Mission Drift vs. Emergency Supports: The SNAP Benefits Case Study

[Music] The Small Nonprofit podcast is brought to you by Further Together Fundraising, which is actually my company, where fractional fundraisers work with social justice nonprofits in Canada and the States. Typically organizations who have tried hiring winds or twice, but it hasn't worked out. We use community-centric fundraising to build sustainable revenue systems, and here's the key. We don't just strategize. We roll up our sleeves and do the work with you. Donor meetings, campaign execution, grant rating, all of it. If you're ready to stop doing fundraising alone, visit GoFrotherTogether.ca. The crisis affected everybody in the city, so the folks that I have connections with at various organizations that do that work every day, they were just swamped. They might have had an hour, two, or a line. Now, you've got three hours, because just so many more people were showing up. For many of our families, they're working maybe two or three jobs. There's so much they're juggling already, and then to now have to stop. And now I'm going to have to stand on a line to receive food assistance from this food bank. But that line's much, much longer now. If we could maybe just say, "You're coming to the school to pick your kid up anyway," grab a bag of groceries, right? So that was part of our thinking. What could we do that would make? Has a big impact in a small way? Hi, friends. Ever wondered how you could turn your big ideas into results? Together, let's reimagine a better sector, tackle systemic issues. And yes, raise some serious cash. Welcome back to the small nonprofit. The podcast where your passion meets action. Hi, friends. Welcome to the Small nonprofit podcast. Today, we are talking about how nonprofits can respond when people in their community are facing a crisis. If you're new here, I'm Caitlin McBride, and I'm a certified fundraising executive with over a decade of experience. And I'm on a mission to make fundraising feel less chaotic and more doable for small nonprofits. And today, I'm really excited to be joined by Erin Acosta. Would you introduce yourself? Tell us a bit about who you are, where you work, what you do. Sure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Erin Acosta. I'm the Director of Family Engagement and Communications at Growing Up Green Charter Schools. I have been with growing up green for over 10 years now. But I'm also an alumni parent, both of my children graduated from our schools and they are now adult. We have about 1,450 students attending our four buildings. We're kindergarten through eighth grade schools. And we are in Queens, New York. So it is the most diverse spot on the planet. Across our four buildings, we have about 25 to 28 languages spoken at home. And our student body and the families we serve reflect the diversity that is in Queens. We are also diverse in the ways we serve those families. We are a public school. We're publicly funded. And so we're free for our students and families. We serve many children with IEPs or individual education plans known as special education. So we have a mix of general education and special education students. We have many multi-language learners in our schools. So a lot of children that come to us in English is not their first language. And then our student body is demographically diverse as well. About 65% of our student body received free or reduced lunch. They are below the poverty line in New York City. Thank you for that. Yeah, I really appreciate your explanation. And just to give a little bit of background, Erin and I have been working together for almost a year now. I've been doing functional fundraising for growing at Green Charter Schools. I actually got the opportunity to come out to New York and visit you guys and visit the school, which was amazing. It's an incredible community. It lots of really wonderful sites and wonderful staff people and student body. But that's definitely something that I've learned about charter schools because they're definitely a misconception. Like charter schools and private schools are interchangeable. You're serving a wealthier community and your fee paying, which is very much not the case. Yeah. Especially in New York State. New York State has very strong roles and regulations around how charter schools operate. I always say to folks that don't know too much about schools that we're free public school. But our jurisdiction, our boss, is the state government. Our funding comes to us through the Department of Education for New York City. Albany sends the money to New York City and the New York City disperses it through their district schools and their charter schools in the city. But who like we report to, who holds us accountable is the state education department. Whereas a district school, they have a whole layer of bureaucracy, the chancellors, regulations, and then the next step above them is Albany. We have our internal staff. We have a board, just like online profits. And then we report to state education department. And it means you're able to be very accessible and open to a range of diverse community and anybody who wants to be part of your school can, which is amazing. And I want to go back to where we were last month. Going up green on the reason why I really wanted to bring you on the podcast. You guys did something really amazing and being an organization that supports a very diverse community. Your student body and the families that you serve were heavily impacted by the government shutdown that happened last month, which cut off snap benefits. And snap is the supplemental nutrition assistance program in America. So it provides food benefits to millions of families, low incomes across America. And there's something that so many people rely on and due to the government shutdown that funding was not coming through. And it was impacting so many families. I would say somewhere between 60 and 70% of our families were going to be food and secure. Kids show up every day for school and they need their basic needs met in order to be able to show up and learn. And if those basic needs are not being met, they're not getting enough sleep. They're cold or they're hungry. It will have an adverse effect on how they present themselves in the classroom. So when we knew this was coming at the end of October, we kind of were watching the news like everybody else and the closer we got to the 31st of October, the more likely we thought, okay, this is really going to happen. The government had shut down in past instances they had funded snap