The first week of my fellowship at Ronald McDonald House Charities – Central Ohio is coming to a close tomorrow, and I can tell it is going to be a packed summer, full of diverse experiences, opportunities, failures, and friendships.

Working with House Chef Blair Arms, and Major Gifts Officer Andrea Biada, my role as a fellow is primarily to help improve RMHC’s meal programs. This includes applying for grants for monetary support and in-kind donations of ingredients, cultivating relationships with distributors (especially protein distributors), regularly surveying families to learn more about what they want out of RMHC’s cafeteria, and creating stewardship plans and materials for kitchen volunteers.

During my first few days, I’ve been able to experience many angles of RMHC’s operations. I’ve met with Family Services staff, who’ve described RMHC’s admission process and common experiences from families staying at the house. I’ve shadowed volunteer staff as we clean dishes or clean and prepare rooms for incoming families. I’ve joined tours of the house given to donors. I’ve sat in a development team meeting, as officers cooridinate what seems to be a never-ending calendar of special events, fundraisers, and auctions. I’ve been introduced to Raiser’s Edge, a donor management software, and learned just how difficult (yet important) it is to keep track of not just fiscal donors, but volunteers. I’ve played with the CEO Dee Ander’s immaculate house labradoodle, Henri :

Coincidentally, Blair, the House Chef, is on vacation this week, so we haven’t sat down and discussed a plan for the summer. I’ve been spending my personal work hours indexing grants, farmers, distributors, and grocers that we could pursue partnerships with, drafting charitable giving requests for major grocers (Kroger, Aldi, Walmart, Save A Lot), and creating stewardship materials for kitchen volunteers.

The staff have been immensely kind, supportive, funny, and involved. I am inspired by the ease in which they multitask and collaborate to support each other’s projects. I’ve seen staff move from studiously churning out proposals and sponsorship materials to snapping into giving last-minute tours of the house to corporate volunteers. I look forward to meeting with Blair next week, and to all the experiences I will have the pleasure of partaking in these next 9 weeks.