The first thing that food banks need is money. So the Donate button is going right here so that you can't miss it.
For every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 7 meals to men, women and children facing hunger in our country.
Ameriprise Financial will make a 2 to 1 match of any donation until the end of September. That means that for every dollar you donate for the next 5 days you are funding 21 meals.
When I was asked to do a diary for the Feeding America Blogathon, I set my Googles to the task: first, to find out what Feeding America was, and second: to find out a little bit more about food banks and food pantries.
Feeding America has some pretty simple origins:
In the late 1960s, John van Hengel, a retired businessman in Phoenix, Arizona began volunteering at a local soup kitchen, and began soliciting food donations for the kitchen. He ended up with far more food than the kitchen could use in its operations. Around this time, he spoke with one of the clients, who told him that she regularly fed her family with discarded items from the grocery store's garbage bins. She told him that the food quality was fine, but that there should be a place where unwanted food could be stored and later accessed by people who needed it, similar to how banks store money.
Van Hengel began to actively solicit this unwanted food from grocery stores, local gardens, and nearby produce farms. His effort led to the creation of St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, the nation's first food bank.
(I want to pause here for minute to think about a time when a food kitchen had too much food).
The food banks became Second Harvest which in turn became Feeding America in 2008:
Feeding America is the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity. Our mission is to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.
Each year, the Feeding America network provides food to more than 37 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.
Our network of more than 200 food banks serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, securing and distributing more than 2.5 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually. Those member food banks support approximately 61,000 local charitable agencies and 70,000 programs, which provide food directly to individuals and families in need.
There are three things that a food pantry needs to survive:
- Donations
- Volunteers
- Community
I found the web site of a nearby food pantry in Dane County Wisconsin and will share the information about it here. It is probably not typical in that it serves a community of about 25,000 and is in a suburb of a city (Madison) that has not been hit as hard as others by the Great Recession. But it has the three components and will provide a decent model.
Here is the 2009 recap from the web site of the Sun Prairie Emergency Food Pantry:
• In 2009 the number of households served was 8,458; up from 7,318 in 2008. This represents a 15.5% increase over last year.
• This increase, which includes the Thanksgiving Food Baskets and the Mobile Food Pantry, equates to approximately 512,077 pounds of food distributed through the Food Pantry in 2009.
• By October of this year, the Food Pantry had distributed over a million pounds of food since moving into Sunshine Place in April of 2007.
• Expenses for 2009 totaled almost $103,000.00. The vast majority of the expense going towards the purchase of food.
• During this same period, income from donations totaled nearly $127,000.00.
This increase, while significant, does not come as a surprise given the continued economic hardships of 2009. We were also able to reduce our expenses from the previous year by taking full advantage of our partnerships with Second Harvest, the Community Action Coalition as well as area grocery stores and wholesale food distributors. By using these organizations the Pantry is assured of getting as much food as it can, and as economically as possible, by securing it for free or a significantly reduced price. However, enough cannot be said about the generosity of the community. This component has and will continue to be the foundation of any success the Food Pantry has in serving those in need of our services.
Securing the food is the first step in the process. Distribution of this much food takes a significant amount of work and coordination from a dedicated volunteer group. This is accomplished not by any one person or group but by literally hundreds of volunteers in the community. The number of hour volunteers spent collecting, stocking and distributing over half a million pounds of food is every bit as significant as the food and dollars donated.
The Second Harvest Mobile Food Pantry has also been an integral part of the Pantry. Working with Second Harvest, clients can collect additional food, which is distributed on the last Tuesday of each month. This year, the Mobile Food Pantry has provided approximately 77,000 pounds of food for families in need at no cost to the Food Pantry.
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The three components:
1. Donations.
Donations are money, non-perishable food items and personal care/household items. It should not surprise anyone that people who need help feeding their family also do not have money to buy personal care and household items. This list (pdf) includes items like shampoo, toothpaste, soap, diapers, baby wipes, baggies, aluminum foil and other things that people need and which are distributed by the food pantry.
