Financial Fitness

"I WAS CAUGHT BEING GOOD" Coins= Bravo Bucks

Financial Literacy is a big part of the Beans and Rice After School Programs.  The AmeriCorps VISTA positions we have exist because we have the Virginia Individual Development Account, a two for one savings program for adults.  All of the VISTA positions in some way have to address financial literacy and try to promote savings.  For children in the Willow Woods and McHarg Elementary Programs this has been a challenge. 

Children in general have:
• little experience with handling money,
• often can not discriminate quantity of coins from value of coins,
• have not yet acquired delayed gratification behaviors,
• do not understand where money comes from and how much things cost
This is particularly true of low income children who have few if any role models for handling finances wisely.

Our fiinancial literacy project takes two forms with these After School Programs, Bravo Bucks and Financial Fitness.  To both encourage good behavior and to teach about the value of coins we developed a the  reward system of Bravo Bucks.  These are coins (see above photo) that are given through out the program for positive behavior. Each color represents a different monetary value.  We learned that the children preferred many coins, even if of the lowest value, rather than one or two coins of much greater value.  This was a first challenge. The children love getting lots of coins which they keep in a little bag or little fanny packs. They like to take the coins out and touch them, stack them, and compare who had the most. This is where the issue of quantity of coin over value of coin became obvious. Service learning students from Math Ed classes at Radford University were instrumental in devising ways to help the children with this issue.  The children are allowed to "spend" their coins at the Bravo Bucks store which we have two to three times per semester.  This "store" is stocked with little things children love to own but frequently don't get a chance to, especially if they are low income.  The items vary in value and children learn delayed gratification through finding out that if they save their coins and don't buy immediately they can get more expensive items later.  We are trying to teach them delayed gratfication and the concept of saving. 
 
The second program that is related to financial literacy is Financial Fitness. This nationally recognized set of eleven  lessons are done with the children to further help them develop their financial capacities. The children are pre-tested and post-tested. In Fall 2009 we measured the following increase in financial fitness among the children in our After School Program at McHarg.

Results from the first pre-test came back dismal. Of the 30 tests administered the average score was 62.8%; with the lowest being 27% and the highest being 100%. The results of the post test showed a vast increase in scores. The average score of the 29 test administered was 89.8%; with the lowest being 47% and the highest 100%/ The average test was increased by 31 points. The most improved score being that of a 1st grade female who’s pre-score was 27% and post-score was 100%. We have just administered the pre-test for the next set of lessons and results have not been calculated as of yet. However, the students are already looking forward to the post-test.

We think they have now reached the point where they have:
• Ability to discriminate quantity of coins from value of coins

• Ability to delay gratification
• Experience with handling money

We wish to start a new step, actual educational savings accounts for the children by comverting the Bravo  Bucks into real money. We have applied to the Community Foundation of the New River Valley for seed money for this project.  We plan to convert saved Bravo Bucks into real dollars if the child agrees to start a savings program toward educational needs. To encourage the children we will make these accounts part of our matching IDA program.


Beans and Rice will set up the account with Beans and Rice as the guardian. No one, including parents, will be able to access the child’s account without the written approval of Beans and Rice and funds will go directly to the vendor/provider of educational services or materials through a cashier’s check. Beans and Rice has matching funds to match the savings of the child two to one. Pay outs from matching funds goes directly to the vendor as well.

Beans and Rice has had nearly ten years of experience with IDA programs since 2001 through CDBG funds for Pulaski and the City of Radford. We are currently the VIDA intermediary for the New River Valley. We started our YIDA program in 2004 with Handy Youth. Our YIDA program has been very successful. One Youth is currently paying for her college tuition from this program. We have the banking contacts and in house procedures extant to manage this program. This program is part of our stated goal of helping low income families acquire assets and gain capacities.

