Hi Folks,
… UPDATE …
Karla Avalos-Soto
was already in the conference room with a guest but she invited me in anyway to
empty the food bank box. “There’s a lot of food in there this time,” she said.
As I dove into the deep box Mayor R othschild
In my attempt too hurry, I fumbled and dropped many of the
can on the floor while trying to stuff them into those flimsy, long handled
shopping bags. Eventually I lifted the three bulging bags and squeezed by the
Mayor’s chair at the head of the table.
“Keep up the good work,” he said as I quickly moved out into
the reception area.
“You, too, Mayor” I thought but was not composed enough to
utter those words aloud then … so I’ll say them here now.
More than Cans and Cash ...
There's Opportunity at Sprouts
With the routine, regularity and stream of familiar
customers at the Rincon Market for
the past three years, I completely forgot about a very important element in the
marketing of One Can A Week. New
customers means new and exciting opportunities.
My M.O. is to stand behind the display table so as not to physically confront those walking by. I watch their eyes and if they slow a bit to read the large sign on the front of the table I wait a moment until they almost push their shopping carts passed the table and then ask, "Have you heard of this program?
My M.O. is to stand behind the display table so as not to physically confront those walking by. I watch their eyes and if they slow a bit to read the large sign on the front of the table I wait a moment until they almost push their shopping carts passed the table and then ask, "Have you heard of this program?
They can turn their head, smile, nod and keep on walking
which many do. The question stops the truly curious and intrigued.
After a brief explanation of the Miles Neighborhood program I mention that I am bringing One Can A Week to the folks at Sprouts because I believe “business can
solve most of our social ills.” Then I quickly delve in the capitalist approach
to One Can A Week.
One young lady was quite delighted to hear these words and
said “I totally agree with you” a couple of times as if she did not say that
phrase very often. I just had to tell her I was a “serious liberal” but I, too,
think business and community service, not government, will move our country
forward.
She then told me she was a conservative and that her husband
was a liberal so they do not talk much about politics. The fun part in our
conversation was that she had not thought about solving social problems without
a political filter. As she left to do her shopping she said she would stop by
with a can on the way. And that happened.
A short time later, Nicole and her young son were stopped by
my trolling question. Her motivation to talk was her son. She wanted to get him
involved with some sort of community service program even though he was just 6
or 7.
The theory “business will solve many of our social ills” may be just that, a theory, but there are now so many anecdotal indications—like Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines fame funding social/business startups—that someday soon it may prove to be a fact. I, for one, will not stop experimenting until I hit upon the right formula.
Everybody Out
Tom told me as I pushed the cart up on the scales at the food bank that they
were about to hold a fire drill. He was right. The bell sounded and we all
walked out of the warehouse door and around the east side of the building heading
for the front entrance.
My dad who was into time study told me once that some
engineers timed people leaving the building in just such a fire drill. The
building was emptied in 15 minutes. Those same engineers hung around until the
end of the day and clocked the folks when the quitting bell rung. The building
was vacated in less than a minute. Now that makes perfect sense.
We collected a total of 136
lbs. of food. The money we donated amounted
to $32.00, a $25.00 check and $7.00 in cash.
See you Sunday,
Peter
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