River Bend Foodbank News!
PGA Tour Wives & River Bend Mobile Pantry
PGA TOUR WIVES AND RIVER BEND MOBILE PANTRY
PROVIDE LOCAL HUNGER RELIEF
EAST MOLINE, Illinois (July 7, 2010) – Members of the PGA TOUR Wives Association today donated both time and treasure to some 200 needy local families when they helped distribute food via the River Bend Mobile Pantry and the John Deere Classic Birdies for Charity program.
The PGA TOUR Wives Association presented a check for $2000 to the River Bend Food Bank at a brief ceremony at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 800 17th Street, Silvis, Ill. Some 12,000 pounds of food were then distributed to the families.
The cost of feeding 200 families via the River Bend Mobile Pantry is approximately $2000, with the retail value of the food approaching $20,000, according to River Bend officials.
“The PGA TOUR Wives Association is very excited to participate with Birdies for Charity and the River Bend Mobile Pantry to help achieve a very immediate and tangible result: feeding needy families,” said Shauna Matteson, vice president of charity for the PGA TOUR Wives Association. “In these times when many people are feeling the pain of economic distress, it is more important than ever that those who are fortunate enough to have give back.”
Birdies for Charity will provide the River Bend Mobile Pantry with a five percent bonus on top of the Wives’ $2000 donation and any other donations to River Bend from members of the public, according to Birdies for Charity director Kristy Ketcham Jackson.
Tom Laughlin, Executive Director for River Bend Mobile Pantry, thanked the TOUR Wives and the Birdies program.
“The River Bend Mobile Pantry is thankful that the PGA TOUR Wives have been so willing to contribute monetarily to the cause of fighting hunger and to utilize their high profile to bring attention to what is a growing crisis in a nation of abundance,” Laughlin said.
The Mobile Pantry is a new program operated by the Quad Cities-based River Bend Foodbank (www.riverbendfoodbank.org). The purpose of the program is to deliver food to specific, mostly rural communities. The John Deere Foundation contributed $90,000 for one of the refrigerated trucks used in the program.
“John Deere’s contribution to the Mobile Pantry is consistent with the company’s commitment to be a good corporate citizen and aligns with the John Deere Foundation’s signature program, Solutions for World Hunger,” said Mara Sovey, President of the John Deere Foundation and Director of the Corporate Citizenship Center of Excellence.
About the River Bend Foodbank
River Bend Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organization in the Quad Cities and surrounding communities, distributing 6 million pounds of food annually to more than 300 charitable feeding programs throughout a 22 county service area in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. The Foodbank also operates four Kids Café sites serving over 10,000 individuals each week and providing more than 5,000 free meals to children at risk of hunger each year. The organization’s Backpack Program provides over 1200 children with nourishing food to take home on the weekends during the school year.
PGA TOUR Wives Association, Inc., is a Florida not-for-profit corporation organized to render support and provide assistance to needy children and their families by means of charitable events. Incorporated in 1988 by wives of professional golfers on PGA TOUR, the Association has raised more than $3 million for child and women related charities. In addition to monetary contributions, its members have given back through personal time, participating in a wide range of service projects from Habitat for Humanity builds to cooking in soup kitchens to playing with hospitalized children in communities where PGA TOUR tournaments are held. For more information about the Association, visit the website at pgatourwives.org.
The John Deere Classic helped raise $4.6 million for 500 charities in 2009, ranking it first on the PGA TOUR overall in per capita contributions at $12.26 for each of the 375,000 residents of the Quad City area and fifth overall on the PGA TOUR. The John Deere Classic, which includes Birdies for Charity, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the John Deere Classic tournament offices at 15623 Coaltown Road, East Moline, Illinios. Since its founding in 1971, the tournament has helped raise $33.6 million for charity.
Donate to River Bend Foodbank for your Chance to Meet Brad Paisley
Attention Brad Paisley Fans! Donate to River Bend Foodbank this week for your chance to meet him. The person who brings in the most food or cash donation equivalent between Monday July 12 and Friday July 16th at 5pm will win two fantastic tickets to his July 17th show and be able to meet Brad in person. Brad is very supportive of Foodbanks and the cause of hunger so he is asking his fans to bring in food to help out the local families who are struggling right now to put food on the table. Just bring your food or cash donation to the River Bend Foodbank, right across the street from the I-Wireless Center at 309 12th Street, Moline, IL between 9 and 5 this week to get in the running for this. Cash donations --$1 = 2 lbs of food.
Agency Conference
Agency Conference: Thanks to all the agencies who took the time to come to our Agency Conference in May. We really enjoyed meeting everyone and hearing the great ideas that were shared. We have posted the What $10 will get you at the foodbank poster in the Forms section of Agency Zone. It’s under the heading Agency Conference. We also have posted the survey that North Scott Food Pantry talked about during the conference. We got some great pictures. Click here to see them
Stamp Out Hunger NALC Food Drive a Huge Success with 82,000 lbs of Food collected
Stamp Out Hunger was a huge success this year with a whopping 82,000 lbs of food donated by the customers of the following local post offices. We are so very grateful to the letter carriers who work tirelessly (as if their daily job wasn’t exhausting enough) to make this food possible. Because of their efforts and that of the community, 82,000 meals will feed the hungry in the coming months. Thanks to United Way, the NALC and all those who made this possible! Below is the breakdown of the different communities and how much was collected by their post office:
| Downtown Davenport Northwest Davenport Moline E. Moline Bettendorf Rock Island Silvis Geneseo Coal Valley |
15,788 lbs 11,068 18,468 6,288 10,968 12,599 3,298 3,110 200 |
Totals were just shy of 82,000 pounds, up from last year!
