By Rebecca Clark of the Shelby Star
Cleveland Vocational Industries Inc. has ensured that some people aren’t forgotten this holiday season. Namely, those behind bars. Each year, CVII’s workforce processes and packages orders for inmates at 81 prisons across the state. “This year we did a total of 23,157 orders,” said Marketing Director Jeff Adams. “It’s up from last year’s 22,414 orders.” Adams said all of the proceeds would go to support the individuals with special needs that CV serves.
As part of CV’s contract with the state Department of Correction, the company offers more than 180 food items to family and friends of inmates, who can order the items online or through a mail order. All the items were shipped out to the prisons last week to ensure they arrive before Dec. 25. Cleveland Vocational started the program in 2003. Since then it has been growing steadily each year. “We fine tune it every year,” Adams said. “We learn each year what could be better. It’s a pretty tight ship.”
The process is streamlined with their gift-packaging program that automates much of the process. Adams said they have a state of the art bar code scanning “pick and pack” line with a total of eight stations. Labels are scanned at each station and items added from the order. “One [station] might have M&Ms and another might have pickles,” Adams said. After the final step of packaging, the items are stored on pallets and ready to be shipped out.
They operate the service two months out of the year and use a combination of staff, clients at CV, and the occasional temp worker. “It’s really something we’re proud of,” CV’s Ken Bagby previously told The Star. “It generates a lot of payroll for people who rise to the occasion to get the job done.”
All items are nonperishable or “shelf stable” foods, that are ordered from vendors and include anything from Moon Pies to Snickers. Ideally this …would be a year-round thing,” Adams said. “Our dream is to be able to utilize it and create jobs year round.”