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Hunger - and its attendant poverty - is an insidious
problem that affects every aspect of a family's life. When you help
us and our partner agencies provide food to hundreds of families
across Idaho, you offer them a respite from the daily battle to feed
themselves. They can focus on their children's education and pay
their rent or medical bills. Thank you for making that commitment.
This is the March edition of Idaho Foodbytes,
The Idaho Foodbank's electronic newsletter, Volume VI, Number
3.
You are welcome to stop by our three warehouses: Boise,
3562 S. TK Avenue; Lewiston, 3600 E. Main; and Pocatello, 919 S. 2nd
Avenue.
If you would like to receive our free print
newsletter, Food for Thought,
email Nancy Perkins at
nperkins@idahofoodbank.org
Your e-mail address will be
used only by The Idaho Foodbank. It will not be sold or
loaned to any other organization.
-- David Proctor
March Contents
1. Foodbank and Clubs Spring for Lunch Over Break
2.
Pocatello: Feeding the 5,000 Families Ready to Wrap up First Decade
3. Second Fred Meyer Joins Grocery Alliance Program
4. Food Stamp
Cuts Described as "Wrong Direction"
5. Clear Springs Donates a
Ton of Fish
6. New IRA Rollover Bill May Be Perfect Donation
Vehicle
7. Canstruction® Is Coming to the Mall in April
8.
Letter Carriers Drive - The Perfect Volunteer Project
9. A Chefs'
Affaire: Great Food and Wine, and Chefs for Sale
10. Feinstein
Foundation Will Match Your $$$ to Fight Hunger
11. Daycare Robbed, Gets Emergency Food
12. Quote of the
Month: Federico Garcia Lorca
13. The Foodbank's 2007 Calendar
At the Ada County Moseley Center Boys and Girls Club,
75 young people lined up for pizza and a sack lunch on the
first day of spring break. Some even brought their little
brothers. The demand was even higher at the Nampa and
Meridian clubs.
Foodbank and Clubs
Spring for Lunch Over Break
The new Lunch Break program was a standing-room-only success
over spring break. More than 300 children a day lined up at the
Boys and Girls clubs in Nampa, Meridian and Garden City to take
advantage of the free meal program. All children ages 6-18,
whether they were club members or not, were welcome to enjoy a
nutritious meal every day during the school holiday.
This
follows on the heels of successful Lunch Breaks held over Martin
Luther King Jr./Idaho Human Rights Day in January and teacher
in-service day in February.
Lunch Break came about
because the Boys and Girls clubs and the Foodbank recognized
that many children in the Treasure Valley depend heavily on free
and reduced-price school lunches for the nutrition they need.
When school is out, that food is not available.
And don’t
forget that Picnic in the Park 2007, the Foodbank’s summer
feeding program, will begin Friday, June 8.
To help support the Lunch Break program, click
here... |
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 Goal in Pocatello: 1 Million Items
in Ten Years
Feeding the 5,000
Families
Ready to Wrap Up First Decade
Thomas and Richard Maynard
performed at last year's closing ceremonies.
The Feeding the 5,000 Families food and fund drive in
Pocatello is rapidly coming to an end. All that remain are
the food drive on Saturday, March 31, and the finale on
Monday, April 23.
On Saturday, Foodbank barrels will be at Albertsons,
Fred Meyer and Ridleys stores in Pocatello from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m., staffed by volunteers from a wide variety of faith
communities. Closing ceremonies, complete with music, will
be held at the Foodbank.
This year’s drive has
already included an interfaith concert, a progressive
dinner, a prayer vigil and a volunteer food-canning effort
at the LDS cannery.
This community-wide drive began a
decade ago when a Sunday School class at the United
Methodist Church decided to gather and donate 5,000 food
items. With Linda Jones in charge, the drive grew into an
extraordinary multi-faith effort. For its 10th year,
organizers believe Feeding the 5,000 will collect its
one-millionth item by the end of Saturday’s food drive.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact
out Pocatello warehouse using this link... |
Chad Kelpin, Assistant Food
Manager, shows Food Department Manager David Locati and Store
Director Mike Howe the sort of food that Fred Meyer stores will
donate to the Grocery Alliance Program.
