Your monthly look into what's happening at the NH Food Bank.

Your organization has now received several notices and reminders regarding required food safety training. All programs must have at least 1 person that is food safety certified by June 1, 2024. We are grateful for your cooperation, and currently, the majority of programs are up to date with their certification. In January, the Agency Relations team contacted programs via email that do not have current certification for anyone at their program. If you would like to verify who from your program has their certification listed on your NHFB account, reach out to your NHFB Coordinator and we can provide you with that information. 

All programs will be required to maintain this certification going forward. So if those with active certification at your facility leave your program or the certification expires, you will need to have someone else acquire food safety certification as well. All certifications will be verified at your annual NHFB visit.

If you are a meals program, please see the article below.

Meal Programs:

Food Safety Certification

If you are a meals program(soup kitchen, group home, shelter, etc.) we will require that your program have a ServSafe Food Handlers certification or equivalent course certification (which includes coursework and a test) by June 1, 2024 (as listed above).

ServSafe classes can be taken online for $15 at https://www.servsafe.com/ServSafe-Food-Handler/Buy-Handler-Products.

Below is a list of other similar accredited programs that are also available.

*AAA Food Handler (https://aaafoodhandler.com/food-handler-new-hampshire/)

Always Food Safe (https://alwaysfoodsafe.com/en/food-handler-certification/new-hampshire/state-accepted#productBoxes)

*360 Training (https://www.360training.com/course/anab-accredited-food-handler-training) 

We hope to offer free ServSafe sessions through the NHFB in the future, but there are none available at this time. 

Order Verification

When you submit your order on Agency Express, be sure to verify the items that you are ordering before submitting the order. Make all changes and updates to your items at that time as we cannot change your order once it has been submitted.

When receiving your order, if you find any items are missing, please notify the Agency Relations team right away(within 24 hours) so we can look in to it and verify our inventory. Replacement of items will be on a case-by-case basis if the order is found to be in error.

Before you leave the warehouse or leave your delivery site, be sure that all of your pallets have been given to you. If you leave without part of your order, you will be expected to come back to get it as we will not deliver items that you forgot to take with you. All orders have a handwritten "ticket" on them (pictured to the left). This indicates how many pallets you have and what type of food is on the pallet. If your order shows you have 3 pallets but only see 2, please talk to an NHFB staff member(or truck driver at your delivery) to locate the missing items.

Nutrition Pantry Program

We hope you’ll join us in congratulating a new graduate of the NH Food Bank’s Nutrition Pantry Program – Newmarket Community Church Food Pantry! NH Food Bank’s Nutrition Programs Manager, Elise, recently visited the pantry to present them with their certificate as a Gold Certified Pantry and celebrate their accomplishment with pantry staff, volunteers and other members of the community!

Their accomplishments include:

-Improving client choice with new shelving and glass-front refrigeration/freezers to showcase the various foods they have available. They also designed their pantry to ensure it had proper lighting and adequate space for shopping.

-Creating an indoor waiting area, which provides a welcoming environment for those they serve and includes various resources including a nutrition education bulletin board, information on bundling of pantry food items, recipe ideas and taste tests as well as other information and outreach materials.

-Creating a detailed volunteer handbook to ensure volunteers are informed, trained (including food safety training) and are welcoming and supportive of those they serve.

-Establishing a succession plan to sustain their current program operations.

-Providing a hybrid model for community members to access food, which includes an online ordering form, delivery, pickup, and in-person shopping.

-Providing opportunity for clientele to give feedback in multiple ways (online or in person).



Congratulations, Newmarket Community Food Pantry!

Indoor Shopping Is Back!

The NHFB's Indoor Shopping area has now been open for about 5 weeks. The transition has primarily been a smooth one and that is thanks to your cooperation.

Here are a few quick reminders about the process of using the Indoor Shopping area.

• All shoppers must have taken the 20-minute zoom training sessions to be eligible to shop. This ensures you are aware of the safety procedures when entering the warehouse and are aware of the shopping process. Going forward, anyone who needs to acquire this training will be able to watch a video that our team is working to create.
• Please arrive on time. There is no need to arrive early as you will not be able to shop until your scheduled appointment time. If you arrive late, you may have to forfeit your shopping time.
• No cell phones are allowed on the shopping floor. If you need to use your phone for any reason, please step outside and away from the active Warehouse space.

New Agency Agreements

If you have been a partner agency of the NH Food Bank for many years, you will know that every 2 years (on even numbered years), we update our Agency Agreement and require all programs to submit updated Agreements with updated contact information.

This process will happen again in 2024 as planned, but our team is going to take this opportunity to create a new Agency Handbook and digitize the process for you. This means the new Agreement will not be required from you until later in the year, whereas in the past it has been done in the first few months of the year. We appreciate your patience in allowing us to finalize these documents and we hope that our Agency Handbook will be a good resource for everyone.

All sessions are held online via Zoom.

To enroll in any upcoming session, please contact your Agency Relations Coordinator. A zoom link will be sent out prior to the class for those who signed up to attend.

New Shopper Orientation

Thursday, February 15th @10:00am

Wednesday, March 6th @10:00am

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Safe Food Handling

For Food Pantries:

Thursday, February 1st @1:00pm

Monday, March 18th @9:30am

Tuesday, April 2nd @1:00pm

For Soup Kitchens & Prepared Meals:

Thursday, March 7th @1:30pm

Thursday, May 2nd @9:30am

All programs are required to have at least one person at their facility that is Safe Food Handling certified. Certification is good for 5 years.

• By now you should have received your 2023 Year End Letter from the NH Food Bank. If you did not receive that and would like a copy, please reach out to your Agency Relations Coordinator.
• If you missed one of our recent "Indoor Shopping" training sessions, we will soon be offering these sessions as a recorded video that you can watch on your own. Once this recording has been completed by our team, we will notify all programs with an explanation of where to find the video and how to view it.