PROJECT SUSTAINMENT

Our project in itself was a training program for Niner Pantry volunteers. It was designed to help train the volunteers more efficiently and effectively. When we began, the idea of training volunteers was not a novel one; there was already a process in place. What we did, was implement part of the processes that were already in place. We added in details where necessary and converted the whole process to an online format, so that volunteers can now complete their training before ever stepping foot in the pantry. Our next step would be to test this new training program with potential volunteers and the pantry coordinators, to see how effective it is in educating volunteers.

In the future, we expect there to be further implementations of this training program. We aggregated all aspects of the current training program in one simplified location and set up an assessment at the end to test attentiveness and retention. We presume that in the future, students may find a better medium in which to convey this information. We would recommend talking to the student leader in charge of the operating the Niner Pantry in order to see what is working, what is still needed, and what needs to be changed. Some advice we have for future students taking on the project is that communication is vital. Make sure to communicate and coordinate with the pantry to see what they are looking for, and communicate within your group to see what needs to be done to brainstorm possible solutions. Implementing and editing a previous idea could prove to be difficult, as the new group may not have the capabilities of editing the program directly, or perhaps in trying to understand our reasoning behind what was done.

We honestly feel that the training program we have established is thorough and efficient enough to last at least temporarily; any foreseeable future changes would be minor. We still need to test this program on possible volunteers, to see if it functions as intended, and to receive feedback on that. As of now, we would evaluate our project as a success. We met/exceeded all of our goals and produced a working product, that not only is a more efficient use of the pantry’s time, but is also very thorough and informative in nature.