The work is physically demanding and emotionally gut-wrenching. During the COVID-19 emergency, the North Texas Food Bank is packing 60,000 emergency family meal boxes a week using its office staff and 80 temporary hires who lost their jobs in the local hospitality industry.
“Everyone is driven by the mission,” said Erica Yaeger, a 2002 MBA alumna of the Naveen Jindal School of Management who is now NTFB’s chief external affairs officer. “We know we showed up when people were hungry.”
That mission, however, does not eliminate the risk nor erase the emotional toll.
NTFB leaders learned April 5 that one member at the of NTFB transportation team had tested positive for the coronavirus. In a statement wishing the self-quarantined worker — who had not been at work since March 27 — a speedy recovery, NTFB President and CEO Trisha Cunningham said, “We are fortunate to have processes in place to disinfect our spaces regularly, and thanks to this effort, we will not need to close down our warehouse.”
And that means NTFB staffers, including several others with Jindal School ties, are working long days with few breaks. They report to one of the food bank’s two warehouse facilities and spend their shifts managing the lines that fill 25-pound boxes of shelf-stable food.
On the first weekend in April, more than 250 members of the Texas National Guard arrived to assist, tasked to help with, among other jobs, packing boxes, distribution and warehouse operations.
But amid such positive reinforcement, the paid ex-hospitality workers still face their own food insecurity, and NTFB employees are not immune to the crisis.
“Our fellow food bankers have their own fears during this time of uncertainty and are taking extra precautions to keep themselves safe,” Yaeger said.
A JSOM Lesson: The Importance of Being Flexible
For these times, when decisions made 24 hours ago might be invalid today, Yaeger’s MBA training and previous work as the Jindal School’s assistant dean for development and alumni relations taught her, more than anything, the importance of being flexible.
She and other agencies started planning for an uptick in activity about a month ago with the Dallas County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. That lasted for two weeks before the onslaught of service needs skyrocketed.
The demand has come from all quarters. While NTFB continues to partner with more than 50 public school districts in 13 northern Texas counties, it has increased its mobile distribution operations.
Yaeger said at a recent drop-off at T.H. Williams High School in Plano, increased distribution of family food packs went from 300 to 1,500 boxes. “When we were done, there were still 200 cars in line,” Yaeger said. “We needed police presence just to help with traffic.”
Other recent mobile drop-offs include Fair Park in Dallas. Recipients drive up and remain in their vehicles while NTFB staffers put the food in trunks so there is limited personal interaction. No registration is required for these drop-offs, which last as long as there is food to distribute.
After more than 10 hours daily in the warehouse, the NTFB professional staffers go home to do their “day job” of running the nonprofit. A few hours later, they are back in one of the warehouses – either in Plano or near Love Field in Dallas.
Virtual Volunteers: Responders in the Age of Staying Home
Jindal School students in many undergraduate classes are involved with nonprofits as part of their curriculum. Like volunteers who cannot help pack boxes right now at NTFB, they may be cut off from their usual community service commitments or frozen out of class assignments — that may have been waived or rewritten.
Dr. Daniel Rajaratnam, Jindal School clinical professor of marketing, suggested that students who want to offer help in the age of staying home visit websites of nonprofits.
“They can offer suggestions on how they might improve the website,” he said. “Some of my marketing research students have done this as part of an ‘observation’ assignment.” Whether the nonprofit can act on the ideas in this time of crisis might be debated, but at least those suggestions are available for future consideration.
There might be at least a sliver of a silver lining for nonprofits during this catastrophic time, said Rajaratnam, who teaches Marketing Research (MKT 3340) along with Principles of Marketing (MKT 3300). In both these classes, students have projects where they offer help to nonprofits. In the former, with surveys and findings from those surveys. In the latter, with a marketing plan.
“If (nonprofits) contact religious institutions and such, they might be able to recruit more volunteers who can help them by taking on some of their tasks, online, from home,” he suggested. “They may be able to find more volunteers who are able to help remotely. They can use this opportunity to contact new volunteers and donors, update their contacts’ information and add new contacts.”
But for groups completely swamped by the immediate need, like NTFB, it is just a matter of getting through the day. The food bank has pushed hard for “virtual volunteers” who contribute donor dollars. NTFB, through wholesale suppliers, can buy food at a discount off retail. It is actually more cost effective for the donor and the food bank to get donations that way, Yaeger said.
“We recognize people want to help,” Yaeger said. At this point, she asks they help with a monetary donation.
