HAND TO HAND INC

Hand to Hand, Inc. is a food pantry located in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Hand to Hand, Inc., is an approved IRS 501c3 non-profit organization, and is also registered with the Oklahoma Secretary of State as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. The Hand to Hand, Inc. Food Pantry was formed in 1989, and has been in continuous operation since that date. From 1989 through May 2015, the food pantry was located in Idabel, Oklahoma. However, in May, 1989, we lost our lease on the building in Idabel and needed to find a new location. We were offered a building, rent-free, in Haworth, Oklahoma (about 12 miles SE of Idabel). We have been located in Haworth since June 2015, but we continue to serve all of McCurtain County.

The number of people we serve each month is steadily increasing. For calendar year 2023, we served a total of 4838 families consisting of 9692 individuals. Of that total, 374 were new families who had not been served by the food pantry before. From January 1, 2024 through February 29, 2024, we have already served 920 families consisting of 1818 individuals. We are also serving more homeless applicants, and more veterans. McCurtain County is experiencing an unusual growth in tourism and building in the Hochatown area. This has created a lot of new jobs, but most of the jobs are either skilled trades; or minimum wage service industry jobs. Unfortunately, there is also not enough available, affordable rental housing to meet the demand. People are coming here to look for work, but they have no place to live. Property values have sky-rocketed, which is starting to affect local residents, especially the elderly, who are seeing their property taxes increase as land surrounding them is being bought up by out-of-state investors. All of this is contributing to increasing food insecurity in McCurtain County. During the pandemic, our county also had a high percentage of COVID cases, which also contributed to job losses and an increase in larger family sizes, as grandparents take in family members, especially grandchildren.

Hand to Hand, Inc. operates several programs:

1. TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program): TEFAP is a USDA program. The food pantry provides emergency food boxes once a month to families who need temporary emergency food and/or those families who deal with food insecurity monthly. Each family receives enough food for 3 meals a day x 3 days x the number of the people in the family. Applicants for emergency food must meet TEFAP income guidelines in order to receive USDA commodity foods. Applicants must also provide 2 pieces of ID – an Oklahoma Photo ID and a proof of Oklahoma residence. Applicants who do not meet TEFAP income or residence guidelines, or lack proper ID (primarily due to homelessness) may still receive emergency food but may not receive USDA commodity food. Current income guidelines represent 200% of the Federal Poverty guidelines. We currently serve over 300-400 families a month through the TEFAP emergency food box program. We have had tremendous growth in the number of people we serve monthly from the food pantry. Our numbers have almost doubled from January 2023 to January 2024. We are also serving more homeless applicants each month. Due to USDA regulations, we cannot serve out-of-state residents; and due to limited food supplies, we can only serve residents of McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

2. CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program): CSFP is also a USDA program. Each month Hand to Hand distributes 79 Senior Food Boxes to pre-approved senior citizens, who are over age 60, reside in McCurtain County and who meet CSFP income guidelines (currently 130% of the Federal Poverty guidelines). Each person receives a 30-lb box of non-perishable food, along with a 2-lb block of cheese. We current have 29 people on a “Wait List” for a slot in this program. It takes about a year to move up from the Wait List to the monthly recipient list for this program.

3. Mobile Food Pantry Truck: Each month Hand to Hand hosts a mobile food pantry truck from the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma (FBEO). Each family receives fresh produce, milk, non-perishable foods, and bakery products. The Food Bank only sends enough food for 100 families. However, in November 2023, we had over 180 families show up.

4. Tyson Foods Pantry Partner: In addition to the 3 primary programs, Hand to Hand is a “pantry partner” with Tyson Foods. Twice a year, Tyson Foods provides large donations of frozen chicken to Hand to Hand. We distribute the chicken to both individuals, and to other non-profit agencies, such as senior citizen’s centers, youth and women’s shelters, homeless shelters, smaller food pantries and local churches.

