Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership

In sarpy county, encap owns and operates the bellevue pantry. The pantry offers food distribution services daily at 1912 hancock street in bellevue, ne. The pantry also delivers food to individual households who are not able to visit the pantry due to mobility or health challenges. The bellevue pantry provides meal-based distribution. Items supplied are coordinated with recipe suggestions so that families can make a meal out of the food they receive. This is intended to make meal planning easier, give relief to already stretched budgets, and reduce food waste. The bellevue pantry serves more than 15,000 individuals each year. Of those served last year, approximately 16% (or 1 in 7 households) were active-duty, veterans, or military families. The bellevue pantry is a value-added service to the offutt air force base community. The pantry operates five days a week, and offers food distribution services 30 hours per week, including no cost food delivery services for those who may be experiencing barriers to transportation to anyone who resides in sarpy county. This kind of readily available, consistent support can contribute to the readiness and resilience of service members, which positively impacts the installation's mission capabilities. In november of 2023, a new location was purchased to better serve and accommodate the needs of our pantry and its guests.

Encap provides multiple evidence-based initiatives within its senior longevity program to adults aged 60+ in douglas county, primarily north omaha, to improve participants' physical, social, and emotional health: bingocize and stay active and independent for life (sail). In addition, participants engage in a diversity of enrichment and educational activities, including gardening, cooking and nutrition classes, digital literacy, and arts/culture. Through the senior ambassadors program, participants provide peer-to-peer support and recruit and welcome new seniors.

Based on social work theory and practice, encap's support services (fss) department provides financial hardship assistance (direct and referral), financial education, and ongoing coaching and connections to community resources. Support services partners with a diverse group of community organizations, schools, volunteers, and churches in both douglas and sarpy counties to meet the needs of households facing crisis. Support services collaborates with community response initiatives in both counties to help reduce unnecessary entry of families into the child welfare system, to strengthen family and child well-being, and to help create systems-level improvements and prevention resources for families. Encap also provides free rides to and to and from programming for older adults participating in encap's senior longevity program. In addition, encap provided fee-for-service transporation to participants of peer nonprofit organizations to and from their respective programming during the fiscal year.