The ECHO, Volume 85, Number 10, December 2013/January 2014 Page: 6
16 p. : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
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December 2013 / January 2014
E. Cooper., SAFB director, explains the origins of the program: "We were trying
to take our community service to the next level, we wanted to create a win-win."
As a result, Cooper and Dominguez State Jail Windham Principal 0. Kelly created
the WSD class.
"Not only is it a journey for the WSD students, it's one for us as well," Cooper
says. "Wind'ham studews travel to our food bank five days a week for class and the
opportunity to learn valuable skills. This class gives us (SAFB) the opportunity tL
see offenders as people, not as felons. We realize they have discovered throug'
their participation -hat there are consequences to their choices. This class gives
them the cpportnmity to make up for their 'bad' choices by allowing them to gixe
back to several communities with their participation and work at the food bank."
g AFB is one of 202 food banks in the United States. They are an independent i
non-profit org anization associated with Feeding America. There are only 20
Feeding America food banks in Texas.
"Our food bank services 16 counties in the San Antonio area by stocking food at
approximately 535 non-profit organizations within the 16 counties," Cooper says.
Our fcod banks feed 58,000 people each week."
Hard work fuels the program's success, according to Windham Principal Kelly.
"Prcgram success is about exerting effort and hard work," he says. Not only
is our participation an opportunity for WSD students to give their time, it's an
opportunity for -he food bank to help save money that can be used elsewhere.
With our SAFB partnership, the amount of money saved is huge. The students
work a four hour day, which saves the food bank $52 per day, per student, with
the potential of saving tne food bank $65,500 annually."
"The class gives students an opportunity to connect effort with success, and
beirg affiliated witL this program allows them to be immersed in that experience
- there's no shortcut to success," Kelly says.
Along with saving food bank costs, Cooper says this program has long-lasting
benefits."The food bank focuses on three areas: food for today, food
for tomorrow and food for a lifetime," according to Cooper.
"Food for today focuses on getting food out to our
communities so no one goes hungry. Food for tomorrow
is where we help educate our recipients of the assistance
programs available for them like Women, Infants and
Children (WIC). Food for a lifetime is where we help our
community participants and our WSD students move from
dependence to independence.'I have also lea
if you expect t
these students
wil] get it'
'Instru"We have -artnered with WSLE and TDCJ to help instill
hope in their students! Cur goal is to also educate the
community abcut the opportunity to employ a felon. Our hope is that these
students are recognized as someone's son, brother, or dad -- and not just a felon,"
Cooper says.
"Statistics have shown that 80-90 percent of WSD students
flourish when given the opportunity. We set the example
here at the SAFB by hiring felons and giving the hope
nd opportunity of growth and advancement.
Our own director of operations is a former
me-mber of the class and a former offender.
He started as a warehouse worker and
worked his way up to director, which
proves there is hope!"
%. SD students at the food bank
are led through a variety of
training exercises each day by J.
Tesch, instructor for the past year
and a half. She says she strives to
make the class an environment
where students want to learn,
with the curriculum focusing
on six areas: safety, forklift
operation, material handling,
inspection/philosophy, storage
and staging and vocational/
job opportunities. Classroom
instruction goes hand-in-hand
with warehouse on-the-job work
experience. Upon completion of this
class, students leave with a forldift
license and a Windham certificate,
along with actual warehouse training"I have also learned that if you expect the best of these students, you will get it,"
she says.
The class is three to four months in length and can accommodate up to 20
students and two student mentors. The mentors are two offenders chosen from
the previous class. For an offender to participate, he must be a WSD student at
Dominquez State Jail. Teachers nominate students, who
go through a screening process: they must be a J1 (State
earned that Jail code for trusty) status with a good disciplinary record.
Once approved, the offender is transported to SAFB five
he best of days per week with the rest of his class to receive classroom
;, you instruction for one hour.
The class is also considered the offender's job, and after
instruction, the men go to work. The class is broken into
etor J. Tesch two groups, with one group working in the receiving area,
unloading and tending trucks. The other group pulls orders
for shipping. The men are trained to use three different
types of forklifts, including the sky jack forldift, the sit down forklift and the stand
up fork lift.y the end of the course, the offenders have learned a variety of job skills,
including stocking inventory, taking inventory and the "racking" system of
pallets. Also, from guest speakers, they learn important facts about interviewing
for jobs, resume writing, personal finances and
how to start a business. Offenders are also taught
how to access community resources related to
employment, housing, food and other necessities
of life. Overall, participants are learning real-
life work skills while discovering what they can The San Antoio Food
personally accomplish. I n rcBar n nv"The most rewarding thing is when they pass
their first test, when they didn't think they could
- or when they have never said a word in class,
and at the end, they say, 'Thank you!"' Tesch says.
This personal transformation is not lost on the
offenders.
"We help feed 58,ooo people a week," says K.
Pool, an offender mentor for the current Power
Management class. "That's the important thing.
It's good to give something back. We're giving
something back to society."
At the end of the day, TDCJ's offender-workers
return to the confines of the Dominguez State Jail
with a sense of accomplishment. They just helped
better the lives of thousands of needy people -
and they were able to interact with the free world
once again. There is hope for their future after
incarceration. 4its clients to federal
and state assistance
programs. The food
bank helps support these
programs, which indude:
*Women, Infants and
Children (WIC)
..Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP)
4 Temporary
Assistance for Needy
Families (TANE)
* Medicaid
* many others.6
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Texas. Department of Criminal Justice. The ECHO, Volume 85, Number 10, December 2013/January 2014, newspaper, December 2013; Huntsville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth640877/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.