Special Announcement from the Contra Costa and Solano County Food Bank
We Need Your Help This Holiday Season…to feed over 100,000 people each month. It may be someone you know, someone at work or someone living on your street. It is someone in our community who is trying to make ends meet and needs some assistance in feeding their children, their parents or themselves. It is probably someone who looks just like you or me.
We live in a wonderful community that comes together every holiday season to help our community. If you helped last holiday season – Thank You! We need your help again. If you haven’t helped in a while, it is never too late to make a difference. Just one can, $1, one hour can mean a world of difference to those in need. Here are some wonderful ways you can help us help more people this holiday season:
Traditional: For many people and businesses, the traditional food drive is the most exciting and fun. Our process is simple! You call us to order your barrels; we bring them to you or you can pick them up at one of our two warehouses; you give us a call when the barrel is almost full; we pick up the full barrels and give you new barrels to start again; we weigh the food and then send you a thank you letter telling you how many pounds of food you collected. Consider challenging other friends, company departments, businesses, schools, etc. to help feed our neighbors in need.
Special Event: We also welcome you to consider hosting a special event to benefit the Food Bank. You can collect food or money at holiday parties, birthday parties, caroling events, luncheons, hot cocoa sales and just about anything you can think of!
Buy-A-Bag: Help the Food Bank raise funds using our Buy A Bag program during the holidays! We provide small die cut paper bags or stockings. You collect donations for each bag or stocking – $1, $5, $10 – you choose your donation price. Decorate your office, business or classroom for the holidays with these colorful cut-outs and help your neighbors in need! For more information contact Kathy Gleason at 925-771-1313, kgleason@foodbankccs.org or visit www.foodbankccs.org.
Virtual Food Drive: If you are a busy person and don’t have time to shop, we can do it for you! Through our Virtual Food Drive – an internet-based technology – you will be able to make your monetary donations go directly to the purchase and distribution of highly nutritious food as well as other grocery products that our partner agencies request most. The Virtual Food Drive helps us get more meals on the tables of hungry people faster and with less expense because we are able to purchase truckloads of new food. You will be able to fight hunger with a click of the computer. You shop the amount you wish to donate from your computer. It is convenient, easy and secure. Virtual Food Drive donations are tax deductible, easier to figure out at tax time and receipts are instantaneous. If you have a group that would like to participate, we can set up a special page for your group so you can have friendly competitions or just watch as your totals grow. Visit our website www.foodbankccs.org and look for the little shopping cart. It’s a WIN-WIN-WIN!
And once all of the food starts coming in, we will need many volunteers to help inspect, sort and box the food. There are many wonderful ways to help the Food Bank and the people we help!
The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano has been serving the community for 34 years. We provided food to more than 100,000 hungry people in need every month directly at sites in every community in Contra Costa and Solano counties and through a network of 178 charitable agencies, and distributed over 11.2 million pounds last year! The Food Bank works to reduce food waste, feed hungry people, and raise public awareness of issues related to food and hunger. The work could not get done without the help of the hundreds of volunteers that donate their time to coordinate food drives, sort and pack the food, and help distribute it to their hungry neighbors. To learn more about the Food Bank and the work we do or to find out how you can help, please visit us on the web at www.foodbankccs.org or give us a call at 800-870-FOOD.
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Excellent! I know Kathy Gleason and those little buy a bags are quite cute. Visit the Food Bank CCS website to see what they look like. Glad to see hunger is kept in the spotlight. That’s the best way for help to arrive!