Second Fred Meyer Joins Grocery
Alliance Program
Fred Meyer stores and The Idaho
Foodbank have added a second store to the Grocery Alliance
Program. The kick-off took place Thursday, March 15, 11 a.m., at
the Fred Meyer store at 3527 S. Federal Way.
The first
Fred Meyer store to join the GAP was at 5230 W. Franklin Rd. on
Feb. 21. Stores that have been part of the program for a year
donate an average of 4,100 pounds per month.
As with all
GAP stores, Fred Meyer will daily donate meat, dairy and bread
products that have reached their sell-by dates but have not
expired. The Foodbank's Jennifer Sherman will make the pick-up
and this healthy, nutritious food will be distributed
immediately from our Boise warehouse to Treasure Valley food
pantries and other partner agencies.
Dairy products
remain chilled to the proper temperature, while all other items
are frozen for pick up by the Foodbank's refrigerated truck. All
Grocery Alliance food is completely safe and remains in its
original packaging.
Meat and dairy products are
especially important donations both for their nutritional value
and because they are the most difficult for food banks to
obtain.
The Foodbank is exploring ways to expand to the
remaining Fred Meyer stores this year. Fred Meyer participates
in similar programs throughout Oregon and Washington.
You can donate grocery items right from your
computer with our virtual good drive. Just click here... |
Advocates Protest
Food Stamp Cuts Described as "Wrong Direction"
An
array of representatives from anti-hunger groups testified
before Congress earlier in March that proposed cuts in the Food
Stamp Program would be the exact opposite of what families
across America need now.
"We’re moving in the wrong
direction," said Gary Brunk of Kansas Action for Children, who
was one of half a dozen experts called to testify before a
congressional panel looking at the impact of the Food Stamp
Program on child nutrition. "We should actually be adding money
to the program, not taking money away," he said.
Jim
Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC),
called the Food Stamp Program a "positive force."
"The
2007 Farm Bill should include significant new investments in the
Food Stamp Program to renew the nation’s effort to eradicate
hunger and food insecurity and improve the nutrition, health and
learning of all our people, and especially children," Weill
said.
The White House budget plan proposes to cut the
Food Stamp Program by nearly $800 million over the next five
years by imposing stricter controls on how states distribute
some food stamp benefits.
The idea met with a wall of
resistance from anti-hunger activists from across the country
who told Congressional committees that an investment in food
stamps would save money in the long run.
Janet Murguia
of the National Council of La Raza said the program’s complex
rules, combined with a lack of translators and fears among legal
immigrants that registering could create immigration problems,
were among the reasons so few Hispanics are enrolled.
Congress must increase benefit allotments and open eligibility
to more needy people and connect more eligible people with
benefits, "since only 60% of currently eligible people, and
barely half of eligible low-income working families, participate
in the program," said FRAC’s Jim Weill.
He also urged
lawmakers to revise resource rules to allow needy families to
keep their meager savings and still participate in the program
and underscored the need to allocate funding for food stamp
outreach and education activities and increase support for state
administrative operations.
There is more Food Stamp information on the FRAC
website... |
For Picnic in the Park
This Summer
Clear Springs Donates a
Ton of Fish
We are pleased and grateful to
announce that Clear Springs Foods has donated 2,000 pounds of
Rainbow Trout Treasures to the Picnic in the Park 2007 summer
feeding program. The breaded fish portions, shaped like sharks,
whales and trout, will provide nutritious lunches for children
once a week through the entire summer.
