Tuesday, September 22, 2009

37th Week Update - Miles Neighborhood Food Collection Project

Hi Folks,

A New Record
Richard Fimbres our neighbor on Miles—and the Ward 5 Democratic candidate for the open seat in the Southside Council ward—once donated along with his mother a 25 pound bag of black beans. That was something.

Today, Richard set the bar even higher. He, along with LULAC, “the largest and oldest Hispanic Organization in the United States” recently talked to Tyson Foods, Inc and through their efforts, Tyson decided to donate 15 tons of frozen chickens to the Community Food Bank. That works out to more than 24,000 protein rich meals for needy folks. Just amazing Richard and LULAC!

The Tyson truck arrived at the Community Food Bank just before 9 am and was greeted by lots of local dignitaries. Our mayor Bob Walkup was there to say a few words. Bill Carnegie, CEO of the Community Food Bank (in the photo below on the right), also spoke and made all of the introductions. I guess they chose him because he knew everybody there is the loading area of their huge warehouse. Bill even mentioned the Miles neighborhood and One Can A Week program. I took his picture because of that.

Free Meeting Rooms, Almost
Nina Trasoff, Ward 6 council member came over to talk to Lisa Hepner who collects donations in the Catalina Vista neighborhood and me about her success with One Can A Week. If you remember, Nina and her people oversee several free meeting rooms and they suggest that folks who use the facilities might make a food donation as a token of their appreciation. The idea has caught on and in the past few months she has collected over 800 pounds of food for the Community Food Bank. At the end of our conversation Lisa and Nina exchanged business cards. I was left out because I’m Ward 5. Just kidding, I gave Nina my business card some time ago.

An Interesting Idea
Bob Vorsanger (at the podium) is the regional Sale Manager for Tyson’s Food Service Group. Richard introduced me and said Bob should learn about One Can A Week. I thought so, too. However, before I said anything about One Can A Week, I thanked him a bunch of times for his company’s generosity because lots of hungry folks are going to enjoy some very fine protein soon.

Since One Can A Week is an idea not an organization I started there and said we need no funding. But I would really like companies such as Tyson involved. They could help promote One Can A Week across the country as part of their community service campaign. They would continue to donate tons of chickens as they do annually, and in addition, ask citizens in every community to donate One Can A Week Once they got involved, other food companies would join them because it is only added words to their campaigns not added expenses. This simple corporate gesture of promoting One Can A Week in neighborhoods everywhere would really put hunger in America on the ropes.

Bob said he wouldn’t mind being added to our email list and he gave me his business card. Now that’s a good sign.

At the Weigh-in
Bobby Matney spent Sunday helping me pick up this brimming shopping cart of food, all 188 lbs. of it. It was hard work and his mom said it required a two hour nap for him to recalibrate. Now it’s Monday and Bobby gets to see how the food is distributed at the Community Food Bank Then its back to school without any snooze time.

See you next Sunday.

Peter

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