GLOUCESTER EMERGENCY FOOD CUPBOARD: Minutes of Board Meeting, October 20, 2004

In Attendance: Jim Bogues; Don Collar; Glenda Dare; Nadia Delbani; Ann Frederking; Marjorie Gardner; Liz Hong-Farrell; Huguette Jean-François; Vivien Runnels; Marion Washington; Brian Wright

Regrets: Nadim Barsoum; Bill Bentley; Lesa Brown; Pauline McNally; Dave Prebble; Pierre Proulx; Dave Townson

• Correction to Attendance - Marion Washington was not at the last meeting
• Time of meeting should be changed to 7:30 pm

• Vivien welcomed Huguette as a new member and continued to chair meeting until Don's arrival
• Ann requested that the minutes be developed and sent to members earlier. Liz will try to get the minutes out within the week.
• Ann has not yet looked into a new computer. This will be done when time allows.
• The Garage Sale on Sept 25th was very successful.
• Ann is still looking for a data entry person. There was a candidate being trained for the position, but she was offered another job and cannot take on the data entry role.
• Contact with Muslim community - Brian will try to contact Nadia this week. It was clarified by members that the impetus for approaching this community is to encourage charitable giving to the community as a whole, and not to a specific group within the community.

Executive Director's Report
Ann provided a verbal report for the meeting. Highlights include:
• In September, there were 1933 clients served. This is a slight drop in clientele, more than likely due to the GST rebates that are out in September. Ann still believes there will be over 24,000 clients served this year.
• The Donald Street fire has had a major impact on the GEFC. The clients coming from the building before the fire made up approximately 6% of GEFC clientele. After the fire, this has risen. Residents are temporarily set up in hotels and motels but clientele are taking about half of the food they are entitled to because their hotel/motel rooms do not have refrigeration or cooking facilities. Sometimes they are 7 per room. Many of them now have coolers or bar fridges to help their situation.
• It is also possible that residents may be asked to leave the hotel/motel rooms during the Grey Cup weekend, as most of the rooms have been booked earlier. The City is aware of this issue and is looking after it.
• Residents may not be able to return home until Christmas - this will have an ongoing affect on the GEFC.
• The remainder of the City grant was received last week and the rebate from the Summer Student was also received.
• Ann has signed up GEFC for Ottawa FreeCycle. This is an Internet-based goods exchange. There is no charge for transactions.
• Forms for next year's grants are on the way. There will be one month to fill out the forms.
• The Christmas Exchange meeting was held last week. GEFC will begin to fill out referrals as per usual in November.
• Many letters have gone out in the Drop and Direct Mail Campaigns. People have been very generous. Some neighbourhoods still require volunteers to drop letters in mailboxes.

Treasurer's Report
Jim provided financial statements for the month of September and outlined the report findings. He raised the following points for discussion and decision by the Board:
• In the annual report, the contingency fund has $69,000 which has been allocated to Operations, General Expenses and Food. It was suggested that GEFC draw down on these funds to reduce the contingency. Throughout the year, some funds have been drawn.
• There will need to be a decision from the Board at year end regarding where and how much to allocate the reduction in the contingency amount. Jim recommends that the contingency should be reduced from $69,000 to $50,000.
• It is unlikely that the Operational amount will be reduced. A majority of the allocation would come from General Expenses or Food. Jim will provide the current allocations and recommendations for those allocations.
• The initial intent of the contingency was to provide for 3 months of operational expenses in case the City decided to reduce or stop providing services (such as snow removal) and/or if the City decided to charge rent, or sell the building.
• It was noted that the general impression from the City is that they are trying to do their best for those in poverty, given their limits. The City has not yet done a property reallocation. When they do decide what is surplus, it is possible that the GEFC building could be sold off. We will not know until it happens.
• Letters have been received from MC and VISA, and in the savings and chequeing accounts. Fees will be increasing. How this will affect the GEFC is unknown. Jim will bring forward the impact of higher fees once it has been determined.

Community Outreach/Fundraising
Brian provided a Community Outreach report. Highlights include:
• The Magical Village - will be held at Gloucester Centre. There is good co-operation with the shopping centre management. They want to work with us to generate help for the GEFC. At this point, help is food and money not volunteers.
• Brian will be meeting with the Ad Hoc Committee to cover issues such as security and space. He is expecting to sign a contract at the end of the week.
• Member raised a few questions around the Gloucester Centre location:
• Signage - there will be signage near Loblaw's to advertise the Village
• Security - Most of the display will be between pillars. Donation boxes can be changed to the pillars to ensure that they will not be taken. There may be a need for either more, or more diligent, volunteers.
• Other efforts by the shopping centre to make it more palatable for GEFC to be there are being discussed, including the Columbia Pictures special screening of a movie. Mall management intends a blitz of all the stores in the mall to encourage food donations. Coins from the fountain will also be given to GEFC this month.
• Brian is in discussions with Loblaws for a "Round Up" - customers would be asked at the check out to round up their bill to the nearest dollar. Those proceeds to go GEFC. It was suggested that January or February may be a good time to hold this type of event.
• Brian is also discussing with Loblaws the possibility of gaining vouchers for turkeys when food purchases reach a certain dollar amount. More details to come.
• Cumberland Hockey Food Drive was marginally successful. It was the first time this was done. Six boxes of food were collected over 1 ½ days. If it is advertised well, it can be successful. This raised a question of whether there are any information sheets that are available to provide groups with tips on how to make a food drive successful. Brian and Ann indicated that something was on the Internet and that a tip sheet could be prepared.
• Drop campaign is progressing. There are still some streets available. Brian has approached local schools to encourage student volunteers to deliver letters as part of their 40 hours of community service. No student volunteers to date. There has also not been enough interest from local churches. Don provided some suggestions for other churches to contact. About 80% of Blackburn Hamlet is done through the Knights of Columbus. They are willing to do this every year.
• Marjorie suggested that a former volunteer be contacted who usually enjoyed doing this type of work (Nora).
• The Star advertisement should be in the next paper. Brian had also sent text to Fred Sherwin. An appeal has been printed in the Star in the last 3 years. It may appear as an advertisement or a community announcement.
• Orleans Choir Fest will occur on the last Sunday of November. It was recommended that Brian touch base with the organizers, as this is a significant fundraiser for GEFC.
• Ann indicated that the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra will make their December 12th concert (at 3:00 pm at the United Church) a fundraiser for the GEFC. It was suggested that since many churches will be having their Christmas concerts soon, it may be worthwhile to target these churches as potential fundraisers
• Brian will be contacting local moving companies for their help during the Christmas food drives. Devine's should be approached again to see if they wish to participate again this year.
• The Ottawa Airport Authority also runs a fund for small charities. Brian will look into the criteria for submissions.
• Brian is also trying to contact Source for Sports for their Spring Golf Tournament. This is a major fundraiser for CHEO, but they also work with other local charities. Brian will look into getting the GEFC on their list.

Personnel Committee
No report as yet. They will be meeting with Ann in the near future to discuss the future role of the Executive Director.

• A question was raised about whether the turkey vouchers this year will remain at $20 or $25, or if the amount should be raised to help in drawing down the contingency. With the donations received to date, it would be advantageous to raise the voucher amount. Because of the Donald Street residents, GEFC is being generous with non-food items such as laundry detergent and diapers. To raise the voucher amounts would increase the total cost from $3000 to $3500.
• Motion was put forth by Glenda to allot an additional $5 per voucher for this year; seconded by Marion. All were in favour. Motion was passed.