Manna AGM 2016 – President’s Remarks

Remarks by Sam Robinson, President of the Manna Food Bank at the AGM
-December 19, 2016

This has been another busy year at Manna Food Bank; one with much change. As always we are dependent on our many dedicated volunteers and this year a great deal was asked of them.

Early in the year our Landlord requested that we relocate to another Unit within the facility. The timing was such that the move happened over the Easter weekend and we were able to commence the move at the close of business one Tuesday and be available to our clients the following Tuesday so there was no gap in the service we provide. Our Volunteers, with the able assistance of the Beaver Creek Community Work Team, took care of the teardown, relocation and set-up of the shelving, furniture and inventory; no small task. The configuration of the Unit is basically the same as the previous Unit but the Teams had some orienting to do to become comfortable in the new surroundings.

A donation of a laptop computer had been made and this year Board Member, Dave Simpson, stepped forward to develop and install the appropriate software to allow our client files to be recorded electronically.

This system eliminates the need for a team of people to sit down each spring and go through each and every file to calculate the numbers of clients and details of their use of the food bank. The technical aspect of the changeover was immense but in addition Dave also trained our Interviewers on how to use the program and provided technical support during their learning curve, even preparing a manual for them to follow. Very well done and a huge thank you Dave.

The major food fundraiser for Manna is the annual Fall Food Drive that is held on the first Tuesday of October and is done in partnership with the Muskoka Old Timers Hockey Association.

Two volunteers, John Cameron and Greg Einarson, stepped up to co-ordinate the drive on behalf of Manna and liaise with Rob Fraser of the Old Timers Hockey Association. This is a huge undertaking but they built on the success of past years and we were rewarded with a record amount of food donations and substantial monetary donations.

None of this is possible without the hard work and on-going commitment of our Volunteers for which we are so very grateful.