FoodBank

The Food Bank of Northern Nevada is part of a great group of Nevada non-profit organizations that is in the running to receive a $100,000 gift from Walmart.  The really unique thing about this program is it is the Associate Choice Program meaning that the employees of Walmart are the ones that get to choose who get’s this amazing prize!  The Food Bank of the Northern Nevada is the only charity on the list from the northern part of our state. 

The opportunity to receive this gift, would be so appreciated by the Food Bank and our mission.  Last year, we helped to feed over 124,000 people in our region and distributed over 8 million pounds of food.  With $100,000, we would be able to provide 400,000 meals to those who need them the most. 

If  you or anyone that you know is an employee of Walmart, we humbly ask for his or her vote at www.mywalmart.com.  The Food Bank of Nothern Nevada sincerely promises to use this money to continue to feed our neighbors who need our help.

Thank you so much for your support!

So, you have your tickets (hopefully, because there aren’t many left) and you are heading to the show on Friday night, July 9.  Little Feat puts on a great show and plenty of fans are planning to join us for this great party in support of the Food Bank.  The gates open at 5 and you want to be there to get a good spot, but what to do until the show starts – eat and drink!  This year, there are three great food and beverage sponsors at the show that will be selling their favorites (and donating some back to help us feed more people.)   Check this out.

Great Basin Brewing Company -  Nevada’s most award winning brewery will be selling some of their favorites.  Enjoy the 2010 World Beer Cup Bronze Medal winning Whoop Ass Witbier, a Belgian white beer; Ichthyosaur India Pale Ale, and the 2008 World Beer Cup Medal winner Outlaw Oatmeal Stout.

Qdoba – will be serving mini -naked chicken burritos.   (You do not need to be naked to enjoy these great treats.  They are burritos in a bowl instead of a tortilla!)

Emerald City Cafe -  will offer chicken, veggie and shrimp skewers.  Try their artisan fruit and cheese with bread or crackers, chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, chips,  sodas and water. 

We can’t wait for this show and we hope you feel the same.  Thank you so much to our sponsors, and our great supporters that are coming out to the show tomorrow night!

Help our Food Bank Friends in the Gulf!  The Bay Area Food Bank is eligible for a $100,000 gift through the Pepsi Refresh Project on the Today Show!  They are now in the top four and voting ends Tuesday, July 6 so please vote right now! 

VOTE HERE NOW!    

The Bay Area Food Bank services counties in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. They have already witnessed the effects of the oil spill on the people in their area. To respond to the increased need, the food bank has expanded its existing mobile pantry program.

The Bay Area Food Bank has learned countless workers in the fishing and service industry in their area are already out of work and are seeing declining work due to the oil spill. Using the mobile pantry to get to communities that have been particularly affected, the food bank has been able to help meet the need. On June 29, with the help of the National Guard serving as volunteers for the day, the food bank distributed food to around 260 families in Bayou la Batre, Alabama, a total of 12,000 pounds of food.

Additional distributions have recently taken place in Defuniak Springs, Florida, Pascagoula and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The food bank has already decided what they would spend this money on.  They would use these funds for the mobile pantry program and child nutrition programs.

The winner will be announced July 7. Please vote from now until then to help the Bay Area Food Bank.

VOTE HERE NOW!

The food bank was nominated for the contest by one of their agencies, Georgetown-Chunchula United Methodist Church in Chunchula, Alabama.

Thank you for your support of one of our fellow Food Banks!

If you are a Twilight fan, this is a party for you!  Saturday, June 26 in the Mandalay Ballroom of the Circus Circus Convention Center  from 1 – 4 p.m.  The event is free to attend and all ages are welcome. 

 There will be more than $15,000 in Twilight prizes and eclipse movie tickets to be given away!  Get a drawing ticket for each can of food that you bring and it is UNLIMITED!!!  Yes, the Food goes to the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and we are thrilled to be a part of it.

There will also be fun fan contests like look-a-like contests, best costume, best homemade tshirt, best themed centerpiece and a family feud style trivia contest with 3 person teams!

There will be food by Forks Café inside the event with vegetarian options as well!

 Remember, bring your cans of food and get door prize tickets for them! 

 This event is brought to you by Circus, Circus, The CW, Univision KREN Reno 27, Sunny 106.9, Z93.7 FM, Alice 96.5, Barnes & Noble Booksellers. 

