Erin was on TV

Last Wednesday, The Cleveland Foodbank hosted an Ohio Benefit Bank telethon on Channel 3 (WKYC) in Cleveland. Erin and I took the van (which also made it on TV) and took calls on live TV.

Erin was smart enough to sit up front. Whenever they interviewed someone on live TV, there was Erin chit-chatting away about food assistance, HEAP, free tax services, what have you. Me? I was in the back row. Either off screen or behind a reporter's head. I was wearing a tie and everything! And for what!? Just to be off screen!

Thankfully, we didn't need ties to take over 865 calls. BOO-YAH.

Over 450 calls poured into the Ohio Benefit Bank Direct Service Office in the next week as a direct result of this telethon.

I'm writing this from Parma at a follow-up event. I've already completed three applications and it looks like all the volunteers + me + Erin are up to about a dozen. And we'll be in town tomorrow for more of the same. Huzzah!

Urbana

Last Friday, Erin and I made the trip to Urbana. No, not the trendy DC restaurant. The county seat of Champaign. If you click on that first link, you'll see that Urbana's center features a rotary. Any town that has a rotary is alright by me.

Urbana is a little strange in that it's only 47 miles from Columbus, but it feels like, culturally, it's in a whole 'nother time zone. Urbana is technically north of our fair capital city, but it felt a whole lot of Southern. Southern accents and hospitality were the order of the day.

We were there to attend Project Connect, an outreach event where Urbana residents can find different programs and benefits that are available to them. An event that like is tailor made for the Benefit Bank so it wasn't much of a surprise to find two other Benefit Bank sites attending the event (although they don't have the, ahem, benefit of the Mobile Express).

The event was a rousing success. We spoke to about a dozen people, and all of them appeared to be eligible for something. Food assistance, voter registration, taxes. The whole nine yards. And with two Benefit Bank sites in the building, it was incredibly easy to make sure these people got taken care of.

Except...well, except the people of Urbana were very hesitant to apply for benefits. It was the old "someone else needs it more than me" card. We hate that card. I sympathize with people who want to see others get help before themselves, but there are no limitations to food assistance.

It had been a good long time since we ran into someone eligible for benefits who didn't want to apply for them. We had at least three in Urbana. At the very least, those people know where to go if they do decide to apply for assistance. We very much hope they do exactly that.

Russ and I went to Franklin County Family Empowerment Day and Community Resource Fair. It was held in the beautiful King Arts Complex and sponsored by Franklin County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Columbus Urban League.

The event was intended to address child support issues for all parents and care takers including driver's license reinstatement, work programs, process for mediation for visitation, paternity testing among others.

Nothing like receiving word that your license has been revoked due to not paying child support. The sad truth is that often times, this consequence can create barriers to work and exacerbate the problem.

There was a plethora of information. People who attended seemed to get their issues resolved or at least were armed with information to deal with their issues.

We along with many other organizations were there to offer support to those who find themselves in this circumstance.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

I hate to sound like a broken record, but we're still in the heart of tax season. That means more tax clinics. Cleveland, Portsmouth, Bowling Green...we're getting around.

It feels like we're at the beginning of the end though. We're still busy, but we're not getting the tax refund bonanzas that we were seeing in January and February. I'm sure things will get crazy just before the April 15th filing deadline, but right now we're not getting anything we can't handle. Things are just humming along.

Boy, this is a boring post. Let's spice it up with Erin and myself wishing you a happy (and safe) holiday. We Mobile Enrollment Specialists are both Irish and we are both wearing green. We like our corned beef boiled, our bread all soda-y, and our isles Emerald. We both think this is one of the best days in the whole year.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Still Plugging Away

I've only been a part of Second Harvest Foodbanks for a year, so this observation isn't from first hand experience. But the overwhelming second hand experience leads me to believe that this is true: This has been the busiest tax season in the history of the Direct Service Office. The phones are off their hooks and the numbers of people served are through the roof.

No exceptions for me and Erin (though I got a few days respite to attend my brother's wedding on Cape Cod). The van is still plugging away with a newly repaired satellite connection and a brand new windshield wiper. We're getting closer and closer to 20,000 miles and we're a shade away from 500 generator hours. We've hit all four corners of the state and will be heading straight north (Fremont) and straight south (Portsmouth) over the next two weekends.

We're five weeks from the end of the rainbow. Time to start the sprint towards the finish line.