>Hi Folks,

You Are Going To Be Amazed
The second quarter totals are in and we donated 113% more food to the Community Food Bank than we did in our first quarter. That means we dropped off 3,000 lbs. of food in the last three months compared to 1,411 lbs. in January, February and March. And for those into numerology, out total for the two quarters was 4,411 lbs. Not sure if the one in front of the comma turning into a 4 means anything other than we did collect exactly 3,000 lbs. in the quarter.

Here is a chart with all of the donations spelled out. Click image to enlarge.

There Are People Behind Those Lb. Statistics
For a couple of weeks now I have been trying to think of a way to show my neighbors how donating just one can a week really has a significant effect on the lives of hard working people in need. When I first decided to start our One Can A Week program I looked at the current Community Food Bank annual report but nothing stuck out except for the huge number of folks they serve. Last week I looked again and saw a connection I had missed earlier. It’s another chart but you will be very surprised and very impressed as I was.

How Many People Can 4,411 lbs. of Food Feed?
The chart below is based on the information contained in the printed Community Food Bank Annual Report – July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008. The Daily Meals (ingredients like our One Can A Week, not prepared food) and Annual Food Distribution figures are rounded estimates published in the report.

The annual meals, weight per individual meals and number of people served are my calculations based on those rounded estimates of Daily Meals and the Annual Food Distribution figures. Click image to enlarge.

The Miles Neighborhood Donates Enough Food to Feed 1,131 Folks Three Meals in One Day
Of course, 1.3 lbs. may sound like a lot of food per meal but every time I get takeout at my favorite Chinese restaurant I can put 1.5 lbs to 1.64 lbs. in one of those rectangular, 3-compartment Styrofoam containers and easily close the lid. Of course, every meal should not be 1.3 lbs. but this is a rough estimate to try to show how we are actually helping real people in real need with our One Can A Week food donation program.

Just think about it, your can of peas along with your neighbor’s can of tuna could feed one person one meal. So every can counts, just like your vote. And if enough of your neighbors join you in your community service, each of you will change the world.

I am very proud of my neighbors and I hope you are proud of yourselves because you deserve the praise.

Other Important News
Commemorative Basket – This is the 140 lbs. of food I delivered Monday to the Community Food Bank but there is something very special about it. This donation marks the end of our second quarter and the beginning of thinking about the folks we are helping. It’s not just One Can A Week, it is one can that is an integral part of one person’s meal.

Sam Hughes Neighborhood
On Wednesday of last week I met with Gabriela Head who has lived in the Sam Hughes Neighborhood for 10 years and managed administering the Quality of Life survey I told you about in the last Update. The Sam Hughes Neighborhood board recommended I contact her. She had over 30 volunteers who went door-to-door gathering the data. Gabriela is going to talk to her team and see how we can initiate One Can A Week in the Sam Hughes Neighborhood.

Return to Safeway
After I left the meeting with Gabriela I went to Safeway to do some shopping and ran into the assistant manager, Dan, who helped me establish my Saturday Safeway collections. He said that in two weeks I can go back for a few weeks. Then Safeway will run another charity drive for three weeks. After that there will be nothing until next summer. Great! This means I can have a table at Safeway for a very long time and really establish One Can A Week.

See you next Sunday.

Peter

>Hi Folks,

Great Leads from the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Folks
On Tuesday evening I made my One Can A Week presentation to the board and interested neighbors at the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association. At the end of my talk when I asked if they could suggest people who might want to initiate One Can A Week in their neighborhood, they were quick to give me some direction.

One person they were really high on was Gabriela Head who recently organized and managed a Quality of Life Survey for the neighborhood which involved lots of volunteers and data collection. The good news is I am going to meet with Gabriela on Wednesday to discuss ways we could work together.

KVOA Channel 4 News on Sunday and Monday
Friday afternoon I got a call from a news producer at KVOA who said a videographer would call me to schedule a time Sunday to shoot my Miles Neighborhood food collection. So the rest of the day Friday and all day Saturday I hoped that nothing would explode or fall down because my shoot would be cancelled for sure.

About 9:30 Sunday Robert Dingwall the KVOA videographer called
and we decided to meet at 11:30 in front of my home. As he set up his camera…a terrific, high end Fuji I might add…we chatted about community service and why I started One Can A Week. Robert admitted that he liked doing community stories more than accidents and fires. “They don’t have the drama,” he said, “but they are very important.”

