A. The name of the Organization shall be The Fort Washington Food Pantry (thereafter Food Pantry), operating as a ministry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Broad Creek, and Grace Lutheran Church, both located in Fort Washington, Maryland. Other churches may become associated with The Fort Washington Food Pantry, by approval of the Board.

B. The fiscal year for the Food Pantry shall begin each year on January 1 and end on the following December 31.

Article II. Purposes of the Food Pantry

The purposes of the Food Pantry shall be to operate a charitable non-profit facility which acquires and distributes food and related products to assist persons in our community to meet their nutritional needs in short-term emergency circumstances, to organize and train the group of volunteers doing that work, to hold legal possession of the assets of the Food Pantry, to raise funds and to obtain donations of services, money and in kind to support its charitable functions.

Article III. Organization of the Board of Trustees

A. There shall be a Board of Trustees which shall be composed of not more than nine and not fewer than three members. Each sponsor shall have at least one representative on the Board.

B. New members of the Board shall be nominated by the Chair of the Nominating Committee and elected by the members of the Board prior to the end of each fiscal year.

C. The term of office for a Board member shall be two years.

D. The term of office shall begin on January 1 of the year for which Board members are elected, and end on December 31 of the last year of the term.

E. The Board may, by a majority vote of the whole board, remove a member of the Board or an Officer for cause. At least two weeks notice of such a vote must be given and the member must have opportunity to defend himself in person.

Article IV. Powers and Duties of the Board of Trustees

A. The Board of Trustees (hereafter “The Board”) shall have the authority to operate and manage the business and legal affairs of the Food Pantry. The Board shall have such powers as are necessary to exercise these functions, including prudent management of money and other resources entrusted to it, provided that the powers and their exercise are not inconsistent with state and local laws of Maryland, the Articles of Organization, or these by-laws.

B. The Board shall hold title to and control of all assets of any nature owned by the Food Pantry, including financial or other personal property.

C. The Board shall develop and monitor the Operating Procedures of the Food Pantry.

Article V. Election and Duties of Officers

A. Officers of the Board shall be a Chair, [a Vice-Chair], a Secretary and a Financial Officer. {The Vice-Chair may also serve as Secretary]. The term of office shall be two years. Officers may be re-elected.

B. Chair: The Chair shall preside at all meetings of the Board. The Chair shall sign all contracts and other instruments on behalf of the Board unless otherwise directed by the Board. The Chair shall perform all other duties usually incident to the office.

C. Vice Chair: The Vice Chair shall perform the duties of the Chair in the absence or inability of the Chair to act.

D. Secretary: The Secretary shall maintain official documents including a permanent record of minutes of each Board meeting as approved by the Board and shall perform or supervise correspondence of the Food Pantry. The Secretary shall perform or supervise correspondence of the Food Pantry. The Secretary shall perform the duties of the Chair in the absence or inability of the Chair or Vice Chair to act.

E. Finance Officer/Treasurer. The Finance Officer/ Treasurer shall advise the Board on fiduciary matters, and shall oversee management of the financial and other assets of the Food Pantry, including accountability procedures for audit. The Finance Officer/Treasurer shall provide payment to persons properly authorized to receive advances or reimbursement of funds, make payments authorized by the Chair, maintain accounting records for the Food Pantry, present monthly reports to the Board, and prepare records for annual audit or review.

Article VI. Meetings

A. Meetings of the Board will be held at the call of the Chair, as necessary to conduct the business of the Food Pantry. Fifty percent of the Board members constitute a quorum at any Board meeting, and a majority of those present shall be sufficient to adopt motions and resolutions unless these by-laws provide otherwise.

B. The Board may decide to hold meetings by mail, telephone, e-mail or similar manner. Both discussions and voting may be conducted in this manner. Only one meeting per year must be held in the traditional manner where all members are physically present.

C. Meetings of the Executive Committee will be held at the call of the Chair, and will be called at the request of a member of that Committee.

D. At least one meeting of the Board shall be held annually in November/December. Election of Board Members and officers shall be held at the Annual Meeting.