            The Food Bank of Northern Nevada was thrilled to host Feeding America president and CEO, Vicki Escarra for a tour and visit to the Donald W. Reynolds Food Distribution Center.  Vicki had been out for the ground breaking ceremony when the plans had begun to build the new facility but hadn’t been back to see it in full operation.  With close to two of the busiest years that the Food Bank had seen under our belt, we were thrilled to share all that had happened in the new facility.  The Food Bank of Northern Nevada is on track to distribute over eight million pounds of food in the current fiscal year and with the need so drastically increased over the last couple of years, we are definitely busy. 

            The best part of the Vicki’s visit was that her excitement to see what was new at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada was just as great as ours. She talked to the staff and shared that the Food Bank of Northern Nevada was one of the most efficient operators in the entire 200+ network of Food Banks, meaning that we distribute more and more food, while keeping costs under control.  The Food Stamp Outreach, Summer Food, Kids Cafe Program, and Back-Pack Kids programs have all served as examples for the network to follow.  Food banks across the Feeding America network all share best practices and success stories to make sure that we all move forward toward our strategic goals as a network.

            Here are some photos of Vicki at the Food Bank!

Dear Friends of the Food Bank,

The House Agriculture Committee child nutrition reauthorization bill was introduced yesterday in the House.  Child nutrition reauthorization (WIC program, school meals, summer, day care and afterschool meals) SHOULD have been reauthorized in 2009, and really must be handled in this session of Congress – hungry children cannot wait, and all over Nevada and the US, children of unemployed and low income families must rely on child nutrition programs for much of their daily nutrition needs.

Please review the document below, which outlines the issues, and call Dean Heller (or in the south, Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley) to leave a message requesting his support of the House bill for child nutrition reauthorization.  Telephone numbers and relevant points are in this document, along with plenty of background information. 

You are most welcome to forward this to your friends, family and network.

Thank you for taking action today and next week on this very important nutrition and health protection for children in our community and throughout the United States.  They are counting on us.

Sincerely,

Cherie Jamason

President & CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada

In Brief:  On June 10th, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) unveiled a bipartisan Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) proposal, which is expected to be marked up in Committee this month.  Release of the proposal coincided with a June 10th CNR Lobby Day on Capitol Hill and June 10th and 11th CNR Call-in Days.   

Take Action:  Urge Members of Congress to enact a robust Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill this year that achieves President Obama’s proposal of $1 billion a year in new ten-year funding; build on House and Senate bills, especially by adding funding for program access priorities; and oppose cutting SNAP Nutrition Education funds.

Below are comments from Feeding America and FRAC, which provide back ground.  At the end of this document will be information on how to contact your congressman (in this case Dean Heller, or Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley in southern Nevada).  This is a House Bill, and opportunities to advocate with our Senators will come up in the next month or so as we work on the Senate side to generate additional funding. 

TO TAKE ACTION:

Share the action alert!

Send to your friends, coworkers, family – many calls are needed to register on the Congressional radar screen

Register at http://www.hungeractioncenter.org – the Feeding America grassroots advocacy action center – this makes it easy to send a letter to your congressional delegation with one click.  The Center is updated regularly – the latest advocacy opportunities are available.

Make the call – call your member of Congress  - one click instructions are on the Hunger Action Center website – upper right hand corner – along with the message you need to convey.

Click to become a Hunger Champion (read about it on Hunger Action website), which will provide you with periodic emails when calls or letters needed or helpful to our efforts to end hunger in America and Nevada.

 What We’re Asking and How to Translate What We’re Asking into What to Say :

Policy:  state your “ask” (review following background information) – I am calling about the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill just introduced in the House. We need more access for low income children; Need for more attention on out of school child nutrition programs– especially weekends; need for a robustly funded bill  - $1b/year

Personalize: explain why it’s important to you – I am a constituent, live in ___Reno, Sparks, etc.  (Focus on elements that are important to your food bank/community) Northern Nevada is suffering through serious unemployment, which has affected thousands of families with kids, etc….they can’t keep their homes and put food on the table as well, etc.  Tell story about your community and why this is important to you.

