I LOVE every 3rd Wednesday of the month!!! Let me say that again. I LOVE EVERY 3RD WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH!!!
This past summer Julia and a few other members of the Compact participated in the Food Stamp Challenge (FS Challenge). This challenge was to only buy groceries for the month (food only, no toilet paper, no cleaner, no toothbrushes, no beer, no diapers, no pet food, no lightbulbs, etc etc) based on what their states allotted to families based on size, and when you were out, you were out! The Compact is a very ingenious and resourceful group of people and some of them found themselves with more month than food, running out of things that they take for granted, that they always have on hand and can run to the store for when they need to. People talked about how the FS Challenge reminded them of the struggles of lean(er) years, childhood, how they were on FS, how it was harder than they thought it would be. Well Julia really lit a fire under me, opening my eyes again to the needs out there in our own corner of the world. I wanted to do something to help feed families in my corner of the world and I was at a loss of how to do this. I could not let this go, I though of it all day, every day, and even in my sleep. It was apparent that I really needed to find a way to make this happen and NOW!
I decided to look up my local Food Bank on line and do some research. My local Food Bank is the Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico and I was reading about their programs and came across the Mobile Food Pantry - The program is a traveling food pantry that eliminates the need for long-term or large-capacity storage and provides families 50 pounds of perishable and non-perishable food. Families represent a large segment of clients served at Mobile Food Pantry (MFP) sites where 43% of those helped are children. THIS WAS IT!! I made a few phone calls and got some information and asked the Mobile Food Pantry Manager to come speak at my next PTO meeting because I wanted to ask the PTO to help sponsor this and if we could not, then I was going to do the first one and get donations for all the other ones I wanted to do. My PTO members voted and agreed that they would sponsor 2,500 pounds of food each month! This works out to be 50 pounds of food each for 50 families and it costs about $125.00. Try getting 2,5000 lbs of groceries at the store for $125.00... I was walking on air! I was so excited! We were going to be able to feed 50 families each month! I formed a volunteer committee and we got the ball rolling.
The first MFP happened in September and we did not quite have 50 families, however we were thrilled! I cried talking to the families. They were saying that they were so grateful that we were doing this and they had no food in the house. October 2010 and we had 50 families! November 2010 I invited another school to share out time slot and feed their families. We had 7,500 pound of food for 150 families and we were busy! December 2010 saw us with 16,000 pounds...8 TONS OF FOOD, ENOUGH FOR 600 FAMILIES! We decided to get this amount as it was going to be Christmas break and many children that get their breakfast and lunch at school (for free or reduced) might be going without meals for more than 2 weeks. We decided that since the parents would have their kids home over the holidays, we would give them 100 pounds of food, so we fed 300 families 100 pounds of food each. We were nervous with 8 tons of food coming our way. We didn't need to be nervous, we rocked it! I have the best group of people helping me make my dream a reality! January 2011 we had 7,500 pounds of food (this was a paperwork error) and I was so nervous that we would have to turn people away. It was amazing, we had the same amount of people and less than half the food and no matter how many people came, there was enough food. It was like the "Fishes and Loaves", the food seemed to never be getting less and less. Today, February 2011 we again had 8 TONS of food. We had a little food left after everyone did their shopping and I called a food pantry right up the street and they took a small truck full there. NOTHING gets wasted!
I also make sure that we give out clothing at these events. My next goal is to have mobile medical services in conjunction with the MFP. There are Doctors and Dentists that will come in mobile facilities and give free medial care. This is a perfect marriage of helping my local families. It is a lot of hard physical work (ever unloaded 8 tons of anything?) and setting it up and then the clean up, however I can not think of a better way to spend an afternoon, surrounded by caring people, helping people. This is why I love the 3rd Wednesday of every month!
Here are some pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73209&id=1609085328&l=2a1ec73f32
This past summer Julia and a few other members of the Compact participated in the Food Stamp Challenge (FS Challenge). This challenge was to only buy groceries for the month (food only, no toilet paper, no cleaner, no toothbrushes, no beer, no diapers, no pet food, no lightbulbs, etc etc) based on what their states allotted to families based on size, and when you were out, you were out! The Compact is a very ingenious and resourceful group of people and some of them found themselves with more month than food, running out of things that they take for granted, that they always have on hand and can run to the store for when they need to. People talked about how the FS Challenge reminded them of the struggles of lean(er) years, childhood, how they were on FS, how it was harder than they thought it would be. Well Julia really lit a fire under me, opening my eyes again to the needs out there in our own corner of the world. I wanted to do something to help feed families in my corner of the world and I was at a loss of how to do this. I could not let this go, I though of it all day, every day, and even in my sleep. It was apparent that I really needed to find a way to make this happen and NOW!
I decided to look up my local Food Bank on line and do some research. My local Food Bank is the Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico and I was reading about their programs and came across the Mobile Food Pantry - The program is a traveling food pantry that eliminates the need for long-term or large-capacity storage and provides families 50 pounds of perishable and non-perishable food. Families represent a large segment of clients served at Mobile Food Pantry (MFP) sites where 43% of those helped are children. THIS WAS IT!! I made a few phone calls and got some information and asked the Mobile Food Pantry Manager to come speak at my next PTO meeting because I wanted to ask the PTO to help sponsor this and if we could not, then I was going to do the first one and get donations for all the other ones I wanted to do. My PTO members voted and agreed that they would sponsor 2,500 pounds of food each month! This works out to be 50 pounds of food each for 50 families and it costs about $125.00. Try getting 2,5000 lbs of groceries at the store for $125.00... I was walking on air! I was so excited! We were going to be able to feed 50 families each month! I formed a volunteer committee and we got the ball rolling.
The first MFP happened in September and we did not quite have 50 families, however we were thrilled! I cried talking to the families. They were saying that they were so grateful that we were doing this and they had no food in the house. October 2010 and we had 50 families! November 2010 I invited another school to share out time slot and feed their families. We had 7,500 pound of food for 150 families and we were busy! December 2010 saw us with 16,000 pounds...8 TONS OF FOOD, ENOUGH FOR 600 FAMILIES! We decided to get this amount as it was going to be Christmas break and many children that get their breakfast and lunch at school (for free or reduced) might be going without meals for more than 2 weeks. We decided that since the parents would have their kids home over the holidays, we would give them 100 pounds of food, so we fed 300 families 100 pounds of food each. We were nervous with 8 tons of food coming our way. We didn't need to be nervous, we rocked it! I have the best group of people helping me make my dream a reality! January 2011 we had 7,500 pounds of food (this was a paperwork error) and I was so nervous that we would have to turn people away. It was amazing, we had the same amount of people and less than half the food and no matter how many people came, there was enough food. It was like the "Fishes and Loaves", the food seemed to never be getting less and less. Today, February 2011 we again had 8 TONS of food. We had a little food left after everyone did their shopping and I called a food pantry right up the street and they took a small truck full there. NOTHING gets wasted!
I also make sure that we give out clothing at these events. My next goal is to have mobile medical services in conjunction with the MFP. There are Doctors and Dentists that will come in mobile facilities and give free medial care. This is a perfect marriage of helping my local families. It is a lot of hard physical work (ever unloaded 8 tons of anything?) and setting it up and then the clean up, however I can not think of a better way to spend an afternoon, surrounded by caring people, helping people. This is why I love the 3rd Wednesday of every month!
Here are some pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73209&id=1609085328&l=2a1ec73f32
