Hi everyone! Last week, I signed off on the blog by saying I’d take the reins for the week while my supervisor went out of town and that I wanted to focus on forging partnerships. I am thankful to report back that everything went flawlessly! We had no surprises on the food security front, so I only had to take one family to the store and make one food pantry run. Although these last few weeks passed by a little slower than my first three, we expect an influx of new arrivals toward the end of my Fellowship, which may lead to more of the infamous “chaos” weeks. This makes the partnership-building task even more critical because it will drastically boost the efficiency of food pantry runs and free up time to complete other tasks.

Luckily, Week 5 brought massive progress on this front. I secured a partnership with two local food pantries—one for weekly pick-ups and another for bi-weekly pick-ups. I also started collaborating with Ohio State University on food security and working to have thousands of dry, shelf-stable meals delivered to our office to store and give to clients when needed. These three partnerships will usher in significant change, and I am excited to see how they improve efficiency and help us get through demanding weeks more easily. More partnership-building is on the horizon, and hopefully, next week, I will have more good news to deliver!