Walk through Talking Points (the 3-point ask)
The “ask” is short and direct ($1b in funding, access for all eligible children, especially during weekends and outside school hours), but personalized to the experience in your community (kids hungry in our community during gap periods – in the summer, on weekends and often after school; our FB serves lots of kids – almost 50,000 last year in northern Nevada, and more than one third of our school children rely on free meals during the school year; my FB runs a backpack/afterschool/and summer programs, but cannot reach all the children who need access)

We are asking Congressman Heller (or Congresswoman Berkley or Titus) to support a well funded child nutrition reauthorization bill so that kids in our community have the food they need at all times, to stay healthy and ready to learn.  Thank you very much. 

You may call directly or call through the Hunger Action Center http://www.hungeractioncenter.org, and you may give this message to whomever answers the telephone.  The office will be keeping track of calls coming in on child nutrition reauthorization.

Congressman Heller’s office is 202-225-6155. 

Congresswoman Titus’s office is 202-225-3252.

Congresswoman Berkley’s office is 202-225-5915.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to make a difference. 

Briefing:  Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Update: House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Miller Unveils Details of Child Nutrition Reauthorization! 6.10.10 

FRAC (Food Research and Action Center) Statement on Miller Bill:  “Chairman Miller’s mark makes substantial and positive new investments in the child nutrition programs, helping to make critical improvements that will enable low-income children to access the nutritious food they need. It moves the process forward in important ways.  It improves the area eligibility standard for summer food programs in rural areas, which will allow more communities to operate such programs and serve more low-income children. It provides competitive grant funds to promote the expansion of the school breakfast program; includes competitive improvements in processes for certification for school meals; and enhances the nutritional quality of food served in school-based and preschool settings.  A strong Child Nutrition bill is a key step in reaching the President’s goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015 and in reducing childhood obesity. FRAC is committed to working with Representative Miller and members of the House and Senate to continue to fight for the best possible bill and continuing to move toward President Obama’s goal of $1 billion/year of improvements in these effective programs that boost children’s health and learning. We applaud Chairman Miller, Subcommittee Chair Carolyn McCarthy, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Todd Platts for their leadership on this bill.”    

This is an editorial written by Cherie Jamason, the president and CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada that appeared in the May 26, 2010 issue of the Reno Gazette Journal.  If you would like to know more about how you can help, visit Feeding America’s Hunger Action Center. 

Working firsthand with families who are struggling to put food on the table, I witness every day the devastating impact poor nutrition can have, particularly on children.  Last year, we provided 49,665 children with emergency food, and an appalling one third of them were reported in our hunger study to have missed meals on a regular basis.  Almost 26,000 kids in Washoe County are eligible for free meals at school, many from families who turn to us for assistance.

We have long known that good nutrition has a direct impact on student performance in school. Studies show that students who do not have reliable, healthy meals in kindergarten lag noticeably behind their peers in reading and math by the third grade.  Breakfast is particularly important to learning, and not just on test days.

Families without much money often rely on inexpensive food options—frequently high in fat and calories and lower in nutrients – contributing to skyrocketing obesity rates.  Nationally, 98 percent of children are making poor food choices and consuming fewer fruits, vegetables and whole grains than nutrition guidelines recommend.  Fortunately, there is a remedy:  USDA school meals, which must meet USDA nutrition standards, include fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, protein and grains, and provide opportunities for better choices. 

Right now, Congress has a unique opportunity to dramatically change the health of American children by improving the Child Nutrition Act, a law originally passed in 1966, to ensure that all children receive nutritious meals. This law oversees the school lunch and breakfast programs, which provide daily meals to almost 31 million children in Nevada and across the nation.  It also oversees the WIC program, which reduces the incidence of low-birthweight babies and creates documented savings in infant medical care.

The pending reauthorization bill will allow more children to be served by these programs, while improving the nutrition value of school meals through updated guidelines and better funding. The impact of these changes cannot be overstated. With many children consuming 50 percent or more of their daily calories at school, food provided through school meal programs has a direct impact on children’s health. One third of America’s children are classified as overweight or obese, setting them up for a lifetime of struggles with diabetes, high blood pressure and related health problems. Clearly, we must take strong action now.

Fortunately, Congress can address this important issue immediately.  In a rare showing of bipartisanship that underscores the importance of this effort, the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has unanimously passed a reauthorization bill that goes a long way towards improving the meals our kids receive in school. To make these improvements a reality, the Senate must bring this important bill to the floor for passage.

By urgently calling for a vote on this critical legislation, Senator Harry Reid can make a difference in the lives of not only Nevada’s kids but children across the country. A robust and well funded Child Nutrition Act is good for our kids, for Nevada and for our nation. 

Cherie Jamason