Natasha Marshall, Feedback Labs | April 25, 2024
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida operates as a private, nonprofit organization with a primary focus on addressing hunger in Central Florida. They play a significant role in the region by collecting, storing, and distributing donated food to over 750 feeding partners across seven counties. This extensive network of partners includes food pantries, soup kitchens, women’s shelters, senior centers, daycare centers, and kids cafes. The food bank’s operations are made possible through the support of donors, volunteers, and the local community, allowing them to distribute food for 81 million meals. Their overarching mission is to provide hope and nourishment to those in need while harnessing the generosity of the community they serve.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida collaborates closely with numerous and varied community feeding partners responsible for food distribution, but there is no consistent and readily apparent feedback culture in place yet. This biggest gap exists externally in terms of gathering and communicating feedback from the people served by the feeding partners. Recognizing the opportunity and need for improvement, they are eager to explore and define what an effective feedback mechanism/s should entail. Their goal is to establish a comprehensive framework encompassing diverse tools and measures to better understand and improve different practices, ensuring that a robust and accessible feedback structure is readily available to enhance their collective impact.
Fostering a Culture of Feedback
The first question posed by Second Harvest Food Bank was how the organization can foster a culture of feedback among their partner network and the people the organization serves. Members of the discussion suggested opening up conversations around feedback so partner organizations can bring up their concerns, as well as rewarding partners who participate in feedback practices. Discussion members also suggested starting out with easy questions when asking for feedback from the people the organization serves.
Understanding Expectations and Needs
Another question Second Harvest Food Bank brought to the LabStorm was how they can understand the expectations and needs of the people they serve so that their actions can better align with them. Members of the discussion suggested hosting a community fair to start conversations, making feedback fun through activities like marble jars and group murals, and working with other organizations to use pre-existing data to help in this effort. To better meet the needs of the communities the organization serves, some ideas brought up by discussion members included finding out what cultural practices exist in these communities to provide food and ingredients that are culturally relevant, as well as including items in the food bank besides food like sanitary napkins, baby formula and diapers. One really well-received idea was for the organization to create and sell a community-sourced cookbook as a way of raising money to support ongoing initiatives.
Internal Communication
The final major question Second Harvest Food Bank asked members of the LabStorm was how the organization can establish an internal communication system around feedback that prioritizes the people that they serve. Members of the discussion suggested having feedback training for partner agencies so that the culture of feedback extends throughout their network, rewarding members of the organization who are geographically dispersed for doing feedback, and creating examples for how to share and incorporate feedback to be put on the partner agency website.
Second Harvest Food Bank’s key takeaways from the LabStorm included that the organization should make sure that neighbors and partner agencies are able to work together, that it’s important to report back to neighbors how their feedback has been used, and that the organization will implement some fun and community-driven feedback methods going forward. This discussion fostered the idea that feedback does not always have to be incredibly formal, but can instead be focused on being easy and enjoyable so that organization members are encouraged to share feedback.
Learn More About LabStorms
LabStorms are collaborative problem-solving sessions designed to help organizations tackle feedback-related challenges or share what’s working well in their practice.
Presenters leave the experience with honest, actionable feedback and suggestions to improve their feedback processes and tools.
To learn more about participating in a virtual LabStorm, please visit feedbacklabs.org/labstorms.