WOW!  Compelling.  Moving.  Inspiring.

200,000 meals handed out in one summer….a summer with 3 weeks remaining…in one city, San Antonio…to children.

San Antonio is about 16% the size of New York, and handed out 36 million of pounds of food last year, 2009.

This summer, this one food bank handed out up to 5,000 meals; breakfast, lunch and snacks, at over 120 different sites.

In 2003, they handed out 34,000 meals for the entire summer.  With 3 weeks left to the summer here in 2010, they are projecting 260,000 meals – almost 8 times more than 2003. 

Nutrition is still an important component of the meals handed out as all items are approved by the USDA and meet Fruit/Veg, Bread/Grain, Milk or Meat/Meat Alternative requirements.

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First-grader, Robbie, decided he could make a difference in his community and came up with a clever way to help fight hunger. Robbie came up with the idea of selling cloth napkins and chose Food Bank of the Rockies, as his beneficiary. 

Robbie has already earned over $1,100 for the Food Bank of the Rockies and was just honored with an award from Golden’s mayor for his good work in the community!

Being a father of 2 small children, a 6yr old and 4yr old, when I see a story of a 6-7yr boy making this kind of impact so early on in his life, it is truly heartwarming!

 

Working for a food supplier that sources low cost food for Non-Profits, we know many of the food insecure across the country are children Robbie’s age.  To see that he has SOLD OUT of his first run of napkins and plans on continuing his fund raising campaign gives us all the inspiration to do more.

 

Thanks Robbie!

Thanks Food Bank of the Rockies!

 

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I just read a great quick Blog from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara, Second Harvest Blog. 

There was a food show held earlier this month by the National Association of College and University Food Services in San Jose.  As this convention was wrapping up the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara staff quickly rounded up 24 unsuspecting volunteers along with carts and bins to collect extra samples and food that wasnt handed out .  Within a short order of time, 8,000lbs of food was collected!

Having been to a few food shows in my time, there are so many booths with so many samples handed out.  Since no vendor wants to run out, everyone ends up bringing three times what they need for the show.

This solution helps feed the hungry and reduces the carbon foot print caused from shipping all unused samples back a supplier office or warehouse….or worse the waste caused by disposing of first quality food.

What a Great Idea!

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Maybe you are too young to remember Arsenio Hall…hoo hoo hoo (pumping fist right now like Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman”…ah the 80’s…)  Arsenio had a part of his show where he talked about things that made us go hmmmm? 

I was reading through some nutrition facts at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.  This is a great little website with some very interesting facts about obesity, food trends and healthcare costs attached to recent movements in eating habits.

What struck me in particular was the growth in obesity rate among younger children.   According to the website, over the past three decades, the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years.   

At present, approximately 9 million children over 6 years of age are considered obese and 15 percent are considered at risk of becoming overweight.  More than 60 percent of young people eat too much fat, and less than 20 percent eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

The thing that made me go hmmmmm…is that these same children who are becoming obese are also at the same time mal-nourished because of the empty calories they consume!

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So dear reader, if you didn’t already know most Food Banks across the country share similar programs to tackle the fight against hunger.  There are several programs specific for children who are food insecure:  Kid’s Summer Feeding Programs, Kid’s Back Pack Programs and Kid’s Café.  The goal is to feed children outside of School Feeding Programs.  The most critical time is in the evening, on weekends and over the summer.

St Mary’s in Arizona takes these programs to a whole new level.  They are involved in all the programs I listed above, but go beyond hunger outreach.  As a part of a community service drive, state inmates also participate in the fight against hunger.  While learning how to work within a large warehouse, many of the inmates help assemble boxes that feed families with children, fill kid’s back packs with food and work in the kid’s café producing hot meals.

At the end of our visit, we toured a working culinary learning facility complete with a conference style class room, full kitchen and food prep area.  Participants who are out of work not only get boxes of food to feed their families, but receive a culinary certificate after nine weeks of instruction while they work in the kid’s café preparing hot meals for children and the elderly.  The culinary facility also includes an employment center where participants are connected with hiring managers from local restaurants, hotels, resorts and kitchens throughout Phoenix.

St Marys really shows us that food is not only good for the body, but also good for the soul.

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If you are at all involved in Food Banking or Non-Profit Food Donations, you have probably have heard of St Mary’s Food Bank of Arizona (www.firstfoodbank.org) .  I made my first pilgrimage to the World’s Largest and Oldest Food Bank just recently.  It was only 110 in Phoenix, but it was “Dry Heat.”  I felt like I was running in from the rain as I headed to the nearest air conditioned building with the same urgency.

67 million pounds of food.  67 MILLION POUNDS OF FOOD.

As we toured the facility I kept repeating those 5 words in my mind.  Starting with one location 43 years ago in 1967, in Phoenix; St Mary’s has formed an Alliance and now has 5 locations in Phoenix, Flagstaff and Surprise. 

