Food Bank Friday! May 8, 2009!

[ColbertWatcher]

Needs your immediate attention ...

The people at the http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/projects/">Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota are asking for donations. Please check out their link to see how you can help.

In people of Emmonak, Alaska (as well as other rural Alaskan villages) are planning a summer food bank drive, in the mean time, please consider helping now any way that you can. Here is their shopping list for donations.

If you know of any other community that needs help, please post in reply and we can start up a new thread to get it more attention.

Food in the news

National Association of Letter Carriers'
Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive
Saturday May 9, 2009

Many DUers posted about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive being held this Saturday May 9, 2009.

This is the letter carriers' food drive.

Leave the items in a bag next to your mailbox. Suggested items include: canned fish and meats, canned soup, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice. Please do not include items that have expired or are in glass containers.

For all the information, please click on this link.

Some donation ideas

* donate money DUer peace13 reminds us that if a food bank accepts money, they can get food in bulk. Also consider donating office supplies to the organization that runs the food bank (old computers, phones, fax machines, paper, etc)

* DUer blaze signed up to have a donation made automatically every month, find out if your local food bank accepts them too

* "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

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

* DUer peacebird found her household with a few extra dollars every month after paying off a car note, so now they donate that amount to food bank every month. (Way to go peacebird!)

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.)

If you're unable to donate at this time, but may need assistance yourself, please check out these ideas from your fellow DUers ...

* DUer readmoreoften has some great advice for where to find inexpensive food in your area

* DUer ProgrezivIndie compiled several links on one webpage (for help finding a job, medical care, food, etc) and what to do to keep your food edible after a disaster!

* DUer Missy Vixen found a webpage to help people receive free or low-cost medication!

Why is this posted every week?

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)

Please support candidates and policies that guarantee livable wages.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Countdown kick. n/t

[blaze]

2. Thanks for this weekly post CW!!

Many are in need out there.

I've got my bag ready to fill for the letter carriers!!

[ColbertWatcher]

3. You're welcome and I'm going to fill my bag too! n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Saturday kick. n/t