I lost my job in April 2009 and was unemployed for over a year. It's a story that the whole nation knows well. With the most the Americans ever before using food stamps, there is a serious hunger problem. 48.5 million Americans, that is 1 in 5 of our citizens.
And as you know, the great recession keeps on going with little end in sight. The Orange County Food Bank has rising demands, just as other cities.
Food Bank Demand Soars To Record Levels In LA, OC
A record surge in demand for food assistance around the Southland is putting a strain on local food banks.
Even with food pantries serving about 330,000 people per month in Los Angeles County — up a whopping 73 percent from 2008 — there are an estimated 1.7 million Los Angeles County residents that are still struggling with hunger.
Officials from the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and in Orange County told KNX 1070′s Claudia Peschiutta on Thursday that while food distribution has hit one million meals per week, that number is still falling short.
Summer is a rough time for food banks, people are on vacation even when hunger does not take time off. There has to be creative ways to raise awareness before the Holidays and The Orange County Food Bank has found one (It's actually a world wide competition if you google it).
And now this year, The OC Food Bank is back with its annual CANstruction event.
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Costa Mesa, CA, July 28, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Orange County Canstruction® Design/Build Competition at South Coast Plaza to Have 15 Structures Built of 60,000 Canned Foods to Support Orange County Food Bank.
One of the most visually stunning demonstrations of talent and creativity within the architectural and engineering communities will provide a much‐needed source of food for the Orange County Food Bank, which services the more than 500,000 Orange County residents who are food insecure.
On September 2nd, after the South Coast Plaza has closed for business, 15 teams of architects, contractors, engineers and design students alike will be busy building structures made entirely out of canned foods, in Orange County’s 4th Annual Canstruction® Design/build Competition. It will take these teams 12 hours working throughout the night to create structures that will have people wondering “How did they build that?” and saying “Wow that is amazing.”
Well, I work for Dougherty + Dougherty Architects and this is our 4th consecutive year of participating in CANstruction. The press release uses one of our design in their promotion.
That's snoopy by the way. Whimsical isn't it?
I am honored to work for this company, they've given me hope. And I love that we do work such as this to help people in our community. I've also been given my own opportunities to grow as a person and an employee. That's a lot in this kind of employment environment. But I am proud to say that I work for D+D, that they do amazing things as architects, are interested in sustainable design and supporting their employees interests outside the usual grind (Today we're spending time doing "Innovation" day where we can spend four hours on things we want to spend more time exploring. I wanted to learn more about transition towns, help with CANstruction and explore other career opportunities).
So I am here to ask you to help Dougherty + Dougherty reach their ambitious goal this year to build their next CANstruction project. It's going to take a lot of cans which means a lot of money to raise.
This year, it's Hello Kitty, Goodbye Hunger! I can tell you my eight year old loves this years theme. And I am asking for you to support us. I am not asking for a lot. $5 goes a long way. And with a few Daily Kos friends donating, it could help us meet our goal.
Please go check out our Team's CANstruction 2011 website for design details and the donation button. I need your help, if you support this, this helps me and it helps those who are hungry. If you don't want to use paypal, you can send a check. And if you do donate, please put Heather in your note they know you are doing this because I asked. It would mean so much to me.
And please make sure you are donating to D +D Canstruction, it is actually going through my PayPal account, that's how much they trust me as an employee and how much this project means to me.
This community has been here for me when I've asked you to help other people, I am asking you to help my Team raise the money so we can buil our structure. I love where I work and I am so lucky to have a job, I want to show the people I work with how much that means to me.
Thanks everyone!