Article VII. Committees

A. There shall be an Executive Committee to be composed of the Chair, the Vice Chair, the Secretary and the Financial Officer to conduct routine business of the Board.

B. Nominating Committee: The Board Chair shall appoint a Nominating Committee composed of members of the Board whose task will be to nominate candidates for vacancies which may arise on the Board.

C. Finance Committee: The Finance Officer shall chair the Finance Committee to oversee the Organization’s financial matters, including audit. The Treasurer shall be a member of the Finance Committee, and other persons may be appointed to membership by the Board.

D. Food Supply Committee: The Food Supply Committee shall manage the purchase and shelving of the food supply. This Committee shall be responsible to maintain an adequate inventory of food products to meet routine needs, to process forms as needed to request purchase funds, and to advise the Board of changes in food requirements.

E. Volunteer Management Committee: The Volunteer Management Committee shall be responsible for the training and scheduling of volunteers to interview clients and distribute food. The Committee shall oversee the maintenance of the client intake and food distribution records, and process forms as needed for receipt of food purchases and donations.

F. Other Committees: The Board may appoint additional standing or ad hoc committees as appropriate.

Article VIII. Amendments to the by-laws

The by-laws may be amended upon a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Board.

3. Description

The Fort Washington Food Pantry operates as a ministry of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Broad Creek, and Grace Lutheran Church, both located in Fort Washington, Maryland.

The mission of the Food Pantry is to do Christ’s work by helping relieve hunger among the residents in the Greater Fort Washington Community

The Fort Washington Food Pantry follows the general philosophy of Charity Food Programs That Can End Hunger in America by John M. Arnold, Executive Director, Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank of West Michigan, Inc.

Among the principles which we endeavor to follow are:

We solicit money donations rather than food, although food donations are gratefully accepted.
We obtain or purchase a wide variety of free or nearly free food from the Capital Area Food Bank and other sources as available. There are no food items that we are compelled to offer every week.
We allow clients to choose from as wide a variety of available items as possible, the items that they like and need.

The food pantry is a non-profit, 501c(3) agency operation under the tax exempt number of St. John’s Episcopal Church – 29054534.

4. Suppliers

A. Capital Area Food Bank - 645 Taylor Avenue NE, Washington, DC

A yearly membership fee of $50 allows member organizations to order and pick up food on a weekly basis. A menu is posted at www.capitalareafoodbank.org. An authorized FWFP volunteer places an order from the menu and schedules a pickup time. Food ordered is priced at 19 cents per pound regardless of food category. The telephone number is 202-526-5344; Invoice desk ext 245, Pre-order desk ext 287. To order food from the food bank, go to www.capitalareafoodbank.org and click on the word “partners”. Enter the agency number 6050-01 and the pass word “fortwas.” On the menu page, click on categories “cat” and then on “donated items.” Enter the number of each item you want and then “add to cart.” Pay careful attention to unit weight, packing, $ per unit, and available quantity. Go back to “cat” and click on “donated items” and change to “MD food grant.” Select items from that menu clicking “add to cart” after each item entered. Click on “view cart” and remove items not wanted by changing the number ordered to zero. Note weight of items ordered and delete some if you have ordered too many pounds. Click “check out and fill in the date and time of pick-up. In notes to food pantry, add reclaimed items. Click the “submit” button and then print the page to take with you to the food pantry. For additional information, click on Training Videos for Ordering Food. A total of 4 shoppers who have attended a training session at the Food Bank are authorized by the Food Bank. The shopper carries a food bank card and brings a vehicle capable of transporting the food order to the Food Bank at the appointed time. In the warehouse, hand shopping area, the shopper has 20 minutes to collect food not previously ordered – meat, dairy, cereal, juice, cans of fruit, vegetables, soup and fresh produce. Certain items collected by hand (fresh produce and dairy) are free. A delivery by the Food Bank to FWFP may be ordered when needed for an additional charge. To become an authorized shopper, a volunteer must take the course Shopping 101 taught at the food bank twice a month

Current shoppers are Barbara Livingston, Tom Hasek, Patti Horak, and Jane Hudnall

B. Mid Atlantic Gleaners – Cheltenham, MD on Hwy 301

The gleaners gather surplus produce and offer it to charities in the metro area.

