How to Harvest Watermelon - Davis Ranch

How do you get watermelons from the field into our panel truck?  First you line up. 

 The ones at the far end of the line pick the ripe watermelons and pass it down "bucket brigade" style to the truck. 

In minutes we filled the back of our panel truck with crates and boxes full of delicious watermelons for our clients in Elk Grove. 

A few more minutes of work and we filled up a truck for the Twin Lakes Food Bank and St. Matthew's Episcopal Church Food Closet.

 Our friends from St. Matthew's Food Closet

We are loading melons for Food Link.  By this time some of the men were pretty handy with the melons and were tossing them down the line toward the truck. 

In less than an hour we picked enough melons for four food banks to distribute to hungry people in Sacramento and Elk Grove. 

After we were done, Peggy Davis and her sister invited us to share some watermelon and rest a bit.  While eating the best watermelon I ever had, I related the story of the last time we had watermelons to distribute at Elk Grove Food Bank Services.  Our clients beamed with happiness upon receiving a watermelon, what a treat on a hot hot day in July! 

Thank you Davis Ranch for providing our clients with a summertime treat. 

To volunteer at Davis Ranch, please call 916-685-8453

Davis Ranch
13211 Jackson Road  Sloughhouse, CA 95683

Brown Thumb Mama @ EGFBS

Popular local blogger, Pam Farley, from Brown Thumb Mama will have a workshop at our Life Skills Training.  Pam has all kinds of tips and recipes to help us enjoy good health and nutrition while living a thrifty life.  Recently on her blog she shared a recipe for crockpot spaghetti sauce (something to make with all the tomatoes from the garden) that is very tasty.

I use the recipes for Homemade Granola Bars and Laundry Detergent.  My family likes to think up flavor combinations for the granola bars:  mango pineapple and freeze-dried raspberry white chocolate are our favorites.  I tried the laundry detergent to see how it works, and it does the job at half the cost of the store brand I used to buy. 

Pam will teach us how to make our own cleaning products at the workshop on Thursday, August 9, 2012, at 10:00 a.m.  The workshop will be held at our facility on 9820 Dino Drive, Suite 140.  The event is free and open to the public. 

Making Your Own Cleaning Products Workshop
Thursday, August 9, 2012, 10:00 a.m.
9820 Dino Drive, Suite 140, Elk Grove, CA  95624
Workshop is free and open to the public

Tough 'N Dirty for EGFBS

Ready for a challenge, a true test of your abilities?  Test yourself and give back to your community. 

Tough 'N Dirty 5K Mud and Obstacle Run at

Davis Ranch located in Sloughhouse, CA

on August 25, 2012.

Tough 'N Dirty will donate a portion of the entry proceeds to Sacramento Children's Home, Elk Grove Food Bank and local teen centers. 

Tough ’N Dirty encourages participants to bring a grocery bag filled with non-perishable food items to be distributed to Elk Grove Food Bank.  Donors will receive a $5 gift certificate via email towards the next Tough ‘N Dirty event.

Tough 'N Dirty 5K Mud and Obstacle Run
Saturday, August 25, 2012        

Davis Ranch
13211 Jackson Road, Sloughhouse, CA
(916) 682-2658 ‎

Run 4 Independence - The Sponsors' Reception

Steve has participated in our Run for the past 6 years

 Deb put together another wonderful reception in the warehouse portion of our facilty.  The warehouse cleaned up nicely and the sorting tables made good serving tables for the wonderful food from Brick House.  Our sponsors got to see the inner workings of our food bank, with staff providing informal tours.  

Jeri Retzlaff, Chairperson of our Board of Directors, thanked and welcomed everyone and did some reporting on the numbers from the Run.  Jeri said that the accounting was not done yet, but the preliminary numbers show the Run will profit in the neighborhood of $60,000!!  Jeri stated that the number of participants was 1,300 runners and walkers.

Thank you Sponsors and the Elk Grove community for making our Run such a success!

 Representing the Elk Grove Citizen, Mary Lewis and

Kathy Sansone from EG Quilt Guild

 Harp, Lovedeep and Stephanie from Wells Fargo.  

Stephanie is our newest Board Member.

Brooke from Chick-fil-A and

Jeff Ramos from CSD

 Tisha, Run 4 Independence Chairperson

Mike, R4I social media and Sharon

From Operating Engineers Local 3:  Matt Schraeder, Greg Dornback and

Dale, EGFBS Operations Coordinator

Travis, EGFBS Operations Manager

John Hall and Betty Hall, Board Member

Again, we thank all of our Sponsors from the Run, the runners and walkers and the many volunteers who came out to make our Run a wonderful success!!  Thank you!  See you next year! 

BJ's Restaurant and Brewery

BJ's Restaurant was in the house yesterday volunteering and put together 66 Senior Brown Bag food boxes in ONE hour!!

Our friends from BJ's Restaurant also assisted in sorting donated food and worked through one whole pallet of canned goods. 

The crew from BJ's enjoyed their time working  in our warehouse and were motivated about what they accomplished.  

More exciting news: BJ's is going to partner with us and have a clothing drive among their staff to collect clothes for our Clothes Closet.

Thank you, BJ's Restaurant for your continued support and we look forward to having you back!!

BJ's Restaurant and Brewery
9237 Laguna Springs Drive
Elk Grove, CA  95758

Cal Fit Kidz Club Book Drive

 This bucket of books for kids was donated by California Family Fitness Laguna Club.  

The kind clients and staff at Cal Fit donated many gently used books.  The books were added to our "Lending Library" in our lobby for our clients.  I noticed a little girl enjoying the new books, selecting some for her summer reading. 

Thank you Cal Fit Laguna Club for your thoughtful and generous donation.  Our youngest clients will make good use of your donation and keep their reading skills sharp through the summer break. 

California Family Fitness
Laguna Club
3443 Laguna Boulevard
Elk Grove, CA  95758

Another KCRA Report and More Photos from the Run

KCRA had another report on their evening news.  Board member, Mike Retzlaff, was interviewed and Leticia Ordaz reported from inside the EG Food Bank warehouse. 
 
Here is a link to more photos from the Run 4 Independence.