Food Bank Friday! (January 23, 2009)

[ColbertWatcher]

Needs your immediate attention

Also, don't forget people at the http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/projects/Winter_Coats_and_Electric_Heaters.shtml">Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. They're looking for winter coats and space heaters. Please help any way you can.

In addition, everyone's favorite Alaskan blogger Mudflats has some serious and scary news about the tiny community of Emmonak, Alaska here.

News

Many media outlets are http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&nolr=1&q=food+banks+demand+up&btnG=Search">reporting that many food banks across the country are running out of food.

Nearly 30 million people are receiving food stamps in the U.S. (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&nolr=1&q=food+stamps+30+million&btnG=Search">Google news search)

Some donation ideas

* donate money DUer peace13 reminds us that if a food bank accepts money, they can get food in bulk

* "adopt" a food bank item and replenish it whenever it runs low (posted by DUer girl gone mad)

* donate birthday or holiday "kits" (DUer Rabrrrrrr)

* support Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

* donate to Second Harvest http://www.feedingamerica.org/?show_nce=1

* Gleaning OurVotesCount-Ohio
reminds us that "(t)here are organizations that glean fields and deliver the foods to shelters and other charitable organizations that help the needy."

* Find and donate "free after rebate" items offered by many stores http://www.salescircular.com/

Support your local cooperative extension service

* From the extension links in this section, donate all the items to complete one of the recipes (print out and donate copies of the recipe, too!)

* Donate recipe books (or other publications on nutrition) from your local cooperative extension service (Most states cooperative extensions services have all kinds of things available)

Also, after a quick google search for "cooperative extension service recipe," here are three of the top links:

* The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Recipe Central http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/recipe.shtml#basic">Basic Foods From Fridge, Freezer and Cupboard, including a single-page http://lancaster.unl.edu/FOOD/BasicFoodsforCupboard.pdf">list of ingredients (pdf) for all the recipes on the UNL site

* Cornell University Cooperative Extension-New York City's complete (http://nyc.cce.cornell.edu/nutrition/recipes/2008/NH%20Recipe%20Collection.pdf">Nutirion and Health Program Recipe Collection) (pdf)

* University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service Departments Family and Consumer Sciences Programming
Recipes recipes for people with diabetes

DUer 1776Forever posted a link for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in another thread.

More information about the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (Main website and Food, Nutrition and Health links)

The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes.

CSREES is the federal partner in the Cooperative Extension System. It provides federal funding to the system and, through program leadership, helps the system identify and address current issues and problems.

Food bank checklist

* Print out the flier below and make copies for your friends, family or co-workers to take with you when you go grocery shopping.

* surreptitiously leave copies at the grocery store!

(You don't have to pick up everything on the list, just remember to pick up something.)

* Please support candidates and policies that guarantee livable wages.

[question everything]

1. Thank you for this important reminder

I need to start my "one more item" box again and your list is a good guide on what to get.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. You're welcome.

And thank you for your donations!

[Betsy Ross]

3. Thanks for posting.

Our local Change group has not been able to follow-up on our project supporting homeless students, so I'll offer up the food bank as an alternative when we have our third meeting this Sunday.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. You're welcome and good luck with the new idea! n/t

[BronxBoy]

5. As Usual, K&R

Thanks for keeping this in the forefront. I've missed it the past few weeks.

Please continue to donate food and all the other items listed by the OP.

But also remember to contribute, if you can, something to help the food banks carry out their missions. I work very closely with our local food banks and was recently glad to make a donation of used computer equipment that they desperately needed and was very glad to get. While these organizations operate very close to the bone, anything you can give them to help offset overhead really helps.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll add that in for next week! n/t

[question everything]

7. Kick for the evening crowd (nt)