● Website: http://www.midatlanticgleaningnetwork.org

● Address: P.O. Box 9871 Alexandria, VA 22304

● Phone: 703-541-9052, Fax: 301-203-9483, E-mail: magnet@vacoxmail.com.

Mid Atlantic Gleaners Maryland office is 301-370-0155; record a message and they will return your call.

Contact : Roberta Carmone Pick up: Barbara Livingston

C. Share Food Network

Share sells packages of food for a fixed price. See website www.sharedc.org for current info. An authorized FWFP volunteer may buy leftover food from the Share Warehouse on Market Day, the Monday after distribution, **Which is when??**noon – 5 PM. Ollie Johnson, the Operations Manager, supervises the donation of leftover produce and other foods to charities including the FWFP. Share is run by Catholic Charities of Washington.

Contact: Manager, Ollie Johnson - 301-864-3115, ext. 25 Pick up: Barbara Livingston

D. Friday Commercial Pickups

Panera Bread of Waldorf 2930 Festival Way, Waldorf (301) 374-2760 www.panerabread.com

Panera donates day-old bread and bagels on Fridays. The volunteer must arrive before 9:00 AM. Park your vehicle in the loading zone near the side door, request the donation at the cash register and wait while an employee brings the bread to his/her vehicle.

Contact: Manager, Angie Strong - 301-374-2760

Pick up: Donna Davidson or CassandraTate

Kentucky Fried Chicken 6510 Coventry Way Clinton · (301) 868-7978, east of MD5

The business opens at 10:30am and can give donations shortly after opening. The volunteer parks his/her vehicle at the loading dock in the rear and goes into the restaurant to tell the manager he/she is there. The manager will give the volunteer a one page report of the donation. This must be returned to FWFP, signed and faxed as indicated. Make any necessary corrections to the annotated amounts. Chicken is re-bagged at the food pantry.

Contact: ????????

Pickup: Aaron Ackley, Barbara Livingston

Safeway 990 E Swan Creek Rd, Fort Washington (301) 965-6000

Bread and pastry items from the bakery department are picked up on Thursday and Friday mornings. The volunteer calls to ask for a pickup time. The items are picked up behind the store at the delivery door. Ring the bell and ask for the Fort Washington Food Pantry donation. Wait in your car until the bread is available. Sign the donation order forms and bring one copy back to the pantry along with the food.

Contacts: Mark or Carol

Pickups: Bill Clark on Thursdays; Jane Hudnall or Irene Fisher on Fridays

E. Other Sources

Food Pantry Exchanges – donate if too many perishable items.

a. The Food Pantry at St. Mary’s Church, Piscataway distributes on Tuesday.

Contact: Roger Brown, 301-292-4452

b. The Oxon Hill Methodist Church’s Bread Ministry and Food Pantry is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 – 2.

Contact: Cindy Cobleigh 301-567-1394 acobleigh@aol.com

c. The Fort Foote Baptist Church Food Pantry is open on Wednesday Mornings at 8:30 AM, twice a month. Contact: Angela Maxey - 301-203-0008, cell -301-257-8110

d. The Accokeek Food Pantry distributes at Faith United Methodist Church on Friday mornings at 9:00 AM. Contact: Bruce or Ron, 301-292-6104

Food drives are gratefully accepted from Scouting for Food, Curves, the IRS Office, the Fourth of July and Messiah Concerts, local churches, schools and other organizations,
Individual donations

F. Proper recognition – thank you letters

Individual donors and food drive organizers get thank you letters to acknowledges the donation and describes our 501c(3) status. Many repeat donors like Share, Panera, KFC and the Gleaners get verbally thanked every time and a letter once or twice a year. Thank you letters are the responsibility of the FWFP Secretary. Checks that are mailed or hand delivered to the food pantry are recorded in a donation ledger located in the metal cabinet in the food room.

