Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon

We had a wonderful luncheon for our incredible volunteers.  Marie and Deb put together an incredible event.  The table was beautiful, the food was delicious, and our guests are dear and precious to us. 

Thank you to all our volunteers.  Your work with us is what keeps our doors open. 

Help from Walmart and Sprint

 

Volunteers from Walmart

 

Volunteers from Sprint

 

Our friends and happy workers from Walmart and Sprint came by a bit ago to do some team building at EG Food Bank Services warehouse.  Our warehouse area got the benefit of these industrious workers sorting through cases of donated food. 

 

These wonderful volunteers got alot accomplished during their visit and we appreciate their time and effort.  If your company or organization would like to team build or conduct a community service event, please contact Deb at 685-8453.  







Christopher's Donation

Our youngest and most self-less donor came in a couple of days ago with a bunch of kid-sized coats.  Christopher used the money in his piggybank ($75)  to purchase warm clothing for local children in need. 

The actions of this remarkable young one put a smile on all of our faces.  Thank you, Christopher, for helping your community. 

"New" Truck at EGFBS

Remember the wonderfully huge donation from the Greater Sacramento New Car Dealers Associaton this past May?  Recently we were able to purchase a suitable pickup that is new to us. 

Our volunteers have been busily picking up donations, running errands and delivering food with our newest vehicle; so much so that I just heard that the truck was here.  Haven't seen it yet. 

"Yes the truck is here.  Have you seen it?  It is soo nice!" 

"The new truck has that liner stuff in the back.  The truck will stay nice for a long time.  It also has the tie-down things, so we can secure things down." 

Haven't been able to see the truck in person until today.  Wow!  It's beautiful inside and out!  All that is missing is the "new car smell". 

Aaron, EGFBS volunteer, in front of our newest and nicest vehicle. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Greater Sacramento New Car Dealers Associaton!  We can more efficiently serve the needy in our community with your generous donation.  

 

 

Thank you for supporting your local food bank!

Elk Grove Coats for Kids

The City Council and the Rotary Club of Laguna Sunrise are having a coat drive to benefit our Clothes Closet at Elk Grove Food Bank Services.  They are collecting new or gently used warm winter coats to keep the children of Elk Grove warm.  The coats will be accepted through December 8, 2012. 

Coats will be collected at: 

RE/MAX Gold
8861 Williamson Drive, Suite 50
Elk Grove, CA  95624
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Noodles and Company
7405 Laguna Boulevard, #170
Elk Grove, CA  95758
Every day 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

After-Hours Business Mixer

 Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce  held their After-Hours Business Mixer in our warehouse.  Elk Grove Citizen hosted the event and the food was as delicious as it was beautiful. 

 Ann Wittich (Elk Grove Rotary) and Councilman Steve Detrick

helped haul in the turkey donations. 

Board member Betty Hall and a group of Soroptimists. 

 

The Chamber members met here at EG Food Bank, and they brought with them turkeys and canned food donations.  Elk Grove Citizen hosted the event; the food and beverage service was wonderful.  We never would imagine having such elegant fare here in our warehouse. 

 

Thank you, Chamber Members, for your generous donations.  Your kindness has helped some of our neighbors gather their families around the table and truly have a happy Thanksgiving. 

 



Christmas Box Sign Up

Sign ups have begun for our Christmas box giveaway.  Our eligibility requirements apply.  Sign ups end on December 14. 

Distribution will be on Thursday, December 20, 2012. 

Harvest Festival Arts and Craft Show

Almost dropped my coffee cup this morning while watching the news.  A commercial for the Harvest Festival came on and it featured our logo. 

Our friendly volunteers will be stationed near the entrance of the Harvest Festival.  If you donate non-perishable food items, you will receive $2 off admission. 

The Harvest Festival will be held at Cal Expo on November 16-18.  The link above takes you to their website with all their info. 

Thanksgiving Distribution

With the past postings about the need for turkeys, and the need for volunteers this busy Holiday season; I guess information about the distribution process would be helpful. 

To receive a turkey, first you need to sign up with us.  Sign ups end on November 16.  Our usual eligibility requirements apply. 

Thanksgiving Distribution will be on Tuesday, November 20. 

Please remember to sign up.  Our operations are small and we need to know how many people we will be serving. 

More questions, call us at 916-685-8453. 

Thank you for supporting your local Food Bank. 

2012 Turkey Drive

It’s hard to imagine Thanksgiving without a roasted turkey.  Yet with the rising food costs, a Thanksgiving celebration may be out of reach for more than 800 families in Elk Grove.  With support from the community, the Elk Grove Food Bank Services (EGFBS) has the programs in place to provide turkeys to those in need.

Individuals, businesses and organizations can help bring families together around the holiday table. These generous contributions can make a real difference in the lives of families struggling in this difficult economic climate.

 

Elk Grove residents can help their local Food Bank this Thanksgiving these following ways: 

November 5-19:  Turkey Drive

9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
EGFBS facility – 9820 Dino Drive, Suite 140

Please consider dropping off a frozen turkey, chicken or any non-perishable side dish such as potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc. 

 
November 20:  Turkey Distribution
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
EGFBS facility – 9820 Dino Drive, Suite 140

In times of uncertainty, helping families come together for Thanksgiving has never been so important. 

 

Volunteers Needed

It is that time of year.  We are receiving huge donations from our school children through the KidsCan! food drive, other organizations are having food and clothing drives and we are preparing for our annual Turkey Giveaway. 

