Food Scholarships The Houston Food Bank administers its Food for

Food Scholarships

The Houston Food Bank administers its Food for Change program, where select agencies

may provide high-dollar food scholarships to their eligible customers. These food

scholarships typically equate to 60 pounds of food every two weeks.

New customers who are enrolling in an education and training service with Workforce

Solutions are eligible to receive the food scholarship. Many of our customers begin a

training program, but are unable to complete it due to having to work to pay bills or

provide food support for their family. By helping to address one of these critical issues,

we believe that more customers would have an opportunity to successfully complete their

training programs. We are beginning this project with the Southwest and Cypress Station

career offices and will work with the Food Bank to expand service to additional offices.

Food Scholarship Process (Southwest and Cypress Station only):

 Offer the food scholarship to all customers newly approved for financial aid for

Workforce Solutions supported training as well as customers currently receiving

financial aid for education and training whose completion date is March 1, 2017

or later. We have included a script to help guide your conversation. The last day

to enroll customers into the Food Scholarship program will be January 20, 2017.

 Record the customer’s response to the Optional Question in TWIST under Service

Tracking – “Enrolled in food scholarship project? (Y/N)”

 Have customers fill out Food Scholarship Consent Form. Upload form under

‘correspondences” in Docuware.

 Help interested customers complete the Survey Monkey form and customer

consent form.

o Food Scholarship, Survey Monkey, Baseline

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/96CGFTD

o Spanish: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/32XDZW3

 Customers who choose to participate, must be added to the “Voucher List” for the

correct month. Enter the “TWIST ID #” in the column for “Customer ID”. The

“Voucher List” excel file will be located in a shared Dropbox with the Food

Bank.

o Upload the updated “Voucher List” to Dropbox on the third Friday of each

month for vouchers to be redeemed the following month. (Example: We

will upload the new voucher list for September on Friday, August 19

)

o Voucher emails will be sent out on the 1

and 15

of each month and will

include information about the nearest participating scholarship pantry

(location, hours, instructions, expiration date). Note: not all pantries

participate in the food scholarship initiative. See below for example

voucher email.

o Each customer will receive two vouchers per month. The vouchers will be

redeemable from one week from issue date. Each voucher will be issued

on the 1

or the 15

, or the following Monday if the date falls on a

weekend. For example, for the month of September, a voucher issued on

the 1

can be redeemed until the 8

of the month and the second voucher

issued on the 15

can be redeemed until the 22

of the month.

 Upon the customer’s completion of Education and Training program, discontinue

creating vouchers for customer, and email them the link for the final survey:

o Food Scholarship, Survey Monkey, Final Survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/D7LY7Z

 We anticipate the food scholarship pilot period to begin August 2016 and end in

February 2017. After evaluating the pilot, we will communicate plans to expand

the food scholarship opportunity to other offices.

Example Voucher Email:

Participant ID: XXXXX

Participant Voucher Number: XXXXXX

Pantry: West Houston Assistance Ministry (WHAM)

Address: 10501 Meadowglen Ln, Houston, TX 77042

Phone: (713) 977-7803

Scholarship Pantry Hours: Every Tuesday from 3pm-5:30pm

First, Third, & Fourth Saturday of the month from 9am-3pm

Issue Date: September 1

, 2016 Expires one week after date of issue (September 8

, 2016)

Instructions: Let the front desk at WHAM know that you are a part of the Food Scholarship

program and that you are exempt from regular pantry intake. You only need to present

them with the voucher number. You can choose to print this email out, or write the

voucher number down to present to them. You should visit the scholarship pantry within

the appointed scholarship pantry hours to receive optimal customer service.