Telethon: Part Deux!

So last March we took the Mobile to WKYC in Cleveland for a telethon. It was great. We even wrote about it. PROOF!

Well in Hollywood, if something is a success, a sequel is sure to be in the works. And since Cleveland is clearly the Hollywood of the Midwest, it made sense for us to go back and handle another 800 phone calls.

This telethon was organized by The Cleveland Foodbank's Mary O'Shea. She is awesome. She recruited over a dozen volunteers to take calls and recruited us to bring a boatload of computers and power cords to the studios to make sure people could get instant Quick Checks. Since Erin and I were staying in Cleveland overnight, Mary even helped us find a food pantry to visit the night before the big event. So not only did Erin and I spend ten hours on the phones (with breaks, natch), we also finished four applications in Lake County.

Erin and I are always surprised to find so many people in dire situations that had no idea that they were eligible for supports like food assistance and utility help. Despite seeing it almost every day, I can not fathom how these families scrape by on so little. And I know there are many more out there who weren't lucky enough to stumble upon us on Channel 3. But hundreds of people in one fell swoop is a pretty nice start.

OBB Mobile Express Participates in Utility Fairs

Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative, Inc. invited us to join them as they shared information about how to conserve energy, decrease electric bills and increase efficiency.

Vicki Bilek's smiling face greeted customers as she registered them and handed out light bulbs.

Here is one of the displays at the fair showing many types of compact flourescent lamps. According to Wikipedia: "compared to general service incandescent lamps giving the same amount of visible light, CFLs use less power and have a longer rated life". This translates to savings for the consumer. Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative applied for and received a grant to purchase these lightbulbs to distribute to consumers.

The OBB Mobile Express was on hand to assist these customers with their HEAP application. Since the HEAP application is at a higher eligibility rate (200% of FPL), many people can look forward to a credit on their heating bill this season.


Applications can be filled out with a benefit bank counselor, online using our self serve software or by downloading the application from the Ohio Department of Development website. No matter the method, the application needs to be printed off, verifications attached and then mailed to the ODD. Completed applications take two (2) months to process and clients should see a credit on their bill within that time. HEAP status can be checked by going to this website. It will let you know the application has been received and where it is in the process.

Farmers Market Accepts EBT Card

Joined the Farmer's Market at Public Square in downtown Cleveland. It was a beautiful blustery day. You can see Tower City and Progressive Field in the photograph above.
The OBB Mobile Express had top billing on the sidewalk in Public Square. We were parked right behind a wonderful smelling Asian food truck--yum!
We welcomed guests of the market as well as passerbys.

The van and the Farmer's Market were situated across the street from the

Old Stone Church. This church is the oldest building on Public Square and

the 2nd oldest church in Cleveland-- quite a site to see.

The Farmer's Market is offering EBT card holders (food stamps) the opportunity to spend their dollars to purchase fresh veggies, spices, coffee, tea and many other items. Card holders were also given a free $5 token for using their card. Good deal!

Mustard Factory

Danielle Gray and I got the grand tour of the Woeber Mustard Factory! We were invited to come and talk with employees to help them know if they were eligible for benefits. In addition we informed them that they may use the OBB to complete their taxes.



The tour was fascinating. Below are some pictures that gives an idea of the experience:

Here are vats of mustard--Woeber is known for specialty mustards and mayonnaise. The original recipes were from 1905. The company has been family owned through 3 generations.

Woeber packages many condiments in many different containers. Each container requires a different machine which is tailored to certain specifications for filling, labeling and sealing. This one is designed for packaging vinegar.

There is a room dedicated to mixing of mustard. As we walked in this room our eyes began to water. The spices and mustard seeds were so strong that we needed to leave quickly.

Here we are meeting with Rick Woeber, Vince Chase (United Way volunteer and past food bank president) and our very own Danielle--all donning our hairnets. It was fascinating to learn about the equipment needed to process and package mustard.

Mountains of horseradish. There was a whole room dedicated to the grinding of this root.

After we visited the mustard factory we went to Dole Foods for an employee health fair. All in all, it was a fun and interesting day.

So Anything Noteworthy Happen Last Night?

Oh! Right! The election.

I imagine many of you are busy celebrating or mourning unless you're VISTAs in which case the Hatch Act requires you to FEEL NOTHING.

