15th Week Update - Miles Neighborhood Food Collection Project

Hi Folks,

Dan the manager at Safeway said that the Saturday after Easter is generally slow. There seemed to be fewer people streaming by our little table into the store but we collected nearly 32 lbs. of food and $9 in cash. I also met Ben, a gentleman who is very involved in charity work around Tucson. He really liked our One Can A Week program and equated our growing success to a drop of ink in a glass of water. Like the ink, he said our program will spread out slowly in all directions. He had some ideas on how he might participate and said he would contact me in a week
or so.

Taking A New Approach
Generally when I work on a project I take names and numbers and follow up rather quickly. With One Can A Week, I am behaving differently. I give out all of the information and wait to see if people are really motivated to get involved. Aisley and Peter McCallum from the Barrio San Antonio Neighborhood exemplify my new personal approach which allows things related to One Can A Week to happen organically.

Just Being Neighborly

I met Aisley and Peter at a Miles Neighborhood meeting and explained what I was doing. Aisley called a week or so later and we had a terrific sandwich at Beyond Bread. Then a short time after that, I got another call and they were ready to begin. This was only their second Sunday collecting food for the Community Food Bank but it was a big day. Their total was 158 lbs., beating their first week’s total of 43 lbs. by a mile.

Pictured are Aisling and Peter McCallum with their Super Shaded Hand Truck. Aisling makes a point that they’ve collected lots of food but they are only half way through their neighborhood route. They are take charge people who really take charge and their success shows me that I must keep on talking and be ready to help when someone speaks up.

Speaking of speaking up, if you know someone I should talk to about One Can A Week, please tell me and I will be happy to meet with an individual or a group.

Two Carts – 25 lbs. of pinto beans and a pair of

black pants
We had 222 lbs. of food and 44 lbs. of fruit for a total of 266 lbs this past Sunday. (We also had $16.56 in cash.) This bettered last week's total by 38 lbs.

One of our neighbors tossed in a pair of new pants (top of left cart) with his soup cans and amazingly the Community Food Bank accepted them. They generally don’t take clothing but when there is a donation, they give the garments to the homeless.

It's really great that with each passing week, we keep moving forward. This pattern of success I know will convince other neighborhoods to join us in our endeavor to eliminate hunger here in Tucson.

See you next Sunday.

Peter