Launching Get Shift Done Central Arkansas
Pure Charity to serve as Fiscal Sponsor for Get Shift Done Central Arkansas
Get Shift Done for Central Arkansas Initiative Launches
The Arkansas Foodbank, Tempus Realty Partners and Pure Charity today announced a new partnership with Get Shift Done to launch the Get Shift Done for Central Arkansas initiative which will coordinate, schedule and pay adversely affected hourly workers in the hospitality industry to work shifts for the Arkansas Foodbank.
Get Shift Done for Central Arkansas, funded by Tempus and Pure Charity and managed by Get Shift Done (getshiftdone.org), provides wages of $10 an hour to workers left jobless by the coronavirus pandemic. These workers are filling the critical roles of providing meals for the disadvantaged that, prior to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, were performed by volunteers. The first of many workers reported for their first day of work on Wednesday, April 22.
Get Shift Done was launched by Dallas business and community leaders Anurag Jain and Patrick Brandt with the support of their respective companies, community leaders, restaurant owners and nonprofit organizations. It was created to fill the gap between the reduction of volunteers and the increased need among food banks and other nonprofits with those from the food and service industry in need of supplemental income.
Little Rock is the first city in Arkansas to roll out the initiative. The Arkansas Foodbank and Tempus Realty Partners became aware of the innovative program and contacted Get Shift Done to help central and southern Arkansas meet the surge in their food insecure need. Within a short turnaround time, Get Shift Done for central Arkansas launched Shiftsmart technology to register workers for shifts for the Arkansas Foodbank at getshiftdone.org/centralarkansas. The Shiftsmart platform and operations team manage the onboarding, matching, scheduling, dispatching, and routing of workers to perform shifts.
“We are grateful we were able to quickly utilize this innovative program to answer the surge in hunger relief need in our community,” said Dan Andrews, CEO of Tempus Realty Partners. “Hospitality workers represent a large number of unemployment claims in our area so deploying them to fill essential, caring jobs to help provide meals for needy families answers two critical needs at once for us.”
Arkansas Foodbank distributes food to more than 420 partner agencies and programs, including pantries, churches, and shelters in 33 counties in central and southern Arkansas.
With jobless claims spiking to record levels, the Get Shift Done concept was hatched at just the right time by helping people work to earn a basic income. Within days of the initial Dallas launch of Get Shift Done, other cities, municipalities and countries contacted the organization about assisting them in meeting the needs of the food insecure in their own areas by utilizing the Get Shift Done template.
Patrick Brandt, President of Shiftsmart, said: “Central Arkansas is the most populous metro area in Arkansas and we are so grateful to be part of a solution to keep hospitality workers working and empower the non-profits to provide immediate hunger relief to those in need.”
“We saw the need for volunteers, the number of displaced hospitality and food and beverage workers all spiking simultaneously during the COVID-19 crisis. When you match people who know food to helping people who need food, a very efficient and effective result happens. When you apply this innovative solution, our goal is met to help both the workers and the non-profits,” said Anurag Jain, Chairman of Access Healthcare, Managing Partner of Perot Jain, and Chairman of the Board of North Texas Food Bank.
For more information or to support this fund, go to getshiftdone.org/centralarkansas or getshiftdone.org.
Arkansas Times “Get Shift Done: A new program employs displaced restaurant workers at food banks”
Article by Stephanie Smittle on April 29, 2020 at 9:56 am
Even under normal circumstances, the Arkansas Foodbank’s task is a logistics juggle. The organization serves 280,000 Arkansans in 33 of the state’s 75 counties, distributing pantry staples to 422 partner agencies in Central Arkansas, the Arkansas Delta and South Arkansas. Like the food banks that serve other parts of the state, the Arkansas Foodbank does its work by mobilizing a massive team of volunteers to pack up boxes for distribution to families in need — around 13,000 volunteers a year, according to Emily Gassman, communications director at the Arkansas Foodbank.
On March 20, though, the foodbank had to suspend its volunteer operations as part of statewide efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and the organization began seeking ways to fill that gap — even in the face of a swiftly escalating demand for food aid.
Enter Get Shift Done, a platform that contracts service industry workers in need of a paycheck to come in and box up food for hunger relief organizations. After its debut in North Texas, chapters sprung up in El Paso and the Washington, D.C. area. A Central Arkansas chapter was, as of April 22, the fourth hub on that list, in partnership with Arkansas Foodbank.
CNN “Arkansas Foodbank distribution event runs out of food early because of demand”
Article By Theresa Waldrop
(CNN) The Arkansas Foodbank planned to hand out food for four hours on Tuesday, but the demand was so high that all the food was gone within an hour and a half, the charity said.
Cars lined up at the Outlets of Little Rock mall, which hosted the event, as early as 5:30 a.m., when the food bank’s workers arrived to unload the trucks, Arkansas Foodbank CEO Rhonda Sanders said.
At one point, cars were wrapped around the mall, up and down the parking lot, and along the access road, Sanders said. CNN affiliate KARK reported that cars were backed up along a nearby interstate.
Eight hundred and forty families received food on Tuesday.
“I feel like I could have served 2,000 more families,” Sanders said.
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