I confess I tested the mettle of Amanda Friscia, the Fort Bragg Food Bank”s new front desk person, by asking her questions while she worked.
She steadily checked in a constant barrage of clients, while typing, smiling and engaging in the interview with me.
“I love busy. This job is multi-tasking to the max,” she said.
Friscia started last week as the replacement for newly retired Jean Jones. She has lived in the area since 1987; she and her husband, Jason Friscia, have a 2-year-old, Sienna.
She arrived as “client volunteer coordinator” just in time for a busy non-profit that has been savaged by the flu and operating with an exhausted skeleton crew.
I put the job title in quotes because everybody at the Food Bank knows job titles are mostly for appearances, and occasional humor.
Friscia already got the joke, reciting the title with a smile.
With 25 percent more client visits in 2009 than last year, the staff is moving like they are in a VHS video stuck on fast forward.
“We are so glad to have her. We have been so short of paid staff and now we are looking forward to a great year,” said Nancy Severy executive director.
Friscia was eager for the job although she has no history as a client, as many here do. She loves the energy and the working situation.
“You couldn”t find a better group to work with,” Friscia said.
The welcoming air of this workplace was what I had chosen for my topic this week, even before I met Friscia, who pretty much wrote the story for me.
I have always been fascinated by the energy a workplace emits. I”ve been to many. I worked for seven newspaper chains along with owning my own small paper. As a kid out of high school I was an industrial temp and visited new workplaces several times a week.
Some workplaces are so cold you shiver. Some are so disorganized you find yourself lost in the hallways after half a day among the confusion. The Food Bank feels fun, welcoming and, yes, at times heavily caffeinated, even without a coffee pot.
Many clients have told me their favorite thing about the abundant energy is that there is never any denunciation in the air. They do feel compelled to pitch in and many quickly become volunteers.
One Food Bank volunteer to really step up recently is Joe Odegard, who is driving the truck for the Food Bank as a volunteer, until the new regular driver, Vicki Johnston, can return to work.
That”s a big job, usually one of four full-time positions at the Food Bank, complemented by bevies of volunteers.
Odegard”s job is to deliver food to food banks and soup kitchens around the county and to pick up donated food daily from local businesses —Harvest Market, Safeway, Colombi”s, Purity (a new stop in 2009), Harvest at Mendosa”s, Corners of the Mouth, Mendocino Cookie Company, D”Aurelio”s, Starbucks, Cafe Beaujolais and Mendocino Bakery.
The driver also goes to Santa Rosa weekly to pick up food from the Redwood Empire Food Bank, where the Food Bank gets donated food through the Feeding America program at only the cost to transport it.
Another volunteer making a big impact this holiday season has been Nancy Milano, who organized the biggest gift giving year ever, along with Santa”s scheduled visit this week.
In 2009 the Food Bank welcomed two new members to its all-volunteer board. Board secretary, Thom Adams, recently moved to the coast from Willits where he served on several boards, including Willits Daily Bread soup kitchen. The other new member is former Fort Bragg mayor, Michele White, who joined as board treasurer.
Season of Sharing
The purpose of the Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive is to raise money the Food Bank can use year-round.
This year”s target is an ambitious $36,000, which would bring the total raised since our first fund drive in 1995 to just over $200,000.
The Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers. Every cent received goes to the Food Bank.
Checks should be addressed to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to the newspaper at P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped by our office, located at 450 N. Franklin St., Fort Bragg.
If you have any questions about the fund drive, call us at 964-5642. The fund drive began Nov. 12 and will end Dec. 31.
Season of Sharing has raised $20,715.29 to date. Our sincerest thanks to Jeffrey and Linda Lasell, Leanne Cole and Joseph Jones, MaryJean and Howard Makela, Thomas and Nancy Riley, The Bookstore/Jennifer Wolfman, Roy Wachsmuth, Clifford Lang and Dianna Allison, Audrey Tyson, Patricia Galligan and Dianne Miller, Craig and Megan Blencowe, Bruce and Karen Smith, OB Staff at MCDH/Kitty Bruning and Dr. Devaskar, Myra Beals and Ida Matson, Bonner Armbruster, Carolyn Kinet, J.R. Harrison and one anonymous donor.
We gratefully acknowledge each week”s donors by printing their names in the newspapers, unless they request to remain anonymous.