Clear Springs
Foods, Inc., headquartered in Buhl, Idaho, was founded in 1966
and is now the world’s largest producer of aquacultured rainbow
trout. The employee-owned company is a vertically integrated
operation from brood stock through egg production, feed
manufacturing, farm operations, processing, and primary
distribution in its own fleet of refrigerated trucks. This
integration allows Clear Springs to control quality through to
the primary distribution channels. Clear Springs products can be
found – fresh or frozen – on the menus of many fine restaurants
and in the seafood sections of major supermarkets throughout the
United States and Canada.
On behalf of the hundreds of children who will enjoy
healthy lunches this summer, thank you, Clear Springs!
This link will take you to the Clear Springs web
site... |
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New IRA Rollover Bill May Offer Perfect
Donation
Opportunity
Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
and Representatives Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Wally Herger (R-CA)
have introduced the “Public Good IRA Rollover Act of 2007” in
the House (H.R. 1419) and Senate (S. 819).
Currently, the IRA rollover permits individuals age
70˝ and above to make charitable donations of up to $100,000
from Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs without
having to count the distributions as taxable income. The “Public
Good IRA Rollover Act of 2007” would extend and broaden the
current IRA Rollover, scheduled to expire this December, by
making it permanent, removing the current $100,000 annual limit
on donations, making all charities eligible to receive
donations, and providing IRA owners with a planned giving option
starting at age 59˝.
The existing IRA Rollover, though
limited, has already led Americans to make millions of dollars
in new charitable donations from their IRAs. Initial reports to
the National Committee on Planned Giving already show that
during the first four months the provision was in effect,
Americans made more than $50 million in contributions to
non-profit from their IRAs.
Some leading nonprofit scholars and advocates believe
that this new and improved IRA Rollover Provision would be the
single most important philanthropic legislation ever passed.
Whether the IRA Rollover gets extended or not, 2007 is a great
year to consider a major gift from your retirement account to
the Foodbank. People in need of nourishment throughout the state
will benefit for years to come from your generosity. Contact
Jill Palmer at 336-9643, ext. 242 for more information.
To learn more about the bill and the current IRA
rollover provision, visit the Independent Sector website... |
Past Canstruction® winners include "CHICK-Can of the
Sea" and "More Than Just Peanuts."
Canstruction® Is
Coming to the Mall in April
Canstruction® is a
food drive that must be seen to be believed. More to the point,
it is a food drive you will want to see. How about a
giant cobra with hood extended, a mermaid rising from the sea, a
silver city of skyscrapers or a huge peeled banana – all made
from hundreds and hundreds of cans of food?
Those are
just a few of the winning ideas from last year. What will happen
in Boise, when a group of construction experts mix imagination,
skill and lots and lots of cans, is anyone’s guess. Which is
exactly what will make this event so much fun. The results of
all this work will all be on display in front of the Sears store
in Boise at the Towne Square mall from April 21-28, and you will
be able to vote for your favorite structure with cans of food.
When it's all over, all the cans come to the Foodbank
for distribution to hungry Idaho families. Talk about win-win.
Canstruction® is an international community service
project of the design and construction industry. Eighty
Canstruction® competitions were scheduled across the country in
2006-2007. This one will be the first for the Boise chapter of
the National Association of Women in Construction, whose members
have been working for months to make this work. We can’t wait!
For information, contact the NAWIC Boise Chapter #245, PO Box
8451, Boise, ID 83707-8451 or at www.nawicboise.org.
See more photos of the amazing Canstruction®
winners from the past several years, right here... |
(Left) This year's national Family Circus food drive
poster; (right) Boy Scouts from Meridian Troop 132
volunteered last year.
Coming to a Mailbox Near You on May
12
Letter Carriers Drive - The
Perfect Volunteer Project
The Foodbank's next big
community project is the annual Letter Carriers Food Drive on
Saturday, May 12. In one day Treasure Valley residents will
donate, and volunteers will pack into trucks, about 250,000
pounds of food. Nationally, letter carriers collected 70.5
million pounds of food in 2006.
This is the largest
one-day food drive of the year, and obviously we need both
volunteers and donors.