5. Food Receiving

A. Food Bank Order

The Food Bank order is placed by the designated shopper several days before the planned pickup. Volunteers are notified by e-mail of the anticipated delivery time at St John’s. The most convenient time is Wednesday mornings with delivery between 11:00 AM and 12:30 PM. Food is carried upstairs, repackaged if needed and stored in the refrigerators and on the shelves. Bags for repackaging are kept in the closet of the food storage room. Disposable plastic gloves must be worn when repackaging food. On Friday morning the distribution room is set up with six tables around the perimeter. Non-perishable items are set out on the tables. Notes are left for the Saturday team as to which perishable food from the refrigerators/freezers will be set out on Saturday morning. Cardboard boxes from the Food Bank are broken down and set aside to be returned the following week by the shopper and boxes not suitable for use by the clients are taken home for recycling.

VOLUNTEERS (*designates food shoppers)

● Barbara Livingston* 301 283-5423, 301 433-2365

● Tom* and Carol Hasek - 301-2031057

● Jim and Jane* Hudnall – 301-567-0089 cell: 301-351-2330

● Aaron* and Bonnie Ackley 301-744-8120

● Lin & Lowell Edminster- 301-567-2791

● Pat Myers – 301-292-085

● Patti Horak – 301-437-4216

● Bill Clark – 301-567-1843 cell: 240-587-1368 (1369)

B. Bread and Pastries

Bread and pastries picked up from Panera and Safeway are brought to Baine Hall on Friday mornings where volunteers sort and bag the donations. Bagging supplies are kept in the closet in the food storage room. Bread may be left on the tables in Baine Hall if the Hall is available on the following Saturday. Otherwise, the bread is placed on one of the tables in the distribution room.

SORTING VOLUNTEERS

● Mabel – 301-292-6605

● Gladys – 301-203-1917

● Donna – 301-203-339

● Lin & Lowell – 301-567-2791

● Cassandra Tate - 301-839-5920

C. Kentucky Fried Chicken

Kentucky Fried Chicken is delivered to St. John’s on Friday morning around 11:00. The chicken is repackaged by volunteers either on Friday or stored in the freezer compartment of one of the refrigerators and repackaged on Saturday morning.

VOLUNTEERS

● Aaron Ackley – 415-378-9748

● Barbara Livingston – 301-283-5423

6. Saturday Distribution

Opening the Pantry

A. On Saturday morning, volunteers should arrive by 9:00 AM. Clients remain outside until volunteers are available to supervise Bayne Hall or in the area just inside the doors. Open the food distribution room and food storage room.

B. Check list on refrigerator door to see if the interviewer can use Bayne Hall. If not, set up a card table and chairs on the upstairs landing for the interviewer. A folding table is kept in the closet in the downstairs hall. Two people are needed for the interview process: one to interview and one to distribute numbers and call clients.

C. Put eight or nine chairs from the distribution room out in the upstairs hall for clients.

D. Check the handwritten diagram on the table in the food storage room to determine which perishable items should be brought out. Load the clear plastic bins (top of the refrigerator) with the appropriate meat. Check if anything other than meat needs to be rationed (usually juice, fruit, dairy products).

E. A small bag and numbers are kept in the metal cabinet in the food storage room. Around 9:30 am, a head count of waiting clients is taken by the volunteer responsible for registration, and approximately that many numbers placed in the bag. The numbers are then handed out to determine the order by which the clients will be permitted to shop – essentially a lottery. Clients are processed through registration in the sequence of their number. New clients go through an interview process.

F. After registration, clients wait in chairs in the hall for their turn to go into the distribution room. Three clients are allowed to shop at one time. A client’s family members and/or friends are not permitted in the distribution room. Clients choose the food they need for their family. Items such as milk, meat, and juice are typically limited and this should be clearly explained. A volunteer sits behind the meat table to control the amount of items that are rationed and another volunteer is near the produce table. In addition to the volunteer at the meat table, there must always be a second volunteer in the distribution room to monitor the tables, control the flow of clients and restock the tables. If there is a third volunteer, he/she takes the number from

Welcome to Fort Washington Food Pantry Food Pantry - Fighting Hunger Together

Table of Contents

2. By-Laws

Article I. Name and Fiscal Year