Hi Folks,

Little Adventures
The food bank was rather quite when I got there at 11 today. Usually it’s a hub of activity when I arrive around 9 on most Mondays. Somebody was delivering a bed and setting it up at the dock door. I asked Keith what was that all about and he said he hoped the beginning of an after lunch nap program. Of course we all laughed.

Last week Pauline Heckler, the VP of Development at the Community Food Bank, invited me to lunch at Micha’s on South 4th Avenue so I was trying to coordinate my delivery and the 11:30 lunch appointment. It worked out well because she came down the stairs right on the dot of 11:30.

Pauline told me she selected Micha’s because it was the first restaurant Punch Woods, the Community Food Bank’s storied Executive Director took her to when he hired her. I like stories like that because it makes you feel important for doing absolutely nothing.

About halfway through lunch Pauline was kind enough to let me present an idea I’ve been formulating for weeks and mentioned a bit in last week’s post. It’s called “Smart Kids Don’t Eat Dumb Food…much” In essence, it is a study of two low-income schools where food is provided for the kids 7 days a week, 3 meals a day.

We know what is happening to poor kids now, early onset diabetes, low test scores, little exercise and everything that those concerns entails now and later in life. But what will happen to these kids if we feed them properly for 3 or 4 years? Pauline is going to help me meet with more folks to see if we can develop a program to answer that question.

Villa Hermosa
At 1:30 I had an appointment to teach the computer to some seniors and I knew I couldn’t be late. These folks have little to do so they are always very punctual. In fact, an 88-year-old student was sitting in his scooter directly in front of the door when I arrived. I yanked the computer chair away as Aaron drove up to the desk and stopped with a thud.

This was Aaron’s fist lesson and he was pretty good with the mouse but filling out the Gmail form proved a bit frustrating. We stopped now and again just to let him catch his breath and calm down. I told him the computer was easier to operate than learning to drive a car because there is no way he could fly off a cliff with a computer. He smiled and relaxed a little more.

Aaron now has a Gmail account and he said he will call all his kids and grandkids to give them the news. You know they are going to be ecstatic. Sharron, the Activities Director said they have been after him for some time now to get online. Now he is.

A Walk on Campus
It was 8:20 and my Westies like to rest in the grass in front of the library before they head back to the car. Apparently the grass is cooler there—at least Adam thinks so. In the middle of the mall a very large man was play Frisbee with a couple of young boys. His voice was very large too. “I love those dogs,” he boomed as he walked over to the three of us, “what are they called…I forgot.”

I told him Westies. “Their faces are so cute,” he replied in his announcer-like voice,
“their eyes look just like a kid’s.”

Turns out my new friend, Armando, was there with his son and cousin teaching them how to pitch the disc around. At first they thought the game was dumb but Armando insisted back that it wasn’t dumb and soon they were having fun.

Armando is young, 30 I think he said, and has a restless soul. He thinks there are better things in life other than his foreman job and he wants to do more. “I have to take care of myself first before I can take really good care of my boy,” he volunteered.

His admission surprised me because generally folks don’t get this concept. I told him that the lioness is probably one of the best providers in nature and a big proponent of taking care of herself. Her hunting skills are legendary and when she and the other lionesses in the Pride bring down game, they eat first.

Then the lion is allowed to eat followed by the cubs. If this order were not strictly observed, the Pride would eventually perish. If the lioness, the sole provider for the Pride, ate last, there may not be enough food for her. She would grow weak, diminishing her effectiveness as a hunter. When this happens, the whole Pride—her family, in other words—would grow weak too and eventually die.

Armando liked this story although he probably identified with the lion more. Think it’s a big guy thing. No matter, he asked for my card and wanted to talk more about community service and helping others after checking out our blog. Armando has a dynamic personality and is very engaging. Wouldn’t it be great if a chance meeting helped take One Can A Week to another level?

