53rd Week Update - Miles Neighborhood Food Collection Project

Hi Folks,

The Look of One Can A Week
Howard and I just finished weighing in this week’s food donations and he was walking me to my car down the ramp that runs along side the loading docks at the Community Food Bank. I usually park 50 or 60 feet from the bottom of the ramp because that’s where the sun shines. I want to shoot the shopping cart in the sun to get brighter photos.

In the shadows at the base of the ramp there was a gentleman nearly finished unloading his donations from his trunk into the cart. I was taken with the look of that cart. There were all kinds of plastic bags filled with all kinds of different foods leaning on each other a bit helter skelter, just like the carts I fill up every Monday.

I asked the gentleman who introduced himself as Bruce Rumpf where he got the food. He said he collects the donations every other week at his RV park on Ajo Way. I suggested he do it every week and handed him my One Can A Week business card. As soon as he saw One Can A Week he explained he read an article in the newspaper and decided to start the program in his neighborhood but collects every other week instead of every week. I knew that shopping cart looked like One Can A Week donations. Can’t fool me.

Bruce also stated that the folks in the Desert Pueblo RV Park meet weekly and drop off their donations at the recreation center. He said they call it “Sunday Curbside.” He does not go around collecting but consistently gets a large amount of food. When folks have a centralized weekly activity near their homes they can remember to bring along food to donate. Fascinating!

Another thing Bruce does is display a huge thermometer with the biweekly tallies. This is a great idea and soon there will be one on display here in our neighborhood.

Persistence, Great Communication and Rapport

These are some of Dot Kret’s favorite words. Remember, Dot is the owner of DKA on the corner of Broadway and Vine and her whole company donates to our neighborhood One Can A Week program.

Late last Friday Jorge Ruiz, a DKA staffer and Highland Street neighbor dropped off a card at my home. Inside was a touching note talking about how Dot appreciated my efforts with One Can A Week. In a surprising demonstration of that appreciation, she also included a $200 check for the Community Food Bank.

The truth is I am just doing what I normally do … helping folks when I see a need … but Dot sure knows how to keep me fired up.

Surrounded By One Can A Week

Maen Mdanat, the new owner of the Axis Food Mart on Broadway and Cherry wants to make sure everyone can see that he is very involved with One Can A Week. He even has a little sign on the cash register's digital sales display which no customer can miss. In addition, he talks to every one of his vendor reps about helping the Community Food Bank. Maen (pronounced mon as in monastery) is quite a charmer so no one can resist his request…especially the kids who drop their small change in the coin canister right there in front.

Speaking of Vendors

Lots of Maen’s customers dropped food in the large Community Food Bank box next to the front door. Vendors, on the other hand, just stacked up their donations outside the box. This week the Axis Food Mart collected 112 lbs. of food which will be added to our Miles Neighborhood total.

Off to A Great Start

This is our first week in 2010 and the tallies were terrific. We collected 264 lbs. of food. That’s our 152 lbs. plus the Axis 112 lbs. On top of that we had $219 in donations … DKA’s $200 check and $19 in cash. Can’t wait to see what surprises are going to pop up next week.

See you Sunday,

Peter