If you can volunteer for a shift
- either as an individual or if you can bring a group - please
call Cindy Fenn at 336-9643, ext. 236, or sign up online using
the link below. This is a great way to do some team building
with your colleagues at work.
To donate, all you have to
do is remember to leave a bag of non-perishable food in a
grocery bag near your mailbox on Saturday, May 12. (Please
remember, we can't use anything homemade or out of date.) Your
letter carrier and our volunteers will take care of the rest.
Please save the date and let us know you will help feed your
Idaho neighbors.
Just click here to link to our volunteer page... |
| June 1 at
Boise Centre on the Grove
A Chefs' Affaire:
Great Food and Wine, and Chefs
for Sale
Plans to make
the ninth annual A Chefs' Affaire, presented by SYSCO Food
Services of Idaho, the best ever are well underway. Now might be
a good time to mark your calendars for Friday evening, June 1
and start planning to attend The Idaho Foodbank's largest
fundraiser and Boise's premiere fine dining experience. Tickets
will be available on May 1. Call us at 336-9643.
Dining, Auction and Music
Some of the
things you can look forward to include:
* A six-course,
jaw-dropping gourmet meal planned and prepared by teams of
Idaho's best chefs from 20 different restaurants.
* Idaho
wines to complement each course.
* Participating chefs will
be auctioned to the highest bidder.
* The silent auction
will feature a wide array of dining packages, merchandise and
services from the area's restaurants, caterers, wineries, hotels
and retailers.
* Nationally known Idaho singer-songwriter
Steve Eaton will provide live music throughout the evening.
* Restaurants, caterers and other participating businesses will
have the opportunity to put their best work on display and
market themselves to a most discriminating clientele.
* The
gourmet evening will raise funds for The Idaho Foodbank - the
largest hunger relief organization in Idaho - and our Chefs to
the Rescue prepared-food recovery program that picks up unserved
food at restaurants and delivers it directly to those in need.
* Larry Gebert of KTVB Channel 7 will be our master of
ceremonies, and Larry Flynn will again be our auctioneer.
A Chefs’ Affaire is not only an important event, it is
also a great deal of fun. Ask any of the thousands of satisfied
patrons who have attended over the past eight years. Please join
us this year. It will become a regular entry on your social
calendar.
See photos from last year's A Chefs' Affaire on
our home page... |
| There's
Still Time to Take the Challenge
 Feinstein Foundation Will Match Your $$$ to Fight
Hunger
It's not too late to participate in
the Feinstein Foundation's million dollar fund-raising
challenge. In Idaho the challenge will benefit The Idaho
Foodbank.
For the tenth year, Rhode Island philanthropist Alan
Shawn Feinstein (photo) will divide $1 million among
hunger-fighting agencies nationwide as a way to help them
raise funds. Since the challenge will run until the end of
April, there is still plenty of time and good weather to
organize a first-rate drive and have fun doing it.
The Feinstein Foundation portions the $1 million based on
how much each non-profit organization raises between March 1
and April 30. The more money Idaho Foodbank supporters
raise, the larger the share of that $1 million the
foundation will donate to the Foodbank to help feed our
hungry neighbors. Food can also be donated during this time
and will be valued at $1.00 per item.
Funds and food can be raised at schools, places of
worship, businesses or neighborhoods.
Last year,
2,521 Idahoans donated $116,234 in cash, and we got credit
for another $44,333 for that many pounds raised from 29 food
drives statewide. In turn, the Feinstein Foundation donated
nearly $1,000 to the Foodbank.
Since 1998, the
Feinstein challenge has directly donated more than $6,800
and helped the Foodbank raise more than $550,000.
Nationally, the Feinstein Challenge has helped food banks
and other anti-hunger agencies raise $639 million. It has
become the greatest grassroots effort ever to fight hunger
in America.
All the details about this annual philanthropic
competition are right here... |
| The
Foodbank in the News
Daycare Robbed, Gets Emergency Food
When a Boise daycare center was robbed and the thief stole
all of the food inside, the Foodbank was ready to help.
