Food Bank Friday! March 13, 2009!

[ColbertWatcher]

Needs your immediate attention (still)

The people at the http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/projects/Winter_Coats_and_Electric_Heaters.shtml">Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. They're looking for winter coats and space heaters. Please help any way you can.

In addition, everyone's favorite Alaskan blogger Mudflats has some serious and scary news about the tiny community of Emmonak, Alaska here.

Alaska Newspapers, Inc. has been delivering donated supplies with their newspapers to the tiny rural communities in Alaska (like Emmonak), and they provide a link to their shopping list for donations.

For more information about Emmonak, please check out: The Mudflats, http://divasblueoasis.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=9355C7FA69BC2C072FB445409C53FF5C?diaryId=422">Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis and http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/01/spirit-of-emmonak-burns-brightly-in.html">Progressive Alaska.

Why is this posted every week?

Many media outlets are http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&nolr=1&q=food+banks+demand+up&btnG=Search">reporting that many food banks across the country are running out of food.

Nearly 30 million people are receiving food stamps in the U.S. (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&nolr=1&q=food+stamps+30+million&btnG=Search">Google news search)

2/19/2009 Update: Duer babylonsister posted a New York Times article with the latest on hunger in America.

FOOD BANKS IN THE NEWS:
Kellog's Company donates 1,000s of boxes of cereal to San Francisco food banks (because they featured Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps and the Kellog's Company is headed by a bunch of cowards)

But, hey Kellog's thank you for the donation.

Some donation ideas

* donate money DUer peace13 reminds us that if a food bank accepts money, they can get food in bulk. Also consider donating office supplies to the organization that runs the food bank (old computers, phones, fax machines, paper, etc)

* "adopt" a food bank item and replenish it whenever it runs low (posted by DUer girl gone mad)

* donate birthday or holiday "kits" (DUer Rabrrrrrr)

* support Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

* donate to Second Harvest http://www.feedingamerica.org/?show_nce=1

* Find and donate "free after rebate" items offered by many stores http://www.salescircular.com/

Support your local cooperative extension service

* From the extension links in this section, donate all the items to complete one of the recipes (print out and donate copies of the recipe, too!)

* Donate recipe books (or other publications on nutrition) from your local cooperative extension service (Most states cooperative extensions services have all kinds of things available)

Also, after a quick google search for "cooperative extension service recipe," here are three of the top links:

* The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Recipe Central http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/recipe.shtml#basic">Basic Foods From Fridge, Freezer and Cupboard, including a single-page http://lancaster.unl.edu/FOOD/BasicFoodsforCupboard.pdf">list of ingredients (pdf) for all the recipes on the UNL site

* Cornell University Cooperative Extension-New York City's complete (http://nyc.cce.cornell.edu/nutrition/recipes/2008/NH%20Recipe%20Collection.pdf">Nutirion and Health Program Recipe Collection) (pdf)

* University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service Departments Family and Consumer Sciences Programming
Recipes recipes for people with diabetes

DUer 1776Forever posted a link for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in another thread.

More information about the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (Main website and Food, Nutrition and Health links)

The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes.

CSREES is the federal partner in the Cooperative Extension System. It provides federal funding to the system and, through program leadership, helps the system identify and address current issues and problems.

Food bank checklist

* Print out the flier below and make copies for your friends, family or co-workers to take with you when you go grocery shopping.

* surreptitiously leave copies at the grocery store!

(You don't have to pick up everything on the list, just remember to pick up something.)

If you're unable to donate at this time, but may need assistance yourself, please check out these ideas from your fellow DUers ...

* DUer readmoreoften has some great advice for where to find inexpensive food in your area

* DUer ProgrezivIndie compiled several links on one webpage (for help finding a job, medical care, food, etc) and what to do to keep your food edible after a disaster!.

* Please support candidates and policies that guarantee livable wages.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Kick? n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Countdown kick. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Maddow kick. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Saturday kick. n/t

[zalinda]

5. I donate all year long to Pine Ridge

I belong to a group who donate, hats, mittens, slippers and just about anything else that we can send through the postal service. None of us have much money, but we always send what we can.

zalinda

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Another DUer posted this a while ago and I've kept it on ...

... hoping more people see it and help however they can.

[zalinda]

7. If you think our unemployment rate is bad

you should live at the reservation. They've had unemployment in the double digits for decades. People there actually string extension cords from one trailer to the next so they can have basic electricity. Or, when the electricity goes out, for many reason, and it does quite often, they live by candlelight. It can get to minus 35 degrees in the winter and most don't have storm windows. They put plastic on the windows, when they can afford it, or plastic IS their window.

As an aside, one family on the rez tried to grow hemp, and the government burned their crop and they have been in court for years. Hemp is the only crop that will grow well in that part of the country.

zalinda