Care & ShareSpring 2010• United Way Community Food Bank

In this Issue:{2} Food for Fines

(2) NALC Food Drive

(3) Pound for Pound Challenge

(3) Corporate Sponsors and Volunteers

(3) Freezer Recipients

(4) Letter from the Director

Remember...Annual Agency Meeting Scheduled for April 20th

The Annual Agency Relations meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 20th at the food bank from 1-3pm. Agencies who are represented at the meeting will receive a $10 credit to their account and will be entered into a drawing to win additional credits.

This year, Barbie Moore, Nutrition Educator at the Jefferson County Department of Health, will discuss healthy meal options for agencyrepresentatives to introduce to their food bank clients. Agencies will also receive information about services offered by the Crisis Center and will learn about food bank updates and important information.

The Birmingham Disc Golf Association held its 3rd Annual Birmingham Ice Bowl on February 6th at George Ward Park. Raising over$1200, 51 players played two rounds of 24 holes in temperatures hovering around 40 degrees.

The tournament was one of more than 250 Ice Bowls that took place across the country to raise money for local food banks. Held each year in January and February, Ice Bowls raised more than $224,000 and 55,000 pounds of food in 2009.

Holding to the mantra, “No Wimps, No Whiners”, Ice Bowl rules are sim-ple. According to www.icebowlhq.com, an Ice Bowl may not be cancelled or postponed due to weather conditions and the food

and money raised must go to a local food bank or other charity.

In disc golf, individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target in as few tosses as possible. You can get more information about disc golf in the Birmingham area at the club's website - www.discgolfbirmingham.com.

The food bank would like to thank all of this year’s participants and Birming-ham Disc Golf Association for making this event such a success!

Disc Golf Tournament Held to Benefit Food Bank

Rolando also noted that donations are particularly critical at this time since most school lunch programs are suspended during the summer months and millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.

The United Way Food Bank will once again be partner-ing with our local Letter Carriers for this event. Please contact the food bank or your local post office if you have any questions.

The National Association of Letter Carriers will be conducting the nation’s largest annual food drive this year on Saturday, May 8. On that day, letter carriers will collect non-perishable donations from homes as they deliver mail along their postal routes.

The 18th annual NALC National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” is the largest one-day food drive in the nation and is held annually on the second Saturday in May in over 10,000 cities and towns. Carriers collected a record 73.4 million pounds of food in last year’s drive.

Donations will be collected by more than 1,400 local branches of the 295,000-member postal union and delivered to food banks, pantries and shelters that serve the communities where they are collected.

“Millions and millions of families are suffering–struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table,” said NALC President Fredric V. Rolando. “Food banks, pantries and shelters need our help more than ever.”

* September 2009 Feeding America Food Bank Survey

Food for Fines

UAB offers Parking Amnesty for Food Donations On March 26, UAB students had the opportunity to have parking fees waived by bringing donations of canned goods and personal care items to benefit the food bank.

The Parking Amnesty for Community Relief event raised 1021 pounds of food and other household goods for the United Way Food Bank. The event was organized by UAB’s Student Government Associa-tion. Students could bring a donation of five items to have the fee waived for one parking ticket.

SGA president Hernandez Stroud said that he saw a need for a solution to parking problems due to a number of construction projects on campus and to the significant increase in student body numbers, as the university has reached its highest enrollment totals ever.

Thanks to the UAB Student Government Associa-tion and UAB Parking & Transportation Services for organizing this great program. We look forward to next year’s event!

(Page 2)

Thanks to this Quarter’s Corporate Sponsors & Volunteers!

Vanderbilt Alumni Association •Birmingham Chapter•

Birmingham Retired Teachers •Association•

The United Way Community Food Bank is joining food banks across the country to take part in the Feeding America Pound for Pound Challenge.

The Biggest Loser, Feeding America, General Mills and Subway have teamed up to support the Pound For Pound Challenge, which will help Americans lose weight while providing help to those strug-gling with hunger. In its second year, this fundraiser is encouraging Americans to “Lose Nationally, Feed Locally.”

By becoming a part of the Central Alabama team, you can lose weight and benefit our food bank. For every pound you pledge to lose through June 30, 2010, the Pound For Pound Challenge will donate 14¢ to Feeding America - enough to deliver one pound of groceries to those in need.

Participation is easy and can have a huge impact. At the end of the challenge, Feeding America will

distribute the funds based on the number of pledges in the area. So far, 568

team members have pledged 17,212 pounds to the United Way Food Bank. Join the team to-day and sign up today at

www.pfpchallenge.com!

Pound for Pound Challenge -Be the Biggest Loser

and Help the Food Bank!

Congratulations to our Freezer Recipients! Following an application process, these 12 agencies were selected to receive

a freezer provided by a grant from Alabama Power.

• Abiding Hope Ministries, Vincent• Birmingham AIDS Outreach• Children’s Village, Birmingham• Christian’s Place Mission, Nauvoo UMC• Crossroads Community Church• First Baptist Church Woodlawn

• Hispanic Church of God, Oneonta• Mountain Pointe Ministries, Oneonta• Presbyterian Hispanic Fellowship• Samaritan House, Talladega • Shelby Emergency Assistance• The Arc of Jefferson County

•Macy’s• •Target••Panera Bread•

(Page 3)(Page 3)

Greetings! Spring is upon us, and there’s just something about the warmer weather, the flowers blooming, and the sun shining that gives us all a renewed sense of purpose in our daily lives. I was thinking about the food bank’s purpose just the other day, and spent some time comparing where we are this year, compared to where we were at this same time last year.

By this time last April 2009, we had collected a total of 102,000 pounds in local donations, spent $130,000 purchasing supplemental food, and had already distributed 1.6 million pounds.

As of April of this year, we have collected only 72,000 pounds in local donations, we have spent $196,000 in purchasing supplemental food, and our total distribution stands at 1.7 million pounds.

Wow. This says to me that while this economy and recession may have hit rock bottom, we most

certainly haven’t climbed our way out of it yet. The leader of one of our cherished agencies put it best when he said, “It’s like you may have fallen five hundred feet down a cliff, and you know you aren’t falling any farther, but you still can’t figure out quite how to dig yourself out yet.” I have no doubt the decrease in local donations is an indication of the suffering that is going on in our local business-es and organizations right now.

Birmingham and central Alabama is hurting. We need your continued support in feeding folks. We’ll get through it. We always do.

Larry Logan, Executive Director

(Page 4)

Letter from the Director...

In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Ave., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410

or call (202)720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

107 Walter Davis DriveBirmingham, AL 35209

Phone: 205.942.8911Fax: 205.942.8838Web: www.feedingAL.org

A Member of...