Posted: December 3, 2010

Social Media Intern at St. Vincent Meals on Wheels

St. Vincent Meals on Wheels (SVMOW) uses a traditional model of fundraising from distinct constituents which include:

• Direct Mail Donors
• Foundations
• Corporations
• Planned Gifts
• Events

SVMOW wishes to augment these efforts by developing its capabilities to use social media as a means of a) brining new, younger donors to the organization, and b) understanding how these tools can strengthen existing relationships. The ultimate goal is to advance SVMOW’s mission, increase volunteerism, and increase revenues.

Intern Responsibilities

• Segment “market” of a) prospective donors and b) prospective volunteers, and develop individual messaging goals for each audience “slice”.
• Identify near-term and long-term opportunities to employ social media tools to further SVMOW objectives for a) attracting new constituents, and b) increasing the marketing leverage from existing relationships.
• Develop implementation plan (e.g. tactics), including resources required and timelines.

o   Identify the specific action plan(s) that can be implemented during the internship. This requires an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of both the intern and SVMOW in-house resources.

o   Identify tracking mechanisms for ROI measurement.

o   Recognize the available resources

• Develop and maintain job description for social media

Requirements

• Minimum time commitment of 5 hours per week.
• Weekly review with Executive Director Daryl Twerdahl and/or Advisory Board member Greg Stone.
• Depending on progress, will have the opportunity to present updates and results to the full SVMOW Advisory Board
• Fluency with social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Competency with Powerpoint or other presentation software.
• Self-starter. Must be comfortable with unstructured tasks and encouraging others (SVMOW staff) to work collaboratively.
• Must have own laptop.

If interested, e-mail cover letter & resume to Greg Stone (GStone@blackfordcapital.com)

Fact Sheet

St. Vincent Meals on Wheels

2131 West Third Street, Los Angeles, CA  90057

(213) 484-7112; stvincentmow.org

Vision

A community where all vulnerable adults, regardless of their age, illness, disability, religion, or ability to pay, can choose to live independently with dignity in their own homes because they have access to nutritious and appetizing meals and contact with caring individuals on a daily basis.

Mission

To promote the health and well being of homebound adults with limited incomes and/or those with mobility and frailty issues who are at risk to hunger, malnutrition, disease, and social isolation.

Values

• Respect. We serve our customers with dignity, compassion, and a smile.
• Timeliness. We follow up promptly on our customers’ requests for information and referrals because social isolation can be scary and life threatening.
• Diversity. We value the opportunity to serve customers with a range of cultures, opinions, and special diet and nutrition and medical needs.
• Protection of the environment. We seek ways to reduce energy, waster in our operations.
• Appreciation. We value the diverse contributions of our staff, volunteers, referral agencies, and donors.

Advocacy and Education

Our organization publishes Breadbasket, a quarterly newsletter distributed to 45,000 individuals and organizations in Los Angeles County.  We focus on the areas of adult hunger and barriers to independent living.

Services

We prepare daily meals and distribute them using our fleet of vans.  We assist our customers in securing utility bill discounts and in-home services through Los Angeles County.  We link adults in crisis to assisted living, essential hygiene supplies, visiting nurses and social workers.  We also provide blankets, birthday cakes, and small holiday gift baskets.

Geographic Area

The core service area is a 43-square mile of central Los Angeles roughly bounded by Eagle Rock in the City of Los Angeles on the north, Compton on the south, Pico Rivera and Rosemead on the east, and Beverly Hills on the west and other municipalities as necessary.  Our busiest route is downtown Los Angeles where we serve a concentration of adults living in Single Room Occupancy Hotels.

Clients

We have no eligibility requirements for individuals to participate in our nutrition program.  We serve anyone in need, regardless of age, illness, disability, race, religion, or ability to pay.  Priority is given to homebound seniors.

Clients range from those who depend upon the service long-term to those who need the service temporarily as they recover from a hospital stay, injury, and illness, or homelessness.  Referrals for our services come from social service agencies, neighbors of current customers, family members, churches and synagogues, van advertisements, and hospital social workers.