The call came in on Tuesday, March 27, from a parent of a
child at the South Boise Child Care Center. Their food had
been stolen, he said. Could the Foodbank help?
Receptionist Diana Julianto took the call and alerted
other Foodbankers. In short order, boxes of snacks were
ready to the kids.
"It wasn’t anything unusual,"
said Diana. "We just helped someone who needed it."
KTRV Channel 12 news reported the story and quoted a parent
as saying: "There are so many resources for people in town
to get food they shouldn't have to steal it from kids. The
Idaho Foodbank has donated some food to try to help out. You
know they understand that it's for children, and that this
is something that's just not right to do to children."
The daycare's owner said she never had any problems with
break-ins before. She thinks the robber just must have
really needed the food, Channel 12 said.
To see the
clip, go to www.ktrv.com and search for "food bank."
To support this type of work, click here for our
donation page... |
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Quote of the Month
 "The
day that hunger is eradicated from the earth, there will be
the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known.
Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the
world on the day of that great revolution."
Federico Garcia Lorca (June 5, 1898 – August 19, 1936)
Spanish poet, dramatist, painter, pianist and composer
Idaho is the 8th hungriest state in
the country. Here are the statistics... |
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The Foodbank's 2007 Calendar
Feb. 26 - March 31 - Curves food drive at all nine Treasure
Valley Curves locations.
March 2-April 1 - Feeding the
5,000 Families interfaith food and fund drive, Pocatello.
Goal this year is 177,000 items for a total of one million
in 10 years.
March 1-April 30 - Feinstein Foundation
Challenge.
March 26-30 - Free lunch served at Boys &
Girls Clubs (Ada County, Meridian and Nampa).
March 31 -
Foodbank barrels at Pocatello Albertsons, Fred Meyer and
Ridleys stores, staffed by faith communities from 10-4 for
Feeding the 5,000 Families.
April 1-May 31 - Spring Food
Drive at Acorn Self Storage, 641 W. Franklin, Meridian.
April 2 - Free lunch served at Nampa Boys & Girls Club.
Volunteers needed.
April 6 - Free lunch served at
Meridian Boys & Girls Club. Volunteers needed.
April 13 -
Food drive at Blue and Orange Game, 7:00 p.m. at Bronco
Stadium.
April 21-28 - Canstruction at Boise Towne
Square, near Sears.
April 23 - Feeding the 5,000 Families
closing ceremonies at the Foodbank in Pocatello.
April 23
- Spring Extravaganza, School of Hairstyling, Pocatello
May 12 - National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive.
June 1 - A Chefs' Affaire, Boise's premiere fundraiser,
Boise Centre on the Grove.
June 5 - Hunger Awareness Day:
"The Face of Hunger Will Surprise You."
June 8 - Picnic
in the Park, the Foodbank's summer feeding program, starts
in Boise.
August 24 - Picnic in the Park program
concludes.
September 17-23 - Albertsons Boise Open. The
Foodbank is a beneficiary.
Your time is like gold to us. Please volunteer
now. Click here for information... |
Thank You!
The Idaho Foodbank is a network
of 200 non-profit agencies statewide, is an affiliate of
America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network and is
proud to be supported by several United Ways in Idaho. For the
second consecutive year we have been awarded the coveted
four-star rating by Charity Navigator and judged to be the most
efficient non-profit organization in Idaho. That means your
donations go further at the Foodbank than at any other
non-profit in Idaho. Please consider helping us feed hungry
Idahoans by donating online today.
This link will take you
to our secure donation page... |
Thank you for supporting The Idaho Foodbank in the
fight against hunger. Your donations of time, food and cash meant
that with the help of more than 200 partner agencies your Foodbank
could distribute a record 4.8 million pounds of badly needed food to
Idaho families in 2006 and 60 million pounds since 1984.
Sincerely,
The Team at The Idaho Foodbank
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