We are firm believers in always working with a purpose and are grateful for all of our BCFF Champions who give us their time to ensure our Birdie Bag program is a success. Time is valuable, it is something that is hard to find these days and you can never get it back. We know you have a lot of ways to spend it and are glad you trust us to use it wisely.
Learn more about how we ensure our volunteers’ time is well spent and how our processes help us maximize the reach of our foundation.
Clear Tasks = Greater Efficiency
From the minute you walk in the door we put our volunteers right to work. To-do lists are a staple at BCFF and help us manage our year-long efforts. Before any event, our team identifies all tasks that need to be carried out and the most efficient way we can do it. We assign tasks to our volunteers before they arrive so it is clear to everyone what we are accomplishing that day and most importantly, why. As a lot of our volunteers say, “they get their steps in for the day” when they’re with us!
Commitment to Continuous Improvement
As we have grown our processes have changed and will continue to change because we know there is always room for improvement. At the end of 2020, our team (as many of us did) reflected on what we were doing well and what needed improvement. Covid took many of our volunteers away and forced us to look at where we were wasting time and energy. A mutual partner connected us with Kent Elastomer Products who built a team of seven employees that excelled in the areas we were looking to change to come and spend a week with the BCFF team and host a “Kaizen.” The goal of this event was to help identify areas of improvement in our warehouse and apply Lean practices to refine our processes.
During this time we examined every minute step of our process and deemed if the currents steps were necessary or if a more efficient process could be applied. In the end we were able to save a lot of time, space, money and headaches. We canceled 30% of our volunteer opportunities, saved money on supplies and increased our warehouse storage capacity by adding shelving. It was great working with a team that could look at our processes from the outside looking in.
Looking Ahead
Changes are necessary for sustainability and the children we serve are at the core of every decision we make. We are always looking for ways to improve and encourage open communication from the champions in every facet of our organization. If there’s a way to improve we want to hear about it. There are many children that need our help and with your help we will keep stretching our resources as far as we can to maximize our reach.
Become a Champion
Do you want to get involved in the fight against the childhood hunger in Northeast Ohio?
Get in touch with our team. We are always in need of volunteers, donors, sponsors and community partners to help us fulfill our mission of alleviating child hunger in our community.
