Valerie Carl Edit

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1. 1. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

   www.foodbankcentralflorida.org - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/12/2008   Last Visited: 2/12/2008

   Valerie CarlBrevard Branch Managershbrevard@nebutel.com

2. 2. Brevard County Community News

   www.floridatoday.com/community - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/26/2003   Last Visited: 7/26/2003

   Handling the additional food for the government's supplemental food program has been hard work for the volunteers and tiny staff, said Valerie Carl, branch manager for Second Harvest.But, the work has been worth it, she said.
   
   In July, 2,282 households were scheduled to receive the government-sponsored 14 items through 21 agencies, mostly local churches and food banks, that signed up to be part of the government program.
   
   "This takes a lot of coordination," Carl said.
   
   "It is a lot of work.You can't just get food donated and plop it out there," she said.
   
   Each step along the way takes work, from arrival in Brevard County to sorting it for agencies to distributing it to the agencies giving out the food, Carl said.
   
   The program takes many more hours than that so requires volunteer help, Carl said.
   ...
   "If it weren't for the volunteer inmates at the jail and Officer Doler, we probably could not do the program," Carl said.
   ...
   Because it is a government program, there is plenty of paperwork, which Second Harvest and each of the distributing agencies must keep up to date, Carl said.
   
   "Every single person does what they do because it matters to them," Carl said."They just have huge hearts."
   
   Some agencies hand out food to more than 300 households each time they get the governmental supplemental food and some agencies just do 24 households, Carl said.
   ...
   Qualifying for the government supplemental food simply requires that the head of household go to a distribution center and sign income-eligibility statements, Carl said.
   ...
   Carl said, that the through the two programs, government supplemental assistance and food bank, Rockledge Baptist Church, alone, has provided almost 26,000 meals to families in Brevard.
   
   Unlike food banks, which generally distribute food amounts based on the number of people in the household, the government's Temporary Emergency Family Assistance Program gives each household the same 14 items, regardless of whether the qualified person is single and elderly or a family of five or eight.
   
   But because most of the 21 agencies and churches that participate in the government program also operate food banks, "They will go ahead and add a couple of bags of food from the food bank, especially for a large family," Carl said.
   
   Carl said that the government supplemental program is flexible and "If more people needed it, I could increase the pounds we are getting."
   
   Carl decides which 14 items will be given out over each 60-day period, ordering the items off a list of available foods.
   
   "Out of the 14 items, I try to get a mixture of everything that is available," Carl said."I can give a starch, canned meat, canned soup or dairy, vegetables and fruit."
   
   For the order that arrived in July, Carl ordered carrots, canned chicken, canned corn, peas, pineapple, tomato sauce, tuna, vegetarian beans, vegetable soup, egg noodles, orange juice, peanut butter, instant milk and boxed cereal.
   
   "Some of it has USDA label and some of it has a private, well-known label," Carl said."It is very good quality product."
   
   For more information about the program or Second Harvest, call Valerie Carl at 639-2883.

3. 3. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

   www.foodbankcentralflorida.org - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/12/2008   Last Visited: 2/12/2008

   Valerie Carl - Branch Manager