5 days until Christmas, 12 days until 2011!! AHHHH!

If you are anything like me you think of great Christmas/holiday  gifts throughout the year for  all of your loved ones and then before you know it the calendar says December 20th, and now you are at a loss for time, and need to come up with some crafty gift ideas that actually hold meaning!  Luckily, I have the inside scoop on a couple meaningful holiday gifts for your friends or family members this year! The gifts listed below “give in more than one way”!

For the “Person that has Everything” on your list, here’s an idea:

Honor them by giving a gift in their name to feed families facing hunger across our 10-county service aread. They will receive a letter and certificate stating that a donation was made on their behalf for the holidays! Plus, your donation is 100% tax deductible. Something everyone can feel good about.Call 585.328.3380 x131 to make your donation today!

For the “wine-o” on your list we have the perfect gift:

Red Tail Ridge the The First LEED®-Certified green winery in New York located on the Western Shore of Seneca Lake has a great selection of crisp, refreshing white wines and full bodied reds. Red Tail Ridge produced a charity wine on behalf of Foodlink. Good Karma, has concentrated aromas of apricot and grapefruit rind, with a hint of vanilla. Lush texture on the forward palate, with flavors of clover honey, orange oil , lime and quince followed by a tart citrus finish.

No, you don’t have to travel to the fingerlakes to purchase these wines, they are available at many local Liquor and Wine stores. This is a great gift under $20, and a portion of the proceeds fight local hunger!

The Localvore on your list, here’s a good one!:

A gift certificate to Freshwise Farms. Freshwise is a social enterprise of Foodlink. All of the proceeds from the sale of their hydroponic greens and other vegetables go directly toward fighting hunger in our community! You can get a gift certificate in any denomination of $5 increments.  Gift certificates can be used at the farm or any farmers’ market that Freshwise attends. Call 585.328.3380 ext 131 to purchase yours today!

Have your shopping complete but still want to give back:

Donate Food: Cleaning out your cupboards to make room for your new Pyrex dishes and kitchen gadgets? Donate your non-perishable foods to Foodlink. You can drop them off at 936 Exchange Street between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm Monday thru Friday. I should make mention that we are closed December 24- January 2, 2011.  If you wanted to drop food off the week we are closed there are food collection  barrels at all local Bruegger’s Bagels locations.

Schedule a volunteer shift: While the kids are out of school for holiday break you probably have plans to go to the movie theatre or one of our great museums, after you have done those things and are looking for something the whole family can do, schedule a volunteer shift after the holiday rush! We have shifts available 5 days a week. Contact 585.328.3380 x159 for details!

Happy Holidays to you and yours! See you next year!

’til then…

Terra Keller

Operations Administrator

So last Thursday was the United Way of Rochester’s Day of Caring.

Taken by Carlos Ortiz for the Democrat & Chronicle

Bria (our Manager of Community Engagement) had just handed me the Day of Caring spreadsheet. How many people would be coming to Foodlink? It looks like 6 different companies signed up to come, with over 150 volunteers. I had no idea what to expect – but I was excited.

Day of Caring was here. As instructed, I donned my Foodlink apparel and pulled up in a little after 7am Thursday morning. (Long after ITT and some of our staff had arrived at 5am for these Channel 13 spots: here and here) “Live United” t-shirts were everywhere. People parking, walking in, smiling, and ready to go. After a last minute blitz to sweep the spare parking lot of broken glass, everyone assembled to receive assignments for the day. Sure enough, over 150 volunteers showed up, united on this day of caring. Soon my team was called – 15 people from Paetec. Enthusiasm started building as we took a quick tour of the warehouse in order to introduce Foodlink to the team, and we headed upstairs to learn about the BackPack program. Positive feelings soon turned to indignation as I explained the story of the BackPack program – an initiative designed to alleviate child hunger on weekends and school breaks.

Childhood hunger? Why do we need this program in upstate NY? I continued to explain how I did not understand that concept when I started coordinating the program last fall. My indifference too turned to indignation after speaking with the teachers in schools who describe witnessing children who rely on school breakfast and lunch come in to school famished on Monday mornings. This apparently struck the hearts of the Day of Caring team as well, motivating them to enthusiastically get to work packing bags for the BackPack program. BackPack bags are Wegmans bags filled with kid-friendly non-perishable nutritious food items which are then delivered to participating school districts to be discretely distributed to children identified by participating school coordinators. Less than four hours later, our team had exhausted our stock of supplies and containers to hold bags – they packed over 1100 bags.

Eleven-hundred backpacks. I couldn’t believe it! Though our arms were tired, spirits were still high as we recognized the amazing work we had completed. You can see more of what we did here: Video & Article (the Democrat and Chronicle came and shot a video which features the Paetec BackPack team!) After lots of high fives, we headed downstairs for some Upstate NY grass fed beef burgers from Freshwise (available at the Lilac Festival this week!).

Thank you especially to our volunteers from Paetec, Kodak,  ITT Geospatial Systems, Excellus, Everest, and Thompson Reuters.
Thank you, Rochester, for Caring.