So since you're celebrating or mourning or being a civil servant, let's keep this low impact. It's been brought to my attention that we haven't linked to the excellent regional blog network that's been created by the Ohio Benefit Bank.

So! Without further ado:

The Ohio Benefit Bank's Central site: http://obbservationsco.blogspot.com/

The Ohio Benefit Bank's North Coast site: http://obbservationsnc.blogspot.com/

The Ohio Benefit Bank's Northeast site: http://obbservationsneo.blogspot.com/

The Ohio Benefit Bank's Northwest site: http://obbservationsnwo.blogspot.com/

The Ohio Benefit Bank's Southeast site: http://obbservationsseo.blogspot.com/

The Ohio Benefit Bank's Southwest site: http://obbservationsswo.blogspot.com/

And if you want to see everything that these sites have to offer, please check out this rad Prezi presentation.

On The Road Again

They say there's no rest for the wicked. That may or may not be true. But I know there hasn't been a lot of rest for the OBB Mobile team. We've been on the road for the past two weeks. It's at the point where our colleagues in the Columbus office are genuinely surprised to see us.

All this time on the road really drives home what a diverse state Ohio is. One day we're at a food distribution in suburban Akron, the next we're at a food distribution a stone's throw from Kentucky. We spent eight hours in Holmes County, the county with the largest Amish population in the world. Two days later we were in Downtown Cleveland under the shadow of skyscrapers.

(During our Cleveland trip I made my first trip to the West Side Market. It was awesome. A nice perk of the Mobile Express is having a fridge to keep two strip steaks overnight.)

I'm seeing double! Four strip steaks!

One exciting development is working with more foreclosure prevention resources to recreate our enormous successes in Dayton. Save the Dream's website has been hosting the Restoring Stability application where homeowners under threat of foreclosure can submit their information to a housing counselor. The state has been pushing this hard and we've been with them to make sure these people in need know about all of the benefits that are out there for them.

See! We've been busy! And we'll be back on the road tomorrow. I'm sure our colleagues are disappointed.

Record Setting Week

Erin and I just came off a week in which we completed over 50 applications for Ohioans. And these weren't a bunch of quickies like voter registration and Golden Buckeye cards*. We're talking HEAP, food assistance, Medicare premium assistance, and Medicaid. Big, long applications.

Wednesday brought us to Safe Surrender in Cleveland. Safe Surrender is an event held in cities throughout the country where people with misdemeanors and non-violent felonies can appear and have their outstanding warrants taken care of. It lifts a weight off of their shoulders and it makes the authorities happy since it saves them time. These Ohioans are people who are unlikely to go to Jobs and Family Services to apply for benefits because of those warrants. Once those warrants were taken care of, Erin and I wanted to be there to help them out immediately.

We were told to expect 60-200 people. We got over 800. Enough to fill a church auditorium. With an unexpectedly large crowd, it was harder to get people to come into our Mobile. People were waiting hours to get these warrants taken care of and people seemed pretty pooped. Of course, with 800 people, it's inevitable that a few people would want to stop and see what we were all about. We finished about 15 applications that day.

Now, Safe Surrender was only supposed to get busier. It was actually a four day event and we could only make it to Day 1. We were previously booked for a two day foreclosure prevention event in Dayton. You may remember that we've observed some people in pretty dire need over in Montgomery County. No income, no job, no food stamps. That's not the way it ought to be and I've been primed to go back and see if there was more of the same.

There was.

Over the next two days, we saw dozens and dozens of people who were eligible for benefits. The client that stuck in my mind was an elderly woman living with her disabled son on less than $750 a month in Social Security. That is unacceptable. We found at least 25 other people in similar situations.

Erin and I, with assists from Central Ohio Regional Coordinator Zach Reat and VISTA Sarah Olinger, completed 38 applications over those two days. That is a lot. Over 50 over three days, and, wow. I told the organizers of the event that with that many applications, the county will take notice.

We can't reasonably expect to complete 50 applications a week in perpetuity, but it's good to know that if there's a need, that we can step up and finish a staggering amount of applications in a short time. We met the challenge. It's a good feeling.

*I don't mean to downplay Golden Buckeye cards or voter registration. It's just that those applications take only a few minutes. And they don't require a lot of thinking. "Are you 60 years old? Great!" "Are you registered to vote at your new address? Great!"