The Harvest Food and Outreach Center, now in its 11th year, is embarking on a new message of hope through the launch of HOPE – Harvest Outreach Preparation for Employment. The program has two primary components – Work Readiness and Job Preparedness.
“Work readiness skills are more basic to becoming an employee and job preparedness skills are skills that one might need to work on to get a specific job,” explains Harvest’s executive director Annabel Robertson. “Work readiness is for people who have never held a job or who have repeatedly held jobs for a short period of time. It’s providing them the skills to hopefully retain a job; the goal is one-year job retention.”
The 12-week program includes 120 hours of classroom training and 300 of on-the-job training, much of which is done at Harvest facilities.
“Social enterprise is embedded in our structure,” explains Robertson, referencing the organization’s grocery stores, regional distribution center and thrift store. “We have the capacity to provide on-the-job training here on our campus.”
Founded in 2003 by Austin and Ginny Hunt, Harvest Food and Outreach is endeavoring to break the cycle of poverty through “hunger relief, crisis care, transformative education, and employment training opportunities.”
Harvest began with a Cost Share Grocery Program, available to individuals living under the threshold of 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines, recognizing that access to economical groceries would enable individuals to afford other necessities, such as rent, gas and medical care.
“That was originally the model that the organization was founded on; protecting the resources that the working poor have,” says Robertson.
The organization continued to evolve with the development of the Compassionate Crisis Care Program and Life Enrichment and Education Program.
Compassionate Crisis Care stabilizes clients in emergency situations by providing access to Harvest’s in-house resources and by connecting them with other appropriate community providers.
“We believe that we are here to assist in insuring that the money that’s available to help people living in Indian River County gets directly from those people giving it to those people who need it,” says Robertson. “We don’t want to duplicate services. We don’t want to create any extra administrative costs. We want to identify that need and most directly connect the person with the source of help available.”
“I’ve been involved with Harvest for five or six years now and one thing I’ve noticed is that everybody on staff here wants to make that connection with the people we serve,” says Don Drinkard, Harvest board chairman. “It’s important. We’re not going to give them a phone number on a piece of paper and send them away. Staff here really wants to engage them so they can be in a better place in their life. That’s the education side. We’re firm believers that education is one of the keys to eventually get them in a better place.”
The HOPE curriculum, refined from a no longer funded Workforce Solutions program, aids individuals ready to commit to learning or improving employable skills.
“We’re looking for people who are willing. Not everyone who walks through that door is going to be willing to invest in themselves,” says Drinkard. “Those who do – who are willing – we’ll be there to help them. That’s probably one of the biggest reasons I’m involved; to make that happen.”
Access Florida, the Department of Children and Families division that administers food stamps, temporary cash assistance and Medicaid, is located in Harvest’s Life Enrichment Center.
“This is the only manned office in this county,” says Drinkard. “They recognize that they can’t do everything. They identify with what we’re trying to do and believe that there’s a mutual benefit.”
There is a 30-day delay between applying for food stamps and receiving them, and during that time, Harvest can assist through its Crisis Care, Emergency Food Pantry, and Education programs.
“Our goal is to hopefully limit the amount of time they’re going to need benefits,” says Robertson.
“We’re trying to give them an incentive to get that spark going,” agrees Drinkard. “For many people that entry level job is a great step. If you’re in poverty and want to get out of poverty having a good job is one of the very best ways for that to happen. Ultimately we want to have their lives transformed so that they’re in a better place.”
In addition to identifying and obtaining entry level positions, the organization plans to continually nurture and coach clients toward future job advancement.
“We want to turn out people through the HOPE program that employers will recognize as reliable, good employees. HOPE is delivering clients that are of value to an employer,” says Drinkard. “We want them to have a self-sustaining, living wage. Those jobs are not necessarily easy to find in this county.”
“It’s not a short term fix; it’s about the long-term relationship,” says Robertson. “It’s not the 12-week class; we don’t think 12 weeks is going to change somebody’s life. That’s the beginning block but people have to be committed to a long-term change in their lives. That one-job, one-year concept is life-changing. There are a lot of things that have to happen in order to have long-term change.”
“Not everyone is going to make it. But the ones who do – we want to link arm-in-arm with them and help them move forward,” adds Drinkard. “Everybody who comes in here is a little different. All have had different challenges or different blessings in their lives. Many have to face a huge paradigm shift in the working world. Somebody who lost his or her job and has been in the working world might just need help with a resume. We have to customize to some extent what we offer people.”
Harvest’s General Education program offers free Earn While You Learn workshops, administered by community partners, volunteer facilitators and staff. Topics cover a wide range of subjects, such as finances, GED preparation, computer skills, employment preparation and stress management. Pantry Points, redeemable in the Food Pantry, are awarded for completed classes.
“Part of what we offer employers is ongoing job coaching, outside of their employment time, to work on job skills and make them a better employee. I think that’s a real value to anyone who is willing to partner with us in this,” says Robertson.
HOPE enrollees are educated in customer service, Safe Serve (food handling safety) cashiering and forklift operation, and Harvest pays for industry certifications. At its new 35,000 sq. ft. Regional Distribution Center, where food is processed for the Cost Share Grocery program, enrollees can be trained for employment in distribution centers such as CVS or Publix.
“Really our goal is to make a product that has great value to employers,” explains Robertson. “We’d like to be seen in the near future as a source of highly valued employees, and we’d like to be responsive to the employers’ needs in that regard. Our goal is to train people in very specific skillsets that can allow them to be hired in those positions.”
She says the success of the program will be bolstered by forming relationships with other nonprofit organizations and private sector businesses willing to provide employment, adding, “We can’t create jobs other than the ones we have. We have to partner with others to end poverty in Indian River County.”
“If one business in town would be willing to take one HOPE graduate and bring him or her into its operation, that’s what we need to start building the momentum of this program,” adds Drinkard.