Every Sunday Edward and Liz Altamirano (pictured on the right above) greet me at their front door along with their spunky pup Kahlua. This Sunday was different. Edward was out and when Liz, spotting Robert Dingwall, the videographer from KVOA Channel 4 News, she started out on the timid side but if you saw the One Can A Week story on Sunday at 5:30 and Monday at 5:00 you can tell Liz got it together pretty fast. She and Lopita who lives on the corner of Miles and Highland were both very articulate in their on camera debut. And neither needed a teleprompter.

Robert shot everything. The can pickup, the Thank You note placement, getting in the Cabriolet, getting out of the Cabriolet, driving down the street and lots of walking up to the houses. When he interviewed Lopita, Liz and me, that big lens shield was no more than 10 inches from our faces. I immediately thought of the Seinfeld episode on “close talkers” because we did the same thing Elaine and George did. We kept our feet firmly planted but we bent back a bit.

The images Robert made, which were incredibly clear, and the angles he used made us look great. I’m pretty sure we could get used to the closeness of the lens—that is, if KVOA wanted to do another story on One Can A Week down the road—especially since it’s just a lens and there is no hot, pungent breath blowing in our faces like on Seinfeld.

The Food Keeps Flowing
Even though it is summer vacation time and Father’s Day was celebrated on Sunday, we still collected a terrific amount of food. We had 124 lbs. of food and 34 lbs. of some very plump grapefruits. We already collected twice as much food this quarter as we did last quarter and we still have a week to go.

See you next Sunday.

Peter

>Hi Folks,

PJ’s Roller Derby Idea Scores Big
Some weeks ago Barbara Trujillo on Miles Street called to tell me her eleven-year-old son PJ (Parker James) had been studying the One Can A Week food donation program for the Community Food Bank and he came up with an idea of his own. He suggested that everyone, team members and fans, bring a can of food to the champion Tucson Roller Derby bout that was going to be held June 13th. His mom—Barbicide, a member of the defending Roller Derby championship team VICE Squad—loved the idea and by the final results so did everyone else.

PJ, Barbara and the whole gang collected 344 lbs of food plus $1.00 from a fan who just forgot. (To see a great Arizona Daily Star article by Ernesto Portillo, Jr. and a charming color photo of Mom and PJ, follow this link. http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/296698.php).

Adding in Sunday’s total of 132 lbs. of food and $36 in donations, Miles Neighborhood ended up with a total contribution of 476 lbs. of food and $37 in donations. The food donation bests our past record of 240 lbs. by 236 lbs. Way to go PJ!

PJ Opens the Door to Food Drive Events
There are two aspects to PJ’s idea: Kids are never too young to get involved in the real world and there are scores of championship events throughout the city every year.

Kids of all ages see hungry kids—some of them their classmates—and they say to themselves, why can’t we just feed them? Food is everywhere. How hard can that be? When they bring up the subject of hunger to their parents and teachers it’s often dismissed as cute or charming and maybe even naïve.

In Barbara’s case, she always listens to PJ and his idea was simple, clear and quite doable. The adult thing she had to do was talk to the other adults to make this simple yet important idea happen. With PJ involved every step of the way, Barb talked to the powers to be, got their buy in and made an announcement that PJ wanted everyone to help him with his community service project for the Community Food Bank by bring a can of food to the Championship Bout.

A week or so before the event, PJ stopped me on the street while I was walking my dogs just to make sure I knew what was going on so I could be there to collect the donations. Smart kid just following through.

One young lady at the event placed her stack of cans on the table and said, “I don’t shop at Wal-Mart but I had this gift card and I went to Wal-Mart.” Guess she wanted to get the most for her money. She was smiling and quite pleased with how things turned out.

If one night at the Roller Derby championship can generate 344 lbs. of food for the Community Food Bank, imagine how much food could be donated if every championship sporting event in the city adopted PJ’s idea? You can bet it would be much more than lots.

What a Bout
Most of the time during the championship bout between Barbara’s team, the VICE Squad, and the Copper Queens, I was toting food from the ticket desk at the front door to the Once Can A Week table inside the arena. The other reason I wasn’t paying much attention was Barb’s team was behind from the opening buzzer up to 2 minutes left on the clock which accounted for 58 minutes of play. Then things got really exciting. The score was 94 to 94 then suddenly 107 to 98 in favor of the VICE Squad but there was still a chance for the Copper Queens to win. It all came down to the VICE Squad blocking the challengers, not making any penalties and eating up the clock. Barbara’s team held them off while everyone in the arena held their respective breaths. What a thrilling finish and PJ and the Miles Neighborhood got a lot of food to show for it.

Summertime Haul