After School Program McHarg Elementary

Beans and Rice runs an After School Program at McHarg Elementary School during the academic year. Teachers and adminstrators at McHarg identify the children for the program. This program targets the most a)academically, b) emotionally/behaviorally, and c) economically challenged children in the school. Two AmeriCorps VISTA members oversee this program, Valerie Badley and Kayla Peery.  The rest of the staff is made up of interns from the Social Work Department (more on them in another post) and Service Learning Students from various classes. All are from Radford University.  We have 50 children in this program.  The size is limited by the number of children we can handle in one trip of one school bus. In the program we serve a snack provided by the school,

   

                                              the children get homework done

                                                                          

sometimes with tutoring

we have storytime which is always very popular

Sometimes a young person just has some quiet time

Sometimes they just need to cut up a little

and sometimes they are just friends

In good weather we have recreational time in the playground, if not we have organized activities in the multipurpose room at the school.  The program runs Monday through Thursday from school dismissal to 5:15 when we start getting the children on the bus for home.  We have had this program at McHarg since Fall 2006.  We also have a Summer School Program that combines McHarg and Belle Heth children.

Kathy and the food pantry--where your money goes

Kathy at the Fire House at Christmas Time

Kathy is like civic mother to the community. She worries about them. She tries to do her best for them and help them do the best for themselves. And, like a good mother she can get tired of the same old, same old when those she cares for are acting ornery. A realist when it comes to what people need. Kathy does the community outreach for Willow Woods. Her main responsibility is working with the families to try to help them help themselves. Many lack motivation and have a sense of hopelessness. Younger mothers have no knowledge of how to prepare whole and raw foods and for the most part have no real interest in learning. This is a huge challenge. But Kathy hangs in there.

In addition to preparing food boxes from our pantry (30-40 families per month), she is the sign up and distribution person for SHARE, a collective food buying program, and USDA commodity foods. This means that Kathy does the paperwork, picks up, and arranges distribution of this food. She also is a main stay at the Fire House Food Distribution. She is always on top of things, looking for what needs to be done and is usually the first to be on it.

Kathy is the only paid staff in Radford. She works 20 or so hours per week at only $10.00/hour. Frankly, without Kathy I don't know how we would manage. She is not only my most long term staff person. She has come to be one of my most trusted friends.

She's going to kill me for this picture but it is soooo Kathy in Action.

Found Food--More on Where Your Money Goes

Food pantry at Willow Woods

Thank you, thank you Kenny Ford. Kenny got us boxes and boxes of fresh produce that were from a wreck on I81. Tuesday I get a call from Kenny on his cell. Can we handle a bunch of produce. Yes. Where to put it? A few calls later, Kenny who is both a board member and a Radford City Police Officer says: "We'll take it to the firehouse." My reaction was: "Will Lee (our beloved fire chief and all around good guy) have room and does he really want to fool with this?" Kenny's confident response: "He'll take it." My reaction: "OK, officer."

It turns out that when a shipment of food has wrecked, the shipment is compromised and can not be sold by a commercial vendor. The Department of Agriculture has to review it and approve the removal of the food. They must also approve the recipient of the food. So, Kenny got it for us. His role in this is unclear to me but I'm going to find out.

Wednesday the William and Mary students went with Kathy our Community Outreach Worker to SW Virginia Second Harvest. Most months Kathy goes to Second Harvest to get food for the Willow Woods food pantry where she provides for between 30-40 families on a monthly basis. At the pantry we give out a box of fresh, frozen, canned and dried foods. Kathy has two freezers and space in the two After School Program refrigerators to store food.

The students were blown away by the fact that we had to pay for the food when it was food that had been donated. We discussed this on Thursday AM. We pay a yearly fee and also the cost per pound for the food for the pantry. Second Harvest functions a lot like a Sam's Club for nonprofits. But just like a Sam's clubs there is a lot of controls when you make any one point the distribution for food to most food pantries. It seems that some food pantry sites get greater preference and "first dibs" on food. This has been the source of some annoyance for many nonprofits.