From one location alone, St Marys hands out 35,000 Shelf Stable Pantry Boxes every month to their clients.  They hand out 3 types of Pantry Boxes weighing 25lbs, 50lbs and 75lbs for a family of 2, 4 or 6.  On top of the shelf stable box, each client gets an equal amount of fresh produce and dairy.  Because so much food is handed out at one time, each client uses a large grocery cart with a volunteer who assists with loading and unloading.  This happens 35,000 times a month!

So much more to tell as we spent a few days in Arizona.  Stay tuned for the next blog entry…

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As I sit to write our daily blog for the very first time, I can’t help to think about images from the movie “Julia &  Julia”….except for me, I think about Coach John Wooden who just recently and sadly passed.   How did my connection to Coach Wooden all start?

Having children in my late 30’s I reached for inspiration to impart with my family as their “new patriarch” and received, by chance, a book from Lance Armstrong; “It’s Not About the Bike”.  I flew through it and picked up Lance’s second book and found another from Sidney Poitiers…and then Ben Franklin and Covey….until I landed on a few books by Coach Wooden…and the books from people who were “inspired” by him.   And that’s what struck me…the effect he had to “move” people.

Now in my 40’s…as I look at my children who are about to embark on kindergarten…and tell them about my day….I am excited to tell them what I do.  I made the choice to work with Non-Profit Organizations who help in the Fight Against Hunger: Food Banks, Soup Kitchens, Food Pantries and Relief Organizations.  It is what “moves” Me.

When I talk to my children about the importance of sharing and giving back to the community, I can now share with them all the stories I hear when I see different Food Banks and Non-Profits across the country.

Hopefully, I can share some of these same stories of people helping people in need with anyone who comes into touch with this blog. 

Just think…our first step is just a few inches…and before you know it we are walking miles.   Here is to our first step together in sharing awareness in the Fight to Feed the Hungry!

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Top ten rules to shop by!

This week, a couple of my colleagues and I had a discussion about the nutritional highlights of  Triscuits, and whether we thought they were healthy or not.  This got me thinking about how confusing the world of nutrition can be. Have you ever gone to the grocery store only to be totally overwhelmed with all the food choices? There might be 8 choices of cracker on the shelf, but which should you buy? There is so much nutrition information (and misinformation!) in the market place that it can be confusing to know where to start, let alone what foods to cook for your family.  Michael Pollen, a food writer extraordinaire, has a knack of being able to translate complicated nutrition information into no-nonsense recommendations that work. Below are his rules for grocery shopping, I suggest you make a copy and take it with you the next time you go to the store. If you follow his rules you’ll be purchasing and eating ‘real’ food most of the time - and this is the simplest way to a healthy diet.

1.     Don’t buy anything your Great Grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Like anything orange that isn’t salmon, a carrot or an orange.

2.     Avoid products containing ingredients that cannot be found in an ordinary pantry. Even better, avoid anything that contains more than five ingredients. Better still, if you can’t pronounce most of the ingredients, you don’t want to eat them.

3.     Don’t buy anything that lists sugar in its first three ingredients and no fructose corn syrup! Not even a little.

4.     Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay away from the middle - that’s where most of the processed food is shelved.

5.     If it came from a plant, buy it (and eat a lot of it). If it was made in a plant, pass it by.

6.     If it says lite, low-fat, or non-fat on the package, put it down. You’ll be more satisfied if you eat a little bit of the real thing.

7.     Avoid food that is pretending to be something it is not. This includes soy-based mock meats.

8.     Food making health claims on the package is not food you want to buy. Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign they have nothing valuable to say about your health.

9.     Avoid food that is advertised on television. And remember, if it is delivered through the window of a car, it is not food.

10.  Get out of the supermarket. Look to farmers markets for the majority of your food and snacks.

We are Good Source Non-Profit Solutions.  We have been partnering with the non-profit community since our company’s inception in 1989.  We work exclusively with food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, Share programs, Meals on Wheels, relief organizations and other non-profit agencies in order to fully understand the unique needs of this community.

We are excited to get our blog up and running and to have the opportunity to reach out to you, our customers, in a new and unique way.  We are looking forward to learning from you as we will be collectively sharing industry insights that we think will be of interest to helping your organization grow.

So, who will be contributing to the blog? Ilona Fordham and Rene Flohr will be the main blog contributors; Ilona is a registered dietitian and loves all things to do with food while Rene has been involved in sales and retail management for over a decade. Other contributors from our Non-Profits Team include: Laura Roche, Maureen Richards, Matt Story, Gaby Escobedo, and Dan Harrison. You’ll get to know us all a lot better as time goes, but for now, know that we’re a pretty close knit group that loves sharing ideas and best practices that support our customers’ business growth.

We welcome any and all comments so please subscribe to our blog and feel free to contribute.