2. Volunteers
If you look closely at the "income" of the food pantry there is not a lot of money for paid help. Volunteers are crucial to the organization and they do things like pick up food donations, stock the shelves and help the people who are served by the food pantry during the hours it is open. In one of the Feeding America diaries it was estimated that the value of an hour of volunteer time to a food pantry is $17. Volunteers giving their time means more money that can be spent on food.
3. Community.
The ties to the community are crucial to the success or failure of the local food pantry. City government, the schools, the churches, fraternal organizations. In the case of this food pantry, here are a few of the community connections:
Postal Workers Food Drive - This year's Postal Workers Food Drive held on Saturday, May 8 was a huge success. Over 12,000 lbs of food was collected in a single day for the Food Pantry. Members of the Sun Prairie High School Freshman Baseball team and North Bristol Sportsmens Club Little League team helped to unload the trucks and sort the food.
But Hunger in America is more than numbers: pounds and dollars. Hunger in America has a face...the faces of those who depend on food pantries to survive. They are the people in these videos.
New Food Pantry Opens in Blue Mounds WI
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Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin – Mobile Food Pantry Program
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And I would like to add a plug for Progressives here:
You know who benefits from food pantries? We all do. Because when we feed the hungry we exemplify the best of our Progressive Values – putting people above profits and valuing human life.
The BPI Campus Progressive agenda:
- People matter more than profits.
- The earth is our home, not our trash can.
- We need good government for both #1 and #2.
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Action items brought to you by rb137
(Stolen Recycled by permission)
Urgent: If you do one thing in response to this blogathon, please call (or email) House members about the Child Nutrition Bill -- and have them act before it expires on September 30. You can also use this quick action tool that asks them to strengthen the bill.
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 expired on September 30, 2009, and was extended until September 30, 2010. It is the 11th hour for our kids that have nothing to eat, and depend on their school lunch program for food.
During the 2009 federal fiscal year, 19.5 million children received free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program. In the same year, only 2.2 million eligible children participated in the Summer Food Service Program.
If you have the means, please donate to Feeding America by clicking on the box to the right. They help hungry kids through their Backpack Program, the Kid's Cafe, and Magic Summer Lunchbox programs.
Remember that Ameriprise Financial will match your donation two for one through September 30 -- which means that every dollar you donate results in 21 meals to hungry people.
Or...
Volunteer at your local food pantry or food bank. In 2008, Food Lifeline estimated that one hour of volunteer work was worth a $17 donation. Using that equivalence, an hour's work frees resources to provide one meal each to 294 people (includes matching funds from Ameriprise Financial.) Food has to be packed, loaded, shipped, checked for safety, sorted, and distributed. Sometimes there is office work, and other times there are jobs that nobody can predict. If there is a food recall, for example, the national inventory has to be checked against safety databases...
If you want to help volunteer at a pantry or soup kitchen, you can start by using this tool to find a foodbank. The listings here are distribution centers that serve foodbanks all over the nation. These contacts are a great place to call and find out who needs help -- or where there is a food pantry nearby if you need one.
Check with homeless advocacy groups such as National Coalition for the Homeless. You might find something local to you. They often need help, or odd things like duct tape, garbage bags, and clothing. Coats, boots, hats. It's a great way to downsize and get rid of stuff you never use. My last donation was disposable cups, bowls, paper plates, and a garbage bag full of men's clothes to a nearby tent city.
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All times Eastern!
Saturday, Sept 25:
10:00a -- rb137
1:00p -- teacherken
4:00p -- Patriot Daily
7:00p -- srkp23
10:00p -- boatsie
Owls -- Jay in Portland
Sunday, Sept 26
10:00a -- JanF < ------ You Are Here
1:00p -- Aji
4:00p -- Timroff
7:00p -- Chacounne
10:00p -- blue jersey mom