Second Harvest of East Tennessee trying to work through a few issues as it prepares to take over the food commodity program in Cumberland and Fentress County.
Executive Director and CEO Elaine Streno said the last few months have consisted of working with the local human resources agencies to learn about each county. Streno said the working relationship has been good, but far from seamless.
“The speed of [the transition] I think really took people, it took all of us a little getting used to,” Streno said. “We’re not used to the government working on that kind of mode for a lack of better words.”
Streno said there is little concern about tracking who is eligible to get food. Streno said Second Harvest has received a grant for iPads that help track that information. Since the commodities come from the USDA, records of where the food goes must be kept.
Streno said she favors the transition because of the expanded offerings. It will also prevent regional human resource agencies from finding and renting warehouse space that Second Harvest already has.
Though the changes are impactful, Streno said Second Harvest feels ready for the October transition date.
“I think a lot of people with the change, we’ve been getting a calls a lot,” Streno said. “‘Where am I going to get my food from,’ and all of that. And we are set up, we’re all aligned in feeding the hungry in 95 counties in the state of Tennessee. But we do it differently, so this has impacted different companies in different ways.”
Second Harvest of East Tennessee will provide food for 18 counties, including Cumberland and Fentress. Van Buren County will be serviced by a Chattanooga-area bank, and the other Upper Cumberland counties will receive their commodities from Second Harvest of Middle Tennessee.
Streno said Second Harvest is doing everything it can to ease people’s fears about the change, especially those in rural counties. Streno said the food bank will promote distribution events and try to have them on the same dates and times they were previously held.
“Rural counties are a special challenge for all food banks because they’re harder to get to,” Streno said. “Fentress for sure. And not as many agencies because the population is so rural. But we are doing our best to let the county know when we’re going to be there and what we’re going to have.”
Streno said there will be more food brought to their distributions. Streno said Second Harvest will be able to bring more perishable items, whereas the HRAs can not. Streno said there are still food pantries in every county.
The change happens October 1.