5. Retail Store Donations: The Hand to Hand Food Pantry receives retail store donations from the following: Walmart-Idabel; Dollar General Store-Idabel; Dollar General Store-Haworth; and Idabel Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is a “Feeding America” program in which food that would otherwise be discarded is instead donated to food pantries. The food has reached “sell by” date, but not “shelf life” date. We pick up food 5 days a week from Walmart (mostly fresh produce); and once a week from the two Dollar General Stores (mostly milk); and once a week (as available) from Idabel Kentucky Fried Chicken (primarily excess friend chicken). We are allowed to share retail donated food with local Senior Citizen's Centers.

6. Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma (FBEO): Hand to Hand, Inc. is affiliated with the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma (located in Tulsa). We order most of our monthly food products from them, including USDA commodity food. They also provide the monthly CSFP Senior Food Boxes, the monthly Mobile Food Pantry, and they oversee the Retail Store Donations Program. They provide training for our board, staff and volunteers in USDA regulations, Civil Rights compliance, safe food handling, and reporting procedures. We are monitored annually for USDA, TEFAP, CSFP, food safety and reporting compliance. They also assist us with obtaining grant funds for equipment and appliances. All pantry staff and Board members are required to obtain training in safe food handling; and civil rights compliance.

7. Referrals: The Hand to Hand Food Pantry encourages and accepts referrals from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services; local churches; counseling centers; and home health care agencies. Our goal is to never turn anyone away who is in need of emergency food; and to work with our recipients to qualify for other programs, such as the CSFP Senior Food Box program, and for SNAP benefits.

8. We also partner with the McCurtain County Health Department. Last fall, we hosted a drive-thru flu clinic. We also have a monthly Health Care Advocate who visits us monthly and provides services to the people we serve.

9. Media: Our primary media outreach includes submitting articles and photos to our local newspaper (the McCurtain Gazette). We have an active Facebook presence to keep both the public and our clients informed of program activities; to notify the public of any closures or date changes in programs; and to publicly express our gratitude to donors.

10. Hand to Hand, Inc. is in the process of expanding our facility and storage capacity. With the assistance of several grants and donations, we were able to purchase the land and building in Haworth in 2020. We were then donated an additional piece of land adjacent to the property. In 2021, we remodeled the food pantry building, including new flooring and a new roof; and then we added on a 20'x40' food storage building. We have replaced all the shelving with industrial steel shelving. With the assistance of an ARPA Grant from the McCurtain County Board of Commissions, we recently completed a major project by building a new add-on, which now houses a walk-in cooler/freezer. With assistance from a grant from the Weyerhaeuser Foundation, we now have a covered drive-through in the front of the pantry building. Future goals include a technology upgrade which is necessary because all of our reporting to both the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma and to Feeding America is now online. The technology upgrade will consist of a network file server, broadband access, 3 computers, and 3 printers. Using grant funds, we now have a generator (so we won't lose frozen and refrigerated food items in the event of a power failure); a pallet jack; and a glass door cooler for fresh produce and dairy products.

9. Payroll: Another challenge we are facing is the recent loss of the VISTA program in McCurtain County. We have 2 part-time employees who were being paid through VISTA. This program has now ended and we are now picking up their full payroll costs. Since we are located about 12 miles from Idabel, due to the rising cost of fuel, we are also now paying someone to drive to Idabel 5 days a week to pick up retail store donations. With the purchase of the land, we are now also paying someone to keep the property mowed. We depend on volunteers to work in the food pantry; assist with food distributions on Senior Food Box day and on Mobile Food Pantry day; and to assist with unloading our monthly food order from the Food Bank.

10. Volunteers: We have seen a decrease in volunteers due to COVID. All 5 of our Board members serve as volunteers. Our bookkeeper works from home as a volunteer keeping our books; preparing our monthly reports to the Food Bank and to Feeding America; preparing payroll; paying bills; keeping the Facebook page updated; and writing grants. The other 4 Board members work many hours a week as volunteers in the food pantry. We are all getting older and facing health issues and caregiver duties. But, each of the 5 Board Members see our volunteer work with Hand to Hand as a service, and we love it!

Thank you for this opportunity to explain who we are and what we do. We appreciate the support of everyone who contributes through Benevity. We are "thankful, grateful and blessed" by your support!