242nd Week Update - Miles Neighborhood One Can A Week Project

                                                                                   … UPDATE …

John Gallow has helped in many, many ways over the years to keep me and One Can A Week going. Now all his efforts have come home to roost. On Wednesday, the 14^th he sent me an email telling me to:

“Check this out, small world. See below.

The mayor is speaking to our office next Tues. morning.”

Although I’m only the pickup guy for the Mayor’s One Can A Meeting program, I got involved in this particular Coldwell Banker meeting early because John is a realtor for the firm. He gave me a heads up when he received the meeting notice.

It all started when Patty Erickson, the Branch Manager at Coldwell Banker, talked to Karla Avalos-Soto in the Mayor’s office about the Mayor’s One Can A Meeting program and she really liked the idea. Patty then told everyone who was coming to the meeting to “surprise the Mayor with a large donation.” They did, too, a total of 86 lbs. and a $5.00 cash donation.

Days after the meeting when I was helping John with a project he told me that “The Mayor did a great job and everyone was impressed.” Well, that was no surprise. He’s a good speaker.

It all started when Patty Erickson, the Branch Manager at Coldwell Banker, talked to Karla Avalos-Soto in the Mayor’s office about the Mayor’s One Can A Meeting program and she really liked the idea. Patty then told everyone who was coming to the meeting to “surprise the Mayor with a large donation.” They did, too, a total of 86 lbs. and a $5.00 cash donation.

At the tail end of the Mayor’s meeting schedule email is the line, “You can join the Mayor's "One Can a Meeting" program. Just bring a non-perishable food item to your meeting. There's a Food Bank collection box right in the conference room.”

This worked well, indeed, especially when Karla engaged in a follow up conversation before the meeting.

I emailed the Community Food Bank donation results to Patty Erickson and included a breakdown on how many folks 86 lbs. can feed. The answer is three meals in one day for 28 people. Even the $5.00 cash donation they had can provide for 6 more people.

Patty thought the agents would enjoy learning about what their donations can actually produce. She ended her email by telling me she is considering her own One Can A Week program.

That would be such a good thing if everyone in offices around Tucson could follow in the Mayor’s footsteps. Lots of hungry kids wouldn’t be hungry any more.

What does it take

to make folks reach out just a little?

The Community Food Bank is sponsoring a SNAP challenge September 3 – 6 where participants try to live 4 days spending only $1.33 per meal. (Go online to www.cfbsnapchallenge.org to register.)

The idea is you may achieve some insight into what it is like living in abject poverty and then get involved in some kind of food related community service. Myself, I talk about TUSD and how 71% of the nearly 50,000 student population receives partial or fully paid for meals. Like the food bank I am trying to awaken a sense of concern that is often dormant in many folks

For some reason I was awaken as a kid sitting in a pew listening to another parable. As I remember it, some people were given 30 Talents and those who invested the gold to help others were the good guys and those who just buried it weren’t. That made perfect sense to me.

I also liked the double entendre for the word talent. Kids are easy to amuse.

Now as the pearly gates are getting closer and closer for many of us I imagine those who buried their talents in banks and investments will be surprised when they are at the head of the line.

“So what did you do with your talents?”

“Invested them, made lots of money and built a big business.”

“Did you feed the poor?”

“Some.”

“Go to the back of the line.”

When appearing at the head of the line again those resourceful ones when asked, “So what did you do with your talents?” will probably answer “I left all of my money to my kids with strict instructions to feed the poor and do lots of other important things.”

“Good answer, you may enter now and please take the path on the right to our Public Housing Complex.”

So what I got out of that fascinating parable and my irony laden imagination was pay the dues now or you’ll definitely pay them later.

Now that should do it!

This is a case of the negative quickly accentuating the positive.

Sprout customers with trash to pitch still found the food bin irresistible so the management decided to catch their eye before the bin caught their stuff.

And one yellow sign with black lettering was not enough to do the job. It took two because many of the customers shot from the side.

Now the bin is fresh and clean, ready for cans and other food stuffs. And the best part is all of the customers with trash to discard learn about One Can A Week … just before they move on.

Truckload Number Nine


Of the 378 lbs. we took to the food bank today, 262 of those pounds belonged to the Mile Neighborhood which included 78 lbs. from Maen’s Axis Food Mart. In addition, Sprouts donated 60 lbs. and Shiva Vista, 56 lbs. of the total poundage.

If they just knew who to call
While picking up a printing job for Maen, a young lady in a Burger King uniform approached and asked me who she could call when her Burger King has bread and things like that to donate. I gave her my card and said I will pick up the donation whenever she is ready.

Obviously, my next big challenge is to figure our how everyone with food to donate knows to call One Can A Week. Maybe I’ll talk to Bobby Rich at MIXfm. He’s good at getting the word out.

We collected a total of 262 lbs. of food. The money we donated amounted to $31.00, a $25.00 check and $6.00 in cash.

See you Sunday,

Peter