Several cities and nonprofits contract with our organization to provide meals to congregate dining sites in Huntington Park, Inglewood, and Glendale.

Distinguishing Features

• Largest privately funded nutrition program in the nation providing more than 18 million meals.
• Specialize in catering to people with special diets, nutritional, and medical needs requiring low sodium, low potassium, renal, diabetic, soft, puree, as well as those who have preferences for Kosher and vegetarian diets.
• Reporter of elder and neglect abuse.
• Participate in group purchasing programs in the areas of medical insurance, vehicle insurance and food.
• Commit to green initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint.  To date, we have replaced all Styrofoam cups and plates and disposable plastic utensils with biodegradable recycled paper products.  Staff members and volunteers use their own reusable cups.

2010 Accomplishments

• Cost to prepare and deliver a nourishing hot meal: $6.98
• Over one million nutritious hot meals and cold suppers annually averaging 4,700 meals a day
• 57,536 frozen meals weekly for customers who receive dialysis treatments who can manage microwave ovens
• 300 volunteers donating  the equivalent of $543,000 (based on value of volunteer hours as determined by US Government)
• 37 delivery cars and vans serving 32 routes covering 634 miles and totaling 231,410 miles

2010 Budget

Our operations budget is $8,300,000 of which one quarter comes from contributions from meal customers and the remaining funds came from private sources including individuals, foundations, corporations, and service clubs.  The top three expense areas are salaries and employee benefits ($3,339,854 or 54%), supplies including food ($1,966,306 or 32%), and travel and transportation ($238,148 or 4%).  Our organization employs 92 people.

Community Kitchen

Our full-service 16,500 sf commercial kitchen is equipped to provide up to 5,000 meals per day.  It currently operates from 4 AM to 4 PM daily.  The kitchen provides culinary job training to adults living at low-incomes to prepare them for careers in the food service industry.

Governance and Staffing

Sister Alice Marie Quinn, a registered dietitian, is the founder and Executive Director of St. Vincent Meals on Wheels.  Daryl T. Twerdahl is Executive Director of the St. Vincent Meals on Wheels Foundation, which raises financial support for program operations and capital equipment.  A 10-person Board of Directors governs the Foundation.

Volunteers

Our volunteers support the organization by preparing and delivering meals and providing with administrative support.  Our volunteers speak Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Tagalog, and Korean.

History

Our organization was established in 1977 as the St. Vincent Senior Citizen Nutrition Program at Precious Blood Church Parish Hall at 437 S. Occidental Street serving 75 seniors.  Over the years our private nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization has evolved into a community nutrition provider affiliated with Meals on Wheels.

Plans in Progress

• Reduce vehicle miles traveled by finding efficient delivery routes.  Encourage transit and carpools by employees and volunteers.
• Expand the number of our volunteers and provide regular training and development opportunities.
• Develop and conduct community outreach events to raise awareness about aging in place and how to support homebound adults to live independently and with dignity.
• Prepare and implement a comprehensive energy management plan to improve the efficiency of food storage, refrigeration, preparation, and disposal.
• Reduce the carbon footprint of food purchased such as reducing red meat and buying local products

Future Plans

• Improve the fuel efficiency of our delivery vehicles.
• Identify new food sources to help reduce the escalating food costs.
• Add a second kitchen shift to double the production of daily meals to meet the growing number of homebound adults in need of daily nutritious meals.
• Increase the number of staff and volunteers who can provide linguistically and culturally appropriate services.
• Develop a model for and implement case management services for our long-term customers.
• Expand our job-training program for culinary arts students.
• Strengthen collaborations with community partners to coordinate and provide related services such as medical alert devices, pet wellness, home fitness, mental health, visiting nurses, spiritual services, peer-to-peer learning, nutrition education and counseling, lifestyle renovations, home retrofit projects, and maintenance and repairs.
• Publish and sell a cookbook for people with special diet needs to generate income to support our program operations.