Food Bank for the Heartland, shared a new method on how to help kids, even during the pandemic, how many meals they distribute, and how they stay safe. She also discussed what the BT community can do to help. As a community, it is important for them to help in as many ways as they can. This interview gave students a brief overview of how Completely Kids and Food Bank for the Heartland are operated since the beginning of the pandemic. Not only did it educate them, but also made them aware of how they can truly help give a child a meal.

For the Food Bank for the Heartland, COVID-19 hasn’t been a cakewalk. They have had to change their ways to best support the community and serve families with food insecurity. Ms. Grote explained that in the 93 counties they serve, food insecurity has risen from 207,000 individuals to over 296,000: “When schools closed in March, the Food Bank worked quickly with community partners to deploy the Mobile BackPack program at sites across the Omaha metro to provide critical meals to at-risk children." This program ran through August and distributed over 420,000 meals to children in need. Children not having access to free and reduced meals at school was a significant focus for Food Bank for the Heartland. They partnered with local school districts and other organizations that serve children. The Food Bank’s traditional BackPack program resumed in August. They are distributing 8,400 packs of meals each week for children at 250 schools. From March 15 to September 30, 2020, Food Bank for the Heartland distributed 14,427,363 meals to children, families, and seniors in the Heartland facing hunger and 18,856,229 meals when including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This is a 72% increase over the average number of meals distributed during the same period in 2018 and 2019.

In addition to increasing demand, COVID-19 has altered the way the Food Bank operates. In order to stay safe, employees, volunteers, and visitors must wear masks. The Food Bank also altered its distribution method to a drive-up distribution to prioritize safety. Individuals and families coming to receive food can remain in their vehicles, and volunteers will load boxes of perishable and nonperishable food items directly into the vehicles.

Although the Food Bank has adapted to these new conditions, they still need help from their community. Students can help support the Food Bank’s efforts in a variety of ways. The volunteer center has remained open throughout the pandemic with masks and social distancing required. Students 10 years and older may volunteer with a parent. Students can also collect nonperishable food items or monetary donations to give to the Food Bank. In addition, they can educate themselves about the Food Bank’s operations and the organization’s impact in the community. Another way to help is by donating food. Shelf-stable items like peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, pasta, canned proteins, pancake mix, cereal, and canned fruits and vegetables are always in demand. The Food Bank has significantly increased the amount of money spent each month to purchase food to meet the skyrocketing demand. Perishable items like milk and meat are always needed but rarely donated. Fresh produce is the #1 item the Food Bank distributes.

Another Omaha service organization is Completely Kids, an after school program that educates adults, offers academic assistance, takes students on field trips, teaches cooking classes, and provides meals for kids to take home over the weekend. The BT community has partnered with Completely Kids in the past years for food drives and educational presentations. The Verbatim staff met with Chief Marketing and Development Officer Adrielle Griffin to gather some new insights to the organization. The program started in 2005, when the link between hungry kids and lack of focus on school work became more prominent in local public schools. Completely Kids now has 14 sites and partners with various OPS schools, shelters, and the Ronald McDonald House. The last day of normalcy for Completely Kids was March 13, 2020. They then went totally remote and one week later developed a food distribution plan to continue to provide for families in need. Completely Kids partnered with Foodbank for the Heartland, which provided upwards of 200 bags of food. From April through August, they packed meals for 34 families as well as serving as a pickup site for meals. With school back in session, the distribution schedule is more hectic since not all students are on campus simultaneously. All adult education classes became virtual and only a limited group of kids were allowed on site. However, these adaptations required access to transportation, technology, and internet access, further complicating the abilities to serve the community. COVID-19 also impacted the mental health of the community, with many kids having to deal with the loss of a family member or toxic home environments. The need for mental help led Completely Kids to set up a hotline that would offer emotional support and a resource for adults and kids alike.

The main method that we can contribute to this worthy cause is through donations. Monetary contributions, additional food items, hygiene and cleaning supplies, and holiday gifts are all desperately needed items. Even a few canned goods can go a long way in supporting our community. Although our empathy is heightened during a time of crisis like the present, food insecurity has always been prevalent all over the world. Through the inspiration of service programs through these tough times, we can shed some light on ways to help this cause and urge our school to take action.

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