The Weight Isn’t the Whole Story

The Community Food Bank is always looking for breakfast cereals (the non-sugar kind, of course) and our neighbors are answering the call. This is a good thing. Unfortunately, cereal does not weigh much even if the box is huge like the Joe’s O’s. Heavy or not, keep the cereal coming, the kids need it and love it.

We collected a total of 121 lbs. of food The money we donated amounted to $57.50…one check for $25, $14.50 in cash and $18.00 from the Axis Food Mart.

See you Sunday,

Peter

Hi Folks,

The Fates Are Back from Vacation
One week without those three charming ladies and life turns into a TV test pattern. But they’re back and I’m back in the business of feeding hungry folks and their kids.

On Saturday morning I set up the One Can A Week table at the Rincon Market, picked up the Food Donation soup cup from next to the cash register and dumped its contents on the table. There were a whole bunch of dollar bills stuffed to the brim and I wondered why that happened this week. Generally, quarters are the big donated item.

About 9:45 I looked up at the wall clock across the room and thought that Bobby Rich may show up around 10 if he were going to show at all. Sure enough, there he was at 9:53 shaking my hand and telling me he and his wife Debbie were going to have breakfast with me. I quickly got my scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon and sat down.

Debbie is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sahuaro Girl Scout Council, Inc. and it didn’t take long for the conversation to go from pleasant hellos to feeding hungry children in Tucson. In her capacity as head of the Girl Scouts, Debbie gets involved with most aspects of community service here in Tucson.

E=Full Tummies
I told both Bobby and Debbie that I get a chance to do a lot of thinking sitting behind that table over there, pointing to the yellow draped One Can A Week display by the door. A lot of times I feel like Einstein, just thinking and thinking…but on a very low level, mind you. Bobby jumped in and said that he was glad I ended my sentence as I did because he thought I was going to go on some kind of ego trip. I said no, I was just going for the joke.

The truth is for the past few weeks I have been visiting the Community Food Bank web site and reading about all of the programs they have available to feed folks…kids especially. If you take what they offer and add it to the two federal programs, kids end up with a school lunch program, a snack pak program and a summer meals program. That’s enough to get the job done. What is missing are resources. All three are looking for food and funding all of the time because the demand is so great and the supply is so small. That’s why we have hungry kids.

What if we take those programs and two schools in a low-income neighborhood and maximize the resources. Just keep the resources flowing by enlisting food providers and businesses in an experiment to see what happens. Do the scores go up? Does the weight go down? Does the health improve? What happens if we really take care of our poor kids? We already know how costly and dangerous it is when we don’t.

Debbie said, “Maximize and then analyze.” Exactly. She also said she liked the idea and she knows people who will help foster the program. I hadn’t fully designed or defined the program in my mind but one must move when an opportunity grins at you. My dad always told me that opportunity is often disguised as hard work. It’s been true in my case perhaps because luck has never been a friend of mine.

I immediately told Bobby and Debbie that I would put together a proposal that spelled out all of the elements of our two-school project. Why not just give the Community Food Bank, one of the most efficient service organizations in the nation, as much food and resources as possible and let them work with the school system to beat hunger in two needy schools? Then armed with the data and success, other businesses and folks will step up because the Comunity Food Bank and the school system will have shown that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s thousands of happy-faced kids.

Folks Moving On
The Fates have affected a number of our good neighbors also. They are moving to new neighborhoods—one as far away as Ithaca, NY. With some I learn about their departure when I ring the bell and nobody’s home…permanently. Those I talk to ask me not to delete them from the Weekly Update email list because they want to keep up with what is happening in the neighborhood and One Can A Week. That’s nice.

As soon as I see that there are new neighbors, I talk to them about One Can A Week and most want to participate right away. A few are a bit hesitant when I tell them that they owe a can for every week the house sat vacant prior to their moving in. Just kidding!

We collected a total of 208 lbs. of food including 38 lbs. of produce and 42 lbs. from the Axis Food Mart. In addition, there were 4 lbs. of non-food items. The money we donated amounted to $59.00…three checks for $40 and $19 in cash.

See you Sunday,

Peter