Back to the produce. While some students went to Second Harvest others helped bag up the produce which included tomatoes, green beans, peppers, and egg plant. Thursday they helped Kathy distribute the bags of produce to folks at Willow Woods who can't get to food distribution Some was shared with Radford Church of God in Christ who's van we had used to get to Second Harvest. Friday they helped with food distribution.

All told the food Kenny found went to 73 families. Fresh produce is something we had not received since late fall so this was the greatest.

More with the William and Mary Students

William and Mary Students at Willow Woods

OK, its not so great a picture but they are a great group. Here we are Tuesday monrning when we did a workshop on Community Developent. First, we looked at the impact of the two universities here on the economy and how this affects low to moderate income families and then looked at models for working with these families. In the afternoon they continued work on the storage space and we hope to have this totally cleaned out and the keys returned by the end of the week. Evin (that's him with the dark hair and the red shirt standing behind Mike) felt it was a little irrelevant and inefficient to take everything out and then put it back. Then Joey (that's him down at the end of the the table also in a red shirt) said that there was really no other way to do this, how long it would take if we tried to do it by our selves, and how much money this would save us. YES, YES, YES. They then went to McHarg where they worked with the After School Program there. We're all disappointed that we won't be able to help do spring cleaning at Mountain View Cemetery off Rock Road. The ground is too soft and wet for work to be done.

Hopefully, we'll get you some pix of what they are doing.

The College of William and Mary Are Here

This week is an exciting week. Students from the College of William and Mary are here for their Alternative Spring Break. Met with them last night. Great group. This AM did a quick hour on poverty before half came with me to food distribution and half went to work on cleaning out our storage unit.
Cleaning the storage unit is a huge help. We've been paying $65.oo/month to store stuff and we are not quite sure what is even in there. In addition, we've been doing this for two years which means we've paid more than the value of what is stored. I mean, do the math. I did and what a waste. Can't afford that. This is part of being a very hands on Executive Director. I don't like to micro manage but I do want to know where your dollars are going and I want a big bang for your buck. You want your money to go to helping folks and so do I.
I've been agitating since early fall to get this cleaned out and it looks like tomorrow will be the last day. Thank you William and Mary for helping us make this happen. Of course, having no snow also helps.

Empty Bowls Dinner a Success

Interns Choosing Bowls

Actually there are two Empty Bowl Dinners, one done by the staff of Beans and Rice and the other by The Presbyterian Church of Radford who do it for us as part of their church service. Between the two events we raised $4,645.00 this year. Thank you all and a big shout out to those who helped http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NL7nP61-hk&NR=1 (Thanks Drew for the link, major big smile.) We hope we do as well with our Help Fill an Empty Bowl Campaign. (see earlier posts)


The Potters without whom we couldn't do it
From left, friend of Sidra, Sidra, Chris, and Drew.

More Pictures from Food Distribution

We started the food distribution in May 2010. Originally it was in the fire house parking lot and we needed to set up a tent store. (See top photo). Originally the boxes of food came in and we just unloaded them and let people come and take food from the boxes. (see second from the top). We then moved to setting up tables, taking the food from the boxes, and sorting it out. This worked better. The next issue was that we had been getting food from the Christiansburg Walmart which included produce. We got switched to the Walmart in Fairlawn and no produce came. As you can see in the middle photo, we started getting bushels of potatoes from the garden started by First Harvest. This was great. These wonderful folks led by Lydia and Doug Warden were growing a garden specifically for the poor and had chosen us for their distribution point. It was a Godsend. Then Donna Peery sent word through Kayla one of our AmeriCorps VISTA members that we should sign up with the Society of Andrew's so could get the produce from Hillsville and other places. Once again, a Godsend. In the bottom two photos you see staff working to sort and bag the produce. In the bottom photo you see four AmeriCorps VISTAs the Beans and Rice. From left to right Valerie Badley in the head wrap, Vicki Brown seated back, Kayla Peery, and Laura Tuller. Behind Valerie you see the tent sitting waiting to go up. In front is Katherine a View worker with Radford City DSS. Over time we have gotten so much more organized. We constantly struggle to be fair to everyone without getting things too regimented. We also have to be mindful that we are guests at the fire house and not abuse our welcome. This distribution point is so well located for the target population and access for both delivery and "shoppers" is so good that we hope to be able to stay. A BIG BIG shout out to Lee Simpkins and the fire men.

