IHB Volunteer Day at the OC Food Bank

nilam_IHB

New member
The Orange County Food Bank distributes more than 15 million pounds of food annually and benefits from volunteers who enable the distribution of food to those in need. This event is a volunteer day where we will be helping assemble food boxes for distribution. This will be somewhat physical work, requiring you to be on your feet for a couple hours.



The event is scheduled for two hours between 8-12 on Saturday, January 9, 2010. I will provide a final timeframe shortly but wanted to give plenty of notice so that we can plan. The food bank is located in Garden Grove. Look forward to seeing you there!



Sign up at <a href="http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/club/">the IHB Adventure Club Site</a>
 
I am checking with my husband to see if I can sneak away for a few hours on that day. I'll sign up soon if it's a go. Thanks for setting this up!
 
My Daughter did that last Saturday and she was at the end of the assembly line by sealing boxes. She used a packing tape dispenser for the first time and the first 200 boxes were her trial and error. It took some special swift wrist movement to cut the tape or else the tape would dispense forever. She could not keep up with the conveyor belt and too bad it was not a chocolate assembly line where she could have pulled a Lucy.



Overall, it was a learning experience and she would not mind doing it again.
 
This is a great experience that requires some physical demand (especially if you are loading the boxes at the end) My shirt was soaked in sweat by the time I was done.



I'd recommend bringing gloves, either gardening gloves or batting gloves. If anyone is available I'd highly recommend checking it out.
 
Signed up, who else is in? I saw that there are still 4 spots but I guess there isn't a way to see who has signed up (?).
 
So far it's me, zovall, tmare, cubic zirconia, sunshine, and mcdonna1980 (with a maybe from EvaLSerapham).
 
Me and MrsUK will be there...I'm planning on being "Back to normal" well before then...



* No funny comments from the Monkeys at the back please*
 
[quote author="PeterUK" date=1258346376]Me and MrsUK will be there...I'm planning on being "Back to normal" well before then...



* No funny comments from the Monkeys at the back please*</blockquote>


Looking forward to actually meeting you.
 
<a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/food-219285-county-people.html">Food Bank Article from OC Register, Nov 13 2009</a>



November 13, 2009 1:13 PM

Food agencies turning away the hungry

By JACOB NELSON

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER



Hunger in Orange County is growing so quickly that some local food agencies are turning away the needy.



At South County Outreach, a Lake Forest pantry that gives food directly to people who ask for it, the executive director expects to turn away 300 families by the end of this year. At the Orange County Food Bank, which serves as a nonprofit wholesaler by providing food to other agencies that serve individuals, no new food pantry clients have been accepted since March 1.



The cut-offs have come as the national recession shows some signs of ebbing, and even as agencies are giving out record amounts of food.



Through the first nine months of this year South County Outreach helped more hungry people than it has in any full year of its 20-year history. During the same period, the Orange County Food Bank helped nearly 1.5 million people, a 53 percent jump from 2008.



That surge in need ? which local experts say has played out at virtually all of the county's 400-plus food pantries and both major food banks ? is precisely the reason food providers are limiting what they give out.



"Earlier in the year we were showing double the number of people served," said Mark Lowry, director of the Orange County Food Bank. "That's when we said 'No new agencies; no new people. We can't sustain that'."



Still, some agencies have not yet had to turn people away.



Second Harvest Food Bank in Orange County, which provides food to smaller agencies, has taken on 60 new pantries in the past year and now provides for 440 food pantries throughout the county. To meet its rising demand, the food bank launched Fresh Rescue, an aggressive new program to get more produce from grocery stores. It has also revamped its boy and girl scout-led food drive, Scouting for Food, which takes place Saturday, Nov. 14, outside of 43 Albertsons throughout the county.



But in a state facing a huge increase in demand for food, pantries need more help than Second Harvest can offer.



"I need around 400 turkeys for Thanksgiving, and they've (Second Harvest) got six for me," said Ken Carpenter, a full-time volunteer at South County Outreach. "I'm looking for a lot more than six turkeys."



Since February, South County Outreach has been adding about 150 households a month, bringing to 60,000 the total number of people it has fed so far this year. It took 18 years for the food pantry to serve 30,000 people, and only two more for that number to double.



But supply hasn't kept pace with demand. At the end of last year South County Outreach had an inventory of 40,000 pounds of food. Last week, the inventory was about 2,000 pounds.



That's why, in September, South County Outreach stopped signing up new customers. Ed Ewart, the agency's executive director, described that move as "temporary," and said he hopes year-end food donations will allow the agency to take new clients soon. The move to cut off customers, he added, goes against everything his agency has tried to achieve.



"Our tradition has been to really be here with emergency food for anyone who lives here in Orange County," Ewart said. "We relive the agony of (the decision to turn away new customers) every day."



So far, even as pantries cut off new recipients, few people are actually going without food.



People turned away from South County Outreach and other pantries get referrals to places where food may still be available. The Orange County Food Bank, for example, gives referrals to three other pantries; South County Outreach has a sheet listing ten.



"We know that every other food pantry is experiencing the same things we are," Lowry said. "So the likelihood that they'll get help in the very first call they make is not great."



Food agencies also encourage people they can't serve to look into Food Stamps, a federal program that historically has been underutilized in Orange County. Lowry said fewer than half the people in Orange County who qualify for Food Stamps are enrolled in the program.



The other tactic at food pantries is smaller portions. A family of four getting help from South County Outreach is limited to 85 pounds of food a month, compared with 100 pounds a month a year ago.



According to Eric Manke, the Public Policy and Communications Manager at California Association of Food Banks, such cutting is typical. "A lot of food banks, rather than turning someone away, they're trying to serve all the people requesting assistance ? but with less food."



In some cases, according to Ewart, people choose to take less food because they know how little is available for everybody.



"We've given people full bags of groceries and have had them give us stuff back," he said. "They say, 'This is too much, the line is too long, we got a glimpse of the shelves ... you don't have enough.'"



But while agencies struggle to get ready for the holiday season ? typically a time of peak demand ? it's the months in early 2010 that really have them worried.



"In the past, we've had to borrow storage area for all the food we receive in November and December, and that's tided us over in January, February and March," Ewart said.



"This year, we're all wondering if we going to give it all out in November and December."
 
I hope South County Outreach is turning away <a href="http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/forums/viewthread/5256/P50/#110961">Broadcom executives</a>, first.
 
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html</a>



<blockquote>With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.



It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.



<snip>



Although the program is growing at a record rate, the federal official who oversees it would like it to grow even faster.



?I think the response of the program has been tremendous,? said Kevin Concannon, an under secretary of agriculture, ?but we?re mindful that there are another 15, 16 million who could benefit.?



<strong>Nationwide, food stamps reach about two-thirds of those eligible, with rates ranging from an estimated 50 percent in California</strong> to 98 percent in Missouri. Mr. Concannon urged lagging states to do more to enroll the needy, citing a recent government report that found a sharp rise in Americans with inconsistent access to adequate food.</blockquote>


Later in the article:



<blockquote>While food stamp use is still the exception in places like Orange County (where 4 percent of the population get food aid), the program reaches deep in places of chronic poverty. </blockquote>


Lets consider this for a second - if we're at 4%, and use of food banks has doubled....and it's almost broke? Imagine what happens if we turn into Missouri.
 
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