YA Services Minutes - April 19, 2023

Guest Speaker – Jhonhenri Lee, Food for Kids Coordinator at the Regional Foodbank of Oklahoma 

RFBO is our Read It Forward recipient this year if we reach our Community Goal of 12 million points. They distribute about 50 million pounds of food per year. Good Faith Donor Bill allowed retailers, food manufactures, and distributors to more freely donate food to the Regional Food Bank. Oklahoma routinely ranks as one of the 10 hungriest states, with high food insecurity. Lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. The quality of food is low. Oklahoma has toe most severe food insecurity for children and 5th highest for food insecurity across all ages. RFBO serves 53 counties in central and western Oklahoma. 

Programs: Food for communities – Partner network of more than 300 Food for Community Partners: pantries, congregate meal sites, direct service agencies Trainings, food safety updates, SNAP outreach, operational support. 

Hunger on Collage Campuses: 50% of college students could not afford to eat a balances meal and 35% were skipping meals due to lack of funds. Food insecurity in college students affects college completion rates as students are forces to drop out to solve their hunger problem. 

Food for Health Programs: Health Stats for Oklahoma. 36.4% obesity (national rate 31.9%). OK has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the country. Oklahoma is 49th in the country for consumption of vegetables and fruit (Kentucky is 50th). Food for health programs: Healthy Pantries, Healthcare Partnerships, Community Access Program.  

Food for Seniors: Hunger takes a severe toll on seniors’ health. OK is among the top 10 states for food insecurity among seniors. Programs include Senior Mobile Market, Senior Pantries, Senior Servings, and Senior Home Delivery. 

Food For Kids Programs: Childhood hunger. ~60% of OK children participate in the federally-funded free or reduced cost school meals program. Chronic food insecurity impacts the emotional, physical, and cognitive development of children. Food is the most vital school supply as kids cannot learn when they are hungry. Programs include: Backpack program, School Pantry, Kids Café, and Summer Feeding. 

OES Updates 

Summer Reading – Emily – Challenges are live and guests can start pre-registering now, please send out educator toolkit/teacher training module to contacts. Be sure to complete your training before the end of April. No fine waivers this year. The community goal is 12 million points. Marketing pieces have been routed out. No school mailings this year because many schools no longer hand out paper flyers to students. Everything SR related will be on the intranet. 

Various Teen Services Updates – Emily - Thanks to everyone who went to the Juvenile Justice Center. Next month the summer Pivot tours start. A lot of people signed up and there is a waiting list. Emily will see about scheduling some additional tours for people on the waiting list. Dungeons and Dragons training was last month (thank you to Shelbie and Meg for helping with it). Lots of resources are available on Teen Services SharePoint if you are interested in doing tabletop games. 

Summer Volunteers – Heidi – We currently have 146 volunteers placed. Expecting to have a more normal number of volunteers this year. Heidi will be on vacation May 1-16. RE needs more volunteers. This is still a building year, there is no requirement about the number of volunteers you should have. Teen recognition event is at the end of July. 

Sharing and Programming Discussion  

Kim (OES) - New Literacy Initiative – BRE (Book Rich Environment) with Public Housing. OKC metro has a high illiteracy rate. We are partnering with them. They will be receiving 10,000 books each year for ages 0-18 to hand out in public housing. Potential kick-off event in May and programming throughout the year. Block party-style event. 

Claudia (CH) - Starting period-hygiene kits. Afterschool snack series starts next week. Blackout poetry was a huge success. Storytimes, Total Wellness meets weekly, BIPOC bookclub, mini-succulents 

Kenzie (NW) - STEM series for the summer with UCO Forensic Institute, Oklahoma Women in Technology, an engineeer from Devon, & an architect from ADG Blatt. Will do experiments, coding challenge, and learn about STEM. 

Kassy (NW) - Teen volunteer spots are almost full. AAPI craft programs. Rainbow needle punch patch, revamping teen space. Collaborative art project. 

Mary (CL) - Has 22 teen volunteers. Mario escape room is ready for Teen Volunteer Party and has been testing it out with some groups. Kumihimo (Japanese art of braiding) keychain program. 

Lacy (SO) - Fan Art/Fan Fiction party. Thanks to everyone who helped judge. Still new at SO still planning future programs. Kristin Lankford will be back tomorrow. 

Rena (RE) - Finally having teens in. Got a Switch and teens have been loving it. Groovemeant Community is coming back this fall after the success of their last program. Getting ready for first D&D program. 3D printing dice towers 

Anton (MC) - Regular programs going well: fandom night, acrylic painting, tie dye party, summer anime movie night starting in May, cookie decorating in May 

Anna (BE)- 3D printing something to weave kumihimo. Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem month in May: local true crime podcast, Live action Clue, murder mystery party, forensic specialist from UCO will talk about ancestry DNA to track down serial killers, children’s fingerprint kit 

Shelbie (DC) - Book subscription and D&D programs taking a break in the summer. Partnering with local Girl Scout troop for program, This is Going to be Epic (STEAM program), OWL Camp (Harry Potter camp), teen maker studio (open maker lab), almost full for teen volunteers. 

Ryn (ED) - Monthly board game night has been very successful, gearing up for summer, repeating Mascarade Mystery program that had been done virtually in the past, escape room (locked in the library), OKC Improv will teach a class, therapy dogs will come in and talk about how to become a therapy dog handler and train your dog, Wings of Fire fandom event, sewing camp in June, crochet camp in July. 

Kimberly (DN) - Geekcon coming up on May 13. Looking for more vendors. Will have cosplay contest and OKC Improv. Art Around the World Dance this Saturday. DN has done a lot of interviews for teen volunteers. Andrew will be doing a coffee and conversation in the atrium with Not Your Average Joes. Come Downtown and check out Kimberly’s GeekCon display in May! 

Erin (PSA) - WA is going through transition. One of the HT staff will begin doing programming. Not a lot planned for this summer but working on adding a few more things to the calendar. ESL classes have been going well. No teen volunteers have signed up yet. Admin is doing GX trainings. 

Meg (SCR) - ZineFest zines are being added to the archives. People are voting on names for zine collection. We have a library wiki, working on fleshing it out about local history and culture. Roller derby archive. 

Heidi (DVS) - If you need help finding teen volunteers let Heidi know. If your slots are filled we can close that opportunity. T-shirts and name tags are being ordered in batches, so don’t be worried if you get a lot at the beginning and some are still missing. You can make new buttons if needed. 

Kristin (OES) - Please sign up to work the booth at the Scissortail Park Farmers Market and Penn Square Mall, if you have supervisor approval. We still have lots of spots available.