benefits. But as it became more and more political, it seemed very likely that they weren't going to fund those benefits. We had a little bit of experience with this with COVID. One of the neighborhoods we serve is Elmhurst, New York and Elmer's Hospital was ground zero at the very beginning of the COVID crisis. We had a lot of families impacted and like everything, New York City just shut down completely. So with that time, we had partnered with a another not for profit to secure food items for our families. And so when we were coming to this decision, whether or not we were going to pivot and as a school also figure out how to provide food for our families, it was amazing how quickly we were able, within a week, we were able to say to everybody, okay, we're going to do this. And this is how we're going to do it work. In the month of November, we packed over a thousand bags of groceries for our families that needed it. And we had volunteers from all four of our buildings, families, staff members, folks were able to donate food. The school, we purchased some basic food items so that we have a good basic package for each of the families and then we got other donations to add into those grocery bags. And then we were distributing them twice a week. So we were packing on a Monday, distributing on a Tuesday, packing on the Thursday, distributing on the Friday. It came together pretty quickly. And I think that has like a couple different reasons. One is because so many of us remembered what COVID felt like. I think the other reason is just we have such a great volunteer network already with our parent-teach organizations that when we put the call out, the where communities felt everybody said, yes, of course, this is what I can contribute. That's amazing. I think people listening to this might be thinking about, okay, this feels like mission drift, like organizations in schools and everything are so stretched already. Like, why would you make the decision to also take this on? There are food assistance places, there are food banks, there are other places that are equipped for this. So what was that decision making process like? I think specifically for our families that found themselves in this situation, we also provided them with a list of organizations that are doing this work. And they do it really well. This was to supplement that work. It was in no way going to replace what they were losing from smoking. benefits. The crisis affected everybody in the city. So the folks that I have connections with at various organizations that do that work every day, they were just swamped. Now you've got three hours because just so many more people were showing up. There's so much they're juggling already. And then to now have to stop. But that line's much much longer now. If we could maybe just say, you're coming to the school to pick your kid up anyway, grab a bag of groceries, right? But that was part of our thinking, like, how could what could we do that would make? I will say that in November, typically we always do a food drive. It's normally driven by our students. So it's Thanksgiving in the States. So, you know, November is normally food drive month. So we were already doing much, much smaller scale food drives that then the kids would be collecting food to donate to the local food bank. This time we just shared it with our own families. But I think the going back a step to that mission drift that you were asking about. We are a school. And that obviously our first and foremost is that our children are coming into school every day. They're learning what they need to learn. And they are going to graduate and then be able to go to a great high school and then go to great university and then do great things in life. That's what we want to see happen. But when we look at what education is, we are much more than just obviously math and reading and writing and science and social studies and history. All those things are very important, super important. But hand in hand with that is the social and emotional development of our students. Organizing classrooms, classroom management, building community from how you speak to children, to how you organize a lesson, to just how you organize your classrooms so that it starts every day in a circle for the little kids morning meeting that everyone is welcome in that community, especially when you have a community as diverse as ours. You have kids are coming from so many different backgrounds that you need to find that commonality. Like you come into this building now, this is your classroom family for the year. If a child comes in and hungry, the first thing you're going to do is feed them. And then that extends out to the family. As of right now, all public schools in New York City serve breakfast and lunch every day. And it used to be that some kids got reduced pray, some kids got free, some kids had to pay, but I think it was mayor to blasio that just they finally said there's so much clerical work to collect a couple dollars every day, right? That it just made more sense. Everyone gets fed that basic need is met and so for us, just like all those other public schools, our kids get breakfast, our kids get lunch because we're a sustainable school. It's part of our ethos. We really are no food gets less behind school. So if you're a child and you get your food from the cafeteria line and at the end, there's something on your tray that, you know, was it touched and you didn't want it? We have a share table. All that food goes to the share table so that no food gets wasted. We compost the other part of the food. So how we eat and how we take care of our bodies is also part of what we're teaching our children. So this seemed to be a logical next step that then our families should type what they need to be able to have a decent dinner. Looking at your overall mission of kind of supporting the child and supporting your community and being a community, this did fit with it. Some of the mechanisms that were in place already, like the food drive and some of the things that you learned as well from COVID and just, you know, we're able to pivot very quickly and switch into that and respond to this crisis. So, you know, I'm thinking for other organizations who might be listening to this thinking about what your mission is and zooming out from that as well. Like if there is a crisis that's facing the people who are in your community, it is the something that does tie into your mission of support. And are there things that you're doing already that maybe you can amplify to be able to get them out of that crisis