Rachel Staver, RD.

Foodlink is looking for individuals and faith- or community-based groups in the Monroe County area to participate in a community garden project. The ideal project partners would be a group with the capacity to donate several hours each week to help farm and maintain two acres of donated farmland – with the assistance of Foodlink and other community members. The gardens are located on the property of Grossman’s Country Nursery, on Rt. 250 in Penfield. Candidates m

ust be willing to commit to this project for the duration of the summer and fall, as part of a larger effort to provide access to fresh, locally grown food for low-income people. Produce grown in the community garden will be distributed to those in need via the Foodlink food bank. Candidates will also be given the opportunity to identify families within their own community that are in need, as they too will be be recipients of the produce grown on this community garden.

Come help us grow nutritious food for our neighbors in need!
If you’re interested in participating or have any questions, please contact:

Julia Tedesco
Public Policy Coordinator, Foodlink
jtedesco@foodlinkny.org
(T): 585-328-3380 x141

Repacking donated potatoes

Some of their accomplishments included:
Sorting donated food
Bagging potatoes
Construction projects, electrical work, plumbing, and painting at Freshwise Farms
… just to name a few.

We thank you for your dedication to the improvement of your community, and great services rendered to Foodlink. We could not be successful in the hunger relief effort without your help!

Saturdays are our busiest days for volunteers here at Foodlink. We offer morning and afternoon shifts which are often booked for weeks in advance. Many different groups and individuals join us to inspect and sort the rescued food so we can send it to the 500 soup kitchens and food pantries we serve. Today we welcome the Boston College Alumni Association, Fairport Interact Club, United Church of Christ in Webster, the Cobras Under 16 Soccer Team, and Alpha Phi Omega from RIT. As we wrap up National Volunteer Week, we would like to once again thank all of the many volunteers who donate their time to help us serve our neighbors in need.

Click here for more information on how to join us

Foodlink depends on our strong partnerships with organizations across the community in order to serve our neighbors in need. One such partnership is with Heritage Christian Services. We work with 40 of their residential homes through the food bank, and they have a day habilitation program at Freshwise Farms. Additionally, several groups from the residential homes visit Foodlink each week to volunteer their time. One important volunteer activity they help with is labeling “brites”- pallets of donated food we receive in unlabelled cans. We receive these critical fruits and vegetables from generous manufacturers such as Seneca Foods in Ontario County, but without labels we can’t distribute the food due to identification and tracking issues. Volunteers from Heritage Christian and other related programs tape labels on each can so we can distribute the food to those in need. As we celebrate National Volunteer Week, we would like to thank them for their help and ongoing partnership!

National Volunteer Week is an opportunity for us to thank the many volunteers we rely on to serve our community. In addition to groups, some individuals choose to contribute their time and talent to Foodlink and our work. Some come for just a few hours while others volunteer every week. Alex Pierney, a retiree from Rochester, has been volunteering every week for the past two years. In that time, Alex has assisted with many tasks ranging from sorting food to preparing mailings to putting together supplies for our annual Check Out Hunger campaign. He says he isn’t doing this for the recognition, but we appreciate his ongoing support and dedication to our cause.

As we continue to celebrate National Volunteer Week, we are pleased to recognize the many volunteer groups that work with us on a regular basis. Last week we were joined by the Rochester Young Professionals, a local group that connects young professionals and engages them in our community. Members of RYP volunteer once a month at Foodlink and help to sort the retail damaged product we receive from Wegmans. Volunteers check to see if the product is still safe to consume and then sort the product into categories. Narina Schulz from the Democrat and Chronicle also visited last week and highlighted the RYP and their work with Foodlink. Click here to read the article. Many thanks to RYP for their continued support and volunteer work here at Foodlink – your work makes a difference in our community! If you’re interested in joining Rochester Young Professionals, check out their Facebook page or email membership@r-y-p.org.

]]> http://www.foodlinknyblog.org/volunteers/national-volunteer-week/ryp-volunteering-to-make-a-difference/feed/ 2 http://www.foodlinknyblog.org/volunteers/national-volunteer-week/national-volunteer-week/ http://www.foodlinknyblog.org/volunteers/national-volunteer-week/national-volunteer-week/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:52:04 +0000 admin http://www.foodlinknyblog.org/?p=385

This week, April 19-25, marks National Volunteer Week, recognizing the  millions of volunteers who devote their time and efforts to making a difference in the lives of others. Foodlink appreciates the generous contribution of time and talent given by over 5,000 volunteers each year. Volunteers are essential at all levels of food bank operations — from sorting and repackaging food to helping at fundraising events. Volunteers range from school groups, and Scout groups to corporations and even individuals- all committed to helping their neighbors in need.

This week we are also welcoming high school students from across the county who are choosing to spend time during their spring break to give back to the community. Many high school students have service requirements and Foodlink provides an opportunity to complete those hours during school breaks as well as throughout the year. So far nearly 50 students per day have signed up to help this week.