National Association of State Community Services NASCS

COMMUNITY IMPACT
SNAP has also developed several other striking programs
that use inventive approaches to produce high impact
results. The FEED SPOKANE program was originally
created to better coordinate feeding programs for homeless
and street people in Spokane. SNAP does not provide
meals but wanted to help those that do by creating a
coalition of the providers, mostly small faith-based programs,
to coordinate their efforts and help them sustain
their programs.
As SNAP brought stakeholders together to begin the
project, an unexpected process unfolded. Other providers
of services to low-income people in the community
started to attend the community meetings. They began
to work with the food providers by helping staff the
meal programs. This not only helps the meal programs
but also brings together those potentially in need of additional
services with those who have the resources to
assist them. Because of the community meetings, local
restaurants became more aware of community needs and
began participating, offering to prepare meals and share
their food surpluses. The restaurants prepare the food
and volunteers bring the food back to the meal centers.
The restaurants are stepping up their involvement and
are working on a program to raise funds. Similar to Energy
Share, in which energy consumers can add a donation
to their monthly bill, restaurant diners would be
able to donate funds when they pay their dinner bill. Finally,
SNAP has worked with FEED SPOKANE to become
its own non-profit and has spun off the project.
VOLUME 22 NASCSP NEWSLETTER PAGE 5
AGENCY IMPACT
The FEED SPOKANE program that SNAP conducted
was coordinated by an Americorps Vista volunteer and
supported by a Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)
Innovation Grant from the Community Services Office of
the Washington Department of Community, Trade and
Economic Development. The Community Services Office
for the last three years has set aside a portion of their discretionary
funds to support program innovations. These
funds are awarded on a competitive basis to CSBG eligible
entities in the state for projects that are clearly tied to an
agency’s Community Action Plan and are new designs for
creating community change, ideally never tried before, or
at least never tried before in that community. The applications
are reviewed by a team of reviewers that include a
CAA Executive Director not applying for funds, state
CSBG staff, state staff from other low-income programs,
and hopefully in future years a representative of the lowincome
community. The program started with $45,000
being awarded to support one year projects and up to this
year a total of $100,000 has been awarded for either one
or two year projects. In addition to FEED SPOKANE,
some other examples of projects supported at least in part
with CSBG Innovation funds include:
• Coastal Community Action Program has worked with
a locally founded bank to develop a family development
based intermediary financial institution. This
family development center will provide case management
but also include financial literacy and other services
including savings accounts, check cashing and
similar services.
• Seattle Conservation Corps is a limited purpose eligible
entity and has been providing job training services
to formerly incarcerated people. They are using their
CSBG Innovation funds to reclaim buildings that are
slated for demolition. The program teaches participants
how to safely demolish a building and to reclaim
the materials for re-use.
These efforts are but a few examples of High Impact,
High Reward efforts occurring for families, communities
and agencies around the country. Below is contact information
to learn more about these projects. Please let
NASCSP know what’s happening in your state.
For more information on SNAP, contact Dan Jordan at
509-456-7106 ext. 118 or Jordan [at] snapwa [dot] org.
For more information on Washington’s CSBG Innovation
Fund program, please contact Maitri Sojourner at
360/725-2851 or Email: maitris [at] cted.wa [dot] gov.

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 10:11 am Post subject: Washington Food Coalition

RECIPES FOR SUCCESS REPORT
http://from.org/wfc4/services/RECIPES_FOR_SUCCESS.pdf