20th Week Update - Miles Neighborhood Food Collection Project

Hi Folks,

Important and Clever Conversations
Last Thursday I got a call from Laura Burge, Council Administrative Assistant, at the Ward Six Council Office. She had heard my brief presentation at the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association on Tuesday and wanted to introduce One Can A Week to other neighborhoods she assists in Ward Six. I sent her and Christal Ferree all of my collateral materials plus an instruction sheet. Maybe Laura’s and Christal’s gesture will help encourage more donations for the Community Food Bank.

At lunch the same day with Bill Roach my business partner I told him about a woman at the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association meeting who jumped into the conversation on One Can A Week and said, “What a great idea, we can have people drop off their donations at the Himmel Library.”

I told her that won’t work as gently as possible. You have to go to their homes and pick up the One Can A Week. Bill who is a very astute marketer jumped into the story himself. “Of course you have to go pick up the donations,” he said. “Most Americans just want to stay home and sit on their cans.”

Good thing I wasn’t drinking my soda at the time. He would have been wearing it.

Safeway is a Good Thing That’s Getting Better
A few weeks ago a young woman asked me, “When the people come out do they give you the can then?” I told her yes that’s true because they don’t have any cans going into Safeway. Well, this past Saturday they had a lot of cans coming out…three stuffed shopping bags plus a full box. Generally we just fill up the One Can A Week box to the brim. We also collected $32.26 in cash donations.

Later in the evening as I was shopping I ran into Dan Buchanan, the manager and I told him about our good fortune. He said Safeway would support us all the way. I jokingly replied that at least we pay for our weekly spot with increased food sales. I think that’s the part of our conversation Dan liked the best.

First Holiday Away from Home
Sunday was rather quiet as I drove the neighborhood picking up the donations. Lots of people were away from home but most of our participants left their donations on the porch. We collected 214 lbs. of food and some money bringing our total cash donations to $35.26.

We have four more weeks to go in this quarter and I can tell you now that our donations to the Community Food Bank will more than double the first quarter’s 1,411 lbs. This is such great news and speaks well of the whole Miles Neighborhood.

Cabriolet Now Signing Community Food Bank Donations in a Big Way

People had to get up very close to read the 8 ½ x 11 sign hanging from the red umbrella. Now their piqued curiosity can be satisfied at 40 feet. There are two large door signs and an even larger umbrella sign. Notice the Quaker Oats products on either side of the umbrella sign? That’s our display of appreciation for the Go Grant which paid for the new look.

One Must Always Talk About Great Customer Service

If you or your company is in the market for signage I suggest you at least get a quote from Signs Now at 3955 E. Speedway – 325-7446. They have considerate pricing but their customer service is even better. I have a background in graphic design but I’m a little light when it comes to signage. Ben Orr, their Sales Consultant, took a lot of care to explain all aspects of my order and even produced a high res file of my One Can A Week logo for me.

How a problem is resolved whether you caused the situation or not is always a terrific way to judge a person or a business. I told them to position the door signs up against the door trim which was a mistake. I called to redo the door signs and they were most accommodating. They quickly applied new signage and at a reduced rate. That means they took a hit too. Of course I’m going back to Signs Now and I’m going to take as many people as I can with me.

See you next Sunday.

Peter