 
We are in the need for volunteeers to sort and handle donated canned food in our warehouse.  Warehouse hours of operation are Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

Our Clothes Closet is also in need of volunteers to sort through donated clothing in our clothes warehouse on Williamson Drive.  Clothes Closet Warehouse hours of operations are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

Other small print:  Volunteers need to be eighteen years and older.  These volunteer will be doing some lifting of food boxes and clothing bags. 

If you have some extra time, please consider helping us.  Contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Deb Luck at 916-685-8453.  Thanks! 

Arista Preschool Donation



The children at Arista Preschool learned about helping people in our community who are hungry.  They built cars out of shoe boxes. 

 They painted, cut and pasted on the wheels

 

Then they filled their "cars" with food. 

 

The kids came and took a tour of our facility to drop off their donation.  The cuteness factor of this donation was off the charts!  Our volunteers and clients were visibly cheerier after the visit and donation of some our youngest benefactors.  Thanks, Arista!

St. Francis High School has Record Breaking Food Drive

Just received an email with a link to an article about the amazing students at St. Francis High School.  They exceeded the amazing amount of food gathered last year.  Unbelieveable! 

Dignity Health Workshops

A series of upcoming "Healthier Living" workshops at Elk Grove Food Bank Services, organized by Dignity Health, will offer tips and tools to cope with chronic conditions by adopting healthier ways of living. 

The free workshops are based on Stanford University's Chronic Disease Self-Management Program.  People who want to attend do not need to have chronic disease, and can work on prevention.  Those with conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure or chronic pain anxiety, for example, are being welcomed to the program, which runs for six consecutive weeks. 

During the six weeks, participants will meet once weekly for two and a half hours.  Healthy light snacks will be served. 

The workshops will start Thursday November 1, 2012, at Elk Grove Food Bank Services, 9820 Dino Drive, Suite 140, Elk Grove.  Time:  9:30 a.m. to noon. 

Support Works Reunion

Our Support Works program has been in operation for five years and we thought it was time for a reunion to catch up with clients and see what everyone was up to. 

 

Our volunteers started making calls to past clients.  We found that the majority were working or in school!  Many could not attend our reunion because of their work and academic commitments.  

 

We enjoyed each others company and were delighted with the further accomplishments made by our clients after graduation from Support Works. 

Originally Support Works was developed to help women out of the cycle of dependence on our services and work towards self-sufficiency.  We originally provided job readiness training, support group, and connection to community resources. 

Betty Hall, from our Board of Directors, attended to show her support for our Program.  Mary Ann Chappelle Program Manager, Betty Hall, Bobby Jordan, and Holly Taylor are Soroptimists.  The Sorportimists have provided monetary and volunteer support that has been essential for Program operations. 

Some of our graduates took time off from work to attend.  We were touched by their devotion to our Program.  Many of these graduates happily return as volunteers and help us at events and specialized work days. 

Marcie and Bill



After a couple of years of operation, we started to include men in our Program.  Bill was one of our first male clients. 

 

Support Works has extended our services to include: 

 

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday:  Caseworker is available by appointment

Monday thru Friday:  Information and Referral

Tuesday:  Job Readiness Training by appointment

Tuesday and Wednesday:  Help navigating Public Assistance Programs by appointment

Wednesday:  ESL and GED Preparation Distance Learning Classes

Please call at 916-685-8453 for appointment or more info. 

 

 

Support Works - a program provided by Elk Grove Food Bank Services

9820 Dino Drive, Suite 140

Elk Grove, CA  95624

916-685-8453

 

Sad Passing at EGFBS

Saber, service dog of one our clients, passed on Wednesday morning.  Saber was a loving labrador mix that faithfully and lovingly served.  Saber not only served his master, he also served volunteers and staff here at Elk Grove Food Bank Services.  After you got to know Saber, he would come by and greet you whenever he was in the building.  He would linger with ones he instinctively knew needed his comfort and company.  He sat at my feet when I suffered through "empty nest" syndrome and comforted another staffer after her beloved dog passed. 

Our hearts go out to Saber's master, Cindy.  We can only imagine the pain of her broken heart at the loss of her constant companion and faithful friend. 

Nash Travels Donation

Emily and Craig Nash from Nash Travels ran a promotion through their facebook page to raise money for the food bank. Here they are dropping off their $80 donation.

 

Craig Nash and Operations Manager Travis Ham

Grocery Outlet Donation

Ken and Shallyn from Grocery Outlet, Travis, and Dale

Operations Manager, Travis and Operations Coordinator Dale were invited to our local Grocery Outlet.  And boy, were they surprised!  Our friends at Grocery Outlet in their continued support donated a total of $588.46 in cash and food.

Thank you, Grocery Outlet for supporting your local food bank!

Grocery Outlet
8517 Bond Road
Elk Grove, CA 95624

Merryhill School Makes Donation

Merryhill School students are learning about Giving Without Walls and how they can give back to the community.  The students wanted to give food to those in need.  The classrooms collected food items for two weeks to donate to the local Elk Grove Food Bank.  It was a great experience, especially seeing the truck and helping give the canned food to the driver.  

We at Elk Grove Food Bank appreciate these lessons taught to our youngest citizens.  Our clients will benefit greatly from the kindness of these children.  

Merryhill School #1040

9561 Harbour Point

Elk Grove, CA  95758

Blankets from Project Linus

DD and I made our way to the distribution point of Sacramento Chapter of Project Linus, they had some blankets for the children served by Elk Grove Food Bank Services.  I wondered why they were curious about the type of vehicle I drove.... 

I thought, "How much space could 120 blankets take up?"  Well obviously I am a bit challenged in the estimating volume department. 

Thank you, thank you, Project Linus!  Our youngest clients will make good use of these blankets.  They will be comforted by your hand-made tokens of love. 

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!