River Bend Foodbank’s First Ever Mobile Pantry Brings the Food to the Hungry
On April 17, River Bend Foodbank partnered with Mulford Evangelical Free Church on our very first Mobile Food Pantry! We filled our new refrigerated truck with nutritious food, drove it to Muscatine where we parked it at Mulford Evangelical Free Church on Hershey Avenue. The church got the word out to Muscatine residents and organized a group of more than two dozen volunteers who unloaded the truck in record speed and made sure that everything ran smoothly. In less than 2 hours we had passed out all the food in the truck -- about 12,000 meals! We were able to offer families fresh cauliflower florets and bags of carrots thanks to a donation from Performance Food Group. Mulford Evangelical plans to donate some of the bounty from their community gardens later this summer to future distributions of the Mobile Pantry.
“The mobile pantry enables us to get nutritious food out to kids and families who really need access to healthier food,” says Tom Laughlin, executive director of River Bend Foodbank. “We are very excited about the opportunities that we have through these Mobile Pantry distributions to get food out to those who need it most. Thanks to all the people in Muscatine who helped make our first Mobile Food Pantry a success.”
Agency Spotlight: Sacred Heart Food Pantry in Rock Island
For 30 years Mike Clark has volunteered at the Sacred Heart Food Pantry in Rock Island. 30 years!
“Why do I do it? It’s what we’re supposed to do. Help each other out.”
Mike spends 20 hours a week running the extremely busy food pantry which is open from 9 to 11 am Monday through Friday. Sacred Heart distributes hundreds of thousands of pounds of food each year to those in need. People who come just walk around the shelves and pick out what they need, filling a plastic grocery bag.
Mike learned at an early age to care about others who might be struggling. “My grandparents used to feed people through their back door,” he says. “Now we rely more on food pantries. I really enjoy doing this. I enjoy the people.”
Sacred Heart is a big user of the food bank. “We get about 95% of our food from the Foodbank. It’s why we can serve so many.” Located in the Rock Island Township Building on 7th Avenue in Rock Island, Sacred Heart Food Pantry is the largest pantry in the Quad Cities, serving about 900 households or 3300 individuals every month. Mike reports that in this economy, the need has increased on every level. He says that new people are showing up every week, and many of them say that they have never been to a food pantry before.
One such person, Tony was visiting the food pantry for the first time this year. “I’m in construction,” he says. “Last year was good but this year, I just can’t get any work. I have a family and kids, and it breaks my heart to be in this situation. This really helps though.”
Jane is another person who has relied upon the food pantry. She’s a senior on a fixed income. “If it wasn’t for them, I would go without.” she says.
Landmark New Study Reveals an Unprecedented Number of Quad City Families Seeking Emergency Food Assistance
Largest, Most Comprehensive Report Ever Conducted On Emergency Food Distribution Reports 27Percent Increase in Clients Served Annually.
A landmark study released today by River Bend Foodbank and Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, reports that more than 84,100 people, including 32,800 children, receive emergency food each year through River Bend and its member agencies. On any given week River Bend Foodbank's distribution network serves 10,000 different people. The findings represent a 27 percent increase since the findings reported in Hunger in America 2006.
Hunger in America 2010 is the first research study to capture the significant connection between the recent economic downturn and an increased need for emergency food assistance. The number of children and adults in need of food as a result of experiencing food insecurity has significantly increased.
Among all households served by food pantries and emergency programs in our 22-county service area more than 42% or 30,000 local residents are experiencing very low food security or hunger, a 27% increase in the number of households compared to four years ago.
Nationally, more than one in three client households are experiencing very low food security or hunger a 54 percent increase in the number of households compared to four years ago.An estimated 5.7 million people receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or other agency served by one of Feeding America's more than 200 food banks, including the River Bend Foodbank. This is a 27 percent increase over numbers reported in Hunger in America 2006, which reported that 4.5 million people were served each week.
"This is by far the most in-depth study ever conducted on the state of hunger in our service area," says Tom Laughlin, Executive Director of River Bend Foodbank which is located in Moline, Illinois. "It will be very beneficial to have the hard data on what hunger looks like right here. Unfortunately, it's a picture of people having to choose between food and heating fuel (46% of food recipients) or food and medication ((38%)."
Says Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America,"It is morally reprehensible that we live in the wealthiest nation in the world where one in six people are struggling to make choices between food and other basic necessities. These are choices that no one should have to make, but particularly households with children. Insufficient nutrition has adverse effects on the physical, behavioral and mental health, and academic performance of children. It is critical that we ensure that no child goes to bed hungry in America as they truly are our engine of economic growth and future vitality."
The methodology incorporated into the 2010 study includes data collected from February through June, 2009. The River Bend Foodbank conducted face-to-face interviews with more than 300 people seeking emergency food at food pantries, soup kitchens and other emergency feeding programs, as well as interviews with 150 agencies that provide food assistance.
Nationally, Feeding America collected quantitative and qualitative feedback from 61,000 face-to-face in-depth interviews with people seeking emergency food assistance and more than 37,000 agency surveys, making this study the largest, most-comprehensive ever conducted on domestic hunger. USDA reported in November 2009 that an estimated 49 million people, including 17 million children, are at risk of hunger in this country. Hunger In America 2010 reinforces the dramatically increasing need for food assistance in the United States.
Of the 84,100 different people who access food assistance in River Bend's service area:
- 40% have a job
- 39% are children
- 46% report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
- 50.3% of households with children under 18 have very low food security which means they are hungry
- 15% consituted the recently unemployed
- 31% have at least one member of the household in poor health 56.5% have unpaid medical or hospital bills
- Among those who have worked before or are currently working, 22.8% either had or currently have managerial or professional jobs
The Hunger Study also revealed that 65% of the food distributed by food pantries was received from River Bend Foodbank .
See the entire Local Hunger Study