A Little Slow on the Uptake
I then presented an 11x17 quarterly report poster
that I would like to display in the store telling customers and staff how
productive their donations were. When he
saw the copy, “638 lbs. of food. Sprouts
Farmers Market fed 164 folks three meals in one day.” he immediately took
out his cell phone and said, “I’ve got to send my boss a photo of this poster.
He’s going to like it.”
After taking the photo and emailing it, Richard again asked me, this time using a more studied corporate approach, “Do you have resources to set up in other stores, a main table, satellite tables, and volunteers?”
The moment Bill said “partnership” everything fell into
place. If Sprouts coordinates One Can A
Week themselves, somebody will eventually say they are “running a promotion”
that just happens to donate food to the food bank. Promotion being a bad word
in this instance. With One Can A Week
volunteers doing the work, the program remains a strong and unique community
service project.
Then there’s the situation with the cash donations. Sprouts
does not want to have anything to do with charity cash donations. It’s hard to
keep track of and besides, it is not part of their business plan. This was
another hint from Richard. When I collected $79 a couple of Saturdays ago, I
asked him if there were anything special I should buy. “No,” he said pointedly,
“you buy whatever you want.”
My thinking is business will help end many of our social
ills, but there are two important ingredients necessary to make such a concept
viable, listen to what the business people are saying and keep it “strictly
business.”
Hannah, the Accountant
Ari Kaplan who
lives in New Jersey
collects One Can A Week with his
8-year-old daughter Hannah. A couple of days ago he sent me a copy of their
most recent delivery. Seems Hannah keeps a record of every food item they
donated to their local Red Cross pantry.
As the graphic on the left indicates, Hannah does a whole bunch
of work, picking up the item, reading the label, putting it down and writing it
down. She did that 20 times. Now there’s
a little girl who’s got her empathy and keeping track way under control. And
her penmanship is pretty good, too.
Third Anniversary, YES!
In the beginning Fran Coleman, Senior Companion Program Manager for Our Family Services thought One Can A Week would be a great one year project for her organization. Since most of her Senior Companions live on $700 to $900 a month they understand what it means to be close to hunger. Fran did not want to go longer than a year because the program may prove to be too financially stressful for her volunteers.
In the beginning Fran Coleman, Senior Companion Program Manager for Our Family Services thought One Can A Week would be a great one year project for her organization. Since most of her Senior Companions live on $700 to $900 a month they understand what it means to be close to hunger. Fran did not want to go longer than a year because the program may prove to be too financially stressful for her volunteers.
To Fran’s surprise, at the end of the first year, all of the
Senior Companions asked for One Can A
Week to continue. Now it’s their third anniversary and they again requested
I hand out certificates with the Executive Director at their annual
Appreciation Luncheon.
Funny, that’s my third anniversary, too, for another happy
day.
We collected a total of 144
lbs. of food. The money we donated amounted
to $66.00, a $25.00 check and $41.00 in cash.
See you Sunday,
Peter
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