and do things like have their basic needs met and be able to eat. I feel like COVID taught us a lot about how to do that. During COVID, I was having a baby. So I was not working during it. It's just different work, unpaid work exactly. But some organizations I started working with just afterwards was originally serving families who had a child with cancer and serving them to provide like recreation and activities and everything and going into hospitals. But they found a similar thing in COVID where suddenly those families could not access food. They were in the hospital and they couldn't go to grocery store all the cafes were shut down. So they really pivoted and changed into supporting those families with food. Like they were already in their anyways, but they noticed, okay, we're supporting this like this population, this community. Like how do we really focus in on the structures that we already have in place and be able to have their basic needs met be able to feed people and make sure that they're okay. That made me think back 2012 was Hurricane Sandy here in New York City. And this part of Northern Queens, we had some electrical outages. There was some coastal flooding, but it's just the way Queens sits on Long Island, we're a little higher up, but the lower part of Queens, the Rockaways, Brazy Point just almost was like wiped off the map, right? And then when the water receded, it's what's left. So there was a huge movement in Astoria led by a lot of moms. And it was called Astoria Feats the Rockaways. And so folks here in this part of Queens, everybody would just cook and then a bunch of volunteers would drive around, pick up all the cook food and with some folding tables dragged down to the Rockaways and then just pull over on the side and set up folding tables and just feed people. And so then I think again, when COVID happened a few years later, as a school, we were able to partner with another great organization in the neighborhood called Lifeline Groceries. And that was a much deeper operation where we were working with them to make sure families were getting boxes of groceries and fresh groceries, fresh food. I think it was like twice a month. I can't remember now. It was a while ago that we were doing that with them. Sometimes as a not-for-profit, there's some things that we do well. We're not taking overfeiting people at all. Obviously that is not our main mission. But there's so many great organizations in our community that do that work really accidentally. I'm thinking of our children is another not-for-profit here in Long Island City. Salvation Army is another group in Jamaica that we've worked with. So then sometimes it's just connecting our families with those organizations as well and facilitating. Especially if there's a language barrier or a time barrier because of work and stuff. Sometimes you can say, "Oh, you just go to this place and they'll help you." But if you're a person who's juggling two jobs, three kids, and a lot of other pressures just going to that other place is not something that you have the time to do and time is money, right? So then what can we do as a school to make that connection? It's not just, "Here's a resource, good luck. Here's a person that I'm going to introduce you to who can help you walk through the steps to get what you need." It's a real holistic form of support. And yeah, and I'd love to talk a bit about you're able to do this and mobileize funds as well, which I thought was really impressive. You really reached out to your community of supporters very quickly and explained what was happening clearly and explained what you were doing and you're able to obtain resources to help you do that. And I think that's something that's really important to when thinking about other organizations. There's crises that are like, "Oh, great, but we don't have the funds to be able to do any pivot," but you were able to move quickly and resource out yourself. Let's take a quick break. Hi, friends. Have you heard of the What the Fundraising Podcast? It is hosted by the amazing Mallory Ericsson. Tell us about it Mallory. If you've ever thought fundraising shouldn't feel this hard. I want you to know you're not imagining it. What the fundraising is a podcast for fundraisers who are tired of burnout, scarcity, and being told to just try harder. Each week I sit down with scientists, fundraisers, and sector leaders to unpack what's actually happening in our brains and bodies, our systems, and our relationships with money. This show is about helping you raise more without hating your job and without abandoning your values. You don't have to choose between effective fundraising and feeling good. Come listen to What the Fundraising wherever you get your podcasts. That sounds amazing. Friends, I really encourage you to go listen to the really interesting conversations on what the fun raising. Let me know what you think. And now back to the episode. Yeah, I think it was a combination of saying this is the priority. We're going to make a purchase and have xy the amount of food ready to go. But then we're also going to reach out to our family community and say here's how you can help you can donate any of these items or donate your time. It's great if you've got a lot of money, but then you need the elbow grease to actually unpack the bags, right? So volunteering your time is just as important. And then reaching out to our own donor base that we've built with you and just the longevity of the school, our development associate does, meaning that he drafted something really quickly. And then we were able to share that with our own circles or friends and family. It was such an immediate need and a lot of folks, I think a lot of times, especially when you're facing this type of crisis, it seems overwhelming, right? This crazy thing is happening in the world, whether it be natural disaster like COVID or Hurricane Sandy, a fire in a local neighborhood, I'm thinking about crazy fire that just happened in Hong Kong, the amount of people like anywhere in the world that something happens and then folks are like, I hear about that and if that were me, how can I help that thing that's happening? And so I think the more specific you can be about the need and about how you're addressing it, the more likely folks feel like, oh, that's a way I can help. This is the crisis. This is what we're doing to address in support of families. Like I said, by no way, we're re going to be able to totally replace the benefit set up and lost, but we could at least supplement that and make it a little bit easier for our