How to Sponsor a Bowl

How do I help fill a bowl?

Fill out the coupon below and make a check payable to Beans and Rice mail to the Beans and Rice address on the coupon.

What happens when we sponsor a bowl?

When you sponsor a bowl you will receive the following:

• A pottery bowl made specifically for the Empty Bowl Project
• A “Business X helped fill an Empty Bowl “ certificate
• Listing in the Executive Director’s blog site
• Newspaper coverage in the News Messenger

Where will the money go?

The funds go directly into providing for the food programs. Beans and Rice has a very low administrative overhead of less than 5%. The Executive Director works without pay. The Radford programs have one half time worker and three AmeriCorps VISTAs, so personnel costs are less than $20,000 for all programs.

Yes, we want to help.

Here is my sponsorship

Business name as you want to see it listed___________________________________________________________________

Address________________________________________________________________

Phone number___________________________________________________________

Email_________________________________________________________________

Amount: (specify) + $500______ $300-500_____ $150-299 _____ $51- $149_____

$50_______

Return to:

Beans and Rice, Inc.

PO Box 397

Radford, VA. 24143

Help Fill an Empty Bowl Campaign

Food Distribution at the Radford Fire House Monday and Friday 11AM

We are continuing the Empty Bowls project with a new addition the Help Fill an Empty Bowl in Radford Campaign. We will be going to businesses in Radford and asking them to please sponor a bowl. More on how that works in another blog. Today I want to show you one of the places the money will help. Every Monday and Friday Beans and Rice staff team with Radford City DSS to distribute food. Folks start to line up around 9:30 AM and we hand out number tickets starting at 10 AM on a first come first served basis, one ticket per family. Between 10 and 11AM food arrives from Wades in Radford and Walmart in Fairlawn. Volnteer drivers with Radford/Fairlawn Daily Bread pick up from Walmart while Radford staff pick up from Wades. Food is unpacked and sorted into dried and canned (we get little of this), bread (Walmart sends a lot of this), bakery goods (Walmart also sends a lot of this), and meats. Wades regularly sends lunch meat, bacon, sausage, cheese, and some juice. Walmart sends meat once or twice a month. We get no fruits or vegetables except during the summer when we go to the Farmer's Market in Hillsville where Donna Peery gives us between 15-30 bushels of produce in season through the auspices of The Society of Saint Andrews. Donna is the mom of our staff member, Kayla Peery. First Baptist provided bushels of potatoes as well.

At 11AM folks come in and "shop." They pick their own foods and are limited only by the number of shoppers and the amount of food we have available. We average about 50 households per each day. We have had as many as 90 households. The firemen and Chief Lee Simpkins are a huge help. First, in Novemebr they let us come into one of the bays out of the weather (we were in tents before). They help set up tables. They provide coolers. They've helped with getting the food off the trucks and they 've stored food in their freezers. We really could not do this without them.

Although this seems to be a low cost activity, there are a lot of hidden costs. For example, we needed a vehicle to go to Hillsville to get the produce. Our van is used for other program needs and we could only borrow a vehicle for so long. So, we bought a truck, a 1981 Dodge with rebuilt engine and transmission. It needs insurance, some work like a tuneup , and of course there's the cost of gas. Also, this project takes about 72 staff hours a week. Things go most smoothly when we have 7-8 staff working. And, this is just one of our food projects. More on those later.