families. And then we had the donation page, the folks like I said, they could donate their time, they could donate the actual goods, food items, or they could donate money to support the effort. At the end of November, when the crisis first started, we sent out the information to families and said, this is what's happening. If you were a family who are in crisis, please complete this form, it's confidential. And so then I knew the families that had been completed the form that needed the extra support. And we purchased $140 gift cards to a local grocery store so that families could use that to purchase items for their Thanksgiving or whatever holiday was coming up for them. And so what was you say was the impact of this initiative for your community, for your school? And is there anything that you learned from it or anything you do differently? Families that needed extra food, support, dot extra food support. And hopefully, children that needed got the extra calories. I think the other impact that's harder to measure is it's a very tense time. There's been a little bit more threatening of things, whether or not those things are going to happen. It's another story, but a story broke today that for SNAP benefits, the funding for it may be withheld from states, mostly democratic leaning, who have refused to share the data and the names of the families who are on their SNAP benefit roles with the federal government for fear and retaliation. And because that information hasn't been shared, the moment the Trump administration is threatening that they're not going to fund SNAP benefits in those states. We have a lot of families we serve that are immigrants. I myself am first generation my parents are immigrants to New York City. When folks feel threatened, they're scared, they're worried, inflation, there's so many other things happening right now. The impact of being able to in the middle of all of that negativity and chaos to say here's one thing that I could do. I was able to concretely help families in this way. And then people come together to help. That I think has just as important an impact on the whole community, whether or not you needed the food assistance or not. Giving has just as much impact as you're receiving. And it does make an impact. It helps folks feel like they have a little bit of control. And it helps communities who feel under threat right now feel supported. There is so much anxiety and so much scariness is happening. So to know that they have a community that is supporting them that they can turn to, I think is huge. And I think that is why you wanted to share your story and what you did with a wider audience because we've touched on before this 10th time might not end soon. This might not be the last time that you need to pivot and support your community in different ways. And there might be others who are out there whether community is facing a crisis in an entirely different way or in a new way or even like natural disasters or things like that. I think some like takeaways from this for me or thinking about what you're doing already and thinking about what your strengths are and how you can use those strengths to pivot and maybe do something that supports your community's basic needs if that is the need that they're facing. And that you can mobilize resources for this and you can mobilize them quickly. So it does not have to come out of your operating budget and impact your other programs. If you can move quickly and as you said, have something that's really tangible and direct and immediate. It is possible to mobilize resources and not to cut out of your operating budget and your current programs. Anything else you would say to other orgs? To the lean on each other. I always say that there's a lot of really amazing people doing really good work every single day. And so get to know the other community based organizations around you that are doing similar if not exactly the same work. This time we decided with the grocery bags to just do it ourselves when we did this during COVID we partnered with another organization because it needed to be a bigger machine at that time. But now with this threat that's happening with our federal and state government not getting along, we might be doing this again. We've wound down this system for now being most folks now receives not benefits back on their benefit card and they will be able to use those benefits. But we know we can do it and we have to turn it around again we will. If it seems like it's going to be a much longer program we may then just say it's okay who in the neighborhood can we partner with because you know this is it's not going to be one month this might be six months. That's a really good point and that's a good tip for people who are thinking about how are we going to do this because you also had the opportunity to do because you have a large school you have large space you have large staff members and everything who would be able to pitch in and support where there might be other organizations who don't have that but maybe partnering with others who can mobilize in a different way. So I really appreciate that. Thank you thank you so much for coming here and sharing more about the work that you do and the amazing response that you had to this crisis. I hope you're not in the middle of this again by the time this comes out or anything else. But yeah if somebody wants to learn a bit more about you and about growing up green where can they go? Where's the best place? Best places are website www.inthoronitialsgugcf.org The growing of green charter schools. Thank you all so great and thank you so much for listening. I hope you got a lot out of that and ways that you can support your community in different creative and innovative ways if you're finding that your community is facing a crisis like really leaning on what are your strengths? Were you doing already? How can you support this and make sure that yeah we're doing the best for our communities and any circumstance that might arise now or in the future. So this has been the Small Nonprofit podcast as always if you want to see our lovely faces you can find us on YouTube and make sure that you like and comment and subscribe so you can tell the algorithm that you like what you hear and like what you're seeing and that's it for today. Until next time. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Small Nonprofit. If you want to continue the conversation feel free to connect with our guests directly or find Yon LinkedIn. Let's keep moving money to mission and prioritizing our well-being. Bye for now.