Hello and thank you for your continued support for the Foodbank!

The post office is having their Letter Carriers’ Food Drive on May 11^th, so please gather your nonperishable food and place in a bag next to your mailbox so it can be picked up on May 11^th.

The article about the national food drive is published here: http://www.noozhawk.com/article/050313_letter_to_editor_help_stamp_out_hunger/

The Foodbank is looking for volunteers to help load trucks of food that day at both the Patterson and Anacapa post offices. Please contact me if you would like to help.

I’ve listed all of our volunteer opportunities below as well:

Volunteer Opportunities at the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County

Please take a minute to “like” us on FaceBook (http://www.facebook.com/FoodbankSB) and “Follow” us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FoodbankSBC) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/company/foodbank-of-santa-barbara-county?trk=tabs_biz_home) to receive special updates and event information.

To receive our monthly newsletter, please visit http://www.foodbanksbc.org  and enter your e-mail address in the “Join Our Mailing List” section.

How You Can Help the Foodbank

• Use Charity Miles – http://www.charitymiles.org  – a free app that empowers you to earn money for charities while walking, running or biking—every day. Select “Feeding America” as your charity and earn 10¢ per mile for bikers; 25¢ per mile for walkers and runners.
• Hunger Study Survey Volunteers – we are looking for 20 volunteers to travel to our recipient sites in South County for 3-6 hours per day, 1-2 days per week Monday – Friday, for a commitment of at least one month from April 15^th to August 30^th to survey recipients of our programs. We are looking for outgoing individuals who are comfortable approaching people they do not know to ask them to take the survey. Bilingual is a plus! You will be provided with a tablet, so computer skills are necessary.
• Brown Bag Warehouse Assembly Program – package 2-8 pound bags of canned and boxed food the 1^st Wednesday of each month from 8:00am – 12:00pm at our warehouse (4554 Hollister Ave.). It would be nice to have the same group be responsible for this project every month, but we can schedule multiple groups on a rotating schedule.
• Healthy School Pantry Warehouse Assembly Program – package produce on the 2^nd Thursday of each month from 10:00am – 2:00pm at our warehouse (4554 Hollister Ave.). It would be nice to have the same group be responsible for this project every month, but we can schedule multiple groups on a rotating schedule.
• Relay for Life Booth – help staff our booth on May 4^th from 10am – 7pm at the Relay for Life event at Bishop Garcia Diego High School (4000 La Colina). We need outgoing, energetic, individuals who are not afraid to talk to people passing by the booth and get them excited about helping the Foodbank. We can split this up into shifts if you cannot help the whole time.
• Letter Carrier’s Food Drive – put your non-perishable food donations in front of your mailbox so the post office can pick it up on May 11^th. We need 10+ volunteers to transfer the food from the mail trucks to the Foodbank trucks at both Patterson and Anacapa post offices from 2:30 – 6:30pm that day.
• Participate in our May 11^th Food Drive – Volunteer to stand outside grocery stores on May 11^th to collect food and money donations.
• Help with the Wine Country Half Marathon in Solvang on May 10^th from 8am – 6pm and May 11^th from 8-11am – we need volunteers to help set up tables, take down tables, register participants, direct parking, clean up, and anything else they might need help with. We are looking for outgoing, energetic, individuals who are not afraid to talk to people passing by the booth and get them excited about helping the Foodbank. We can split this up into shifts if you cannot help the whole time.
• Ride the Bike Blender at our booth at Taste of the Nation at the Montecito Country Club on May 19^th from 2-6pm – we need volunteers to help load the bike blender (a stationary bicycle that blends up smoothies on the back when you peddle it) into a truck from our warehouse, drive it to the Country Club, make smoothies for everyone, and take it back to the warehouse.
• Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce Business Expo – we need volunteers to help set up and take down booths at Earl Warren Showgrounds on May 29^th from 3-9pm. We can split this up into shifts if you cannot help the whole time. We are looking for outgoing, energetic, individuals who are not afraid to talk to people passing by the booth and get them excited about helping the Foodbank.
• Picnic in the Park Volunteers – help distribute food to and entertain kids from June to August from around 11:00am – 1:00pm Monday – Friday at various locations throughout South County. You can help as many days per week as your schedule allows.
• Back Yard Bounty Program – help harvest crops from local farmer’s fields or trees who, in turn, donate these crops to the Foodbank. These gleaning opportunities are typically held on Saturdays from 10:00am – 1:00pm and are great team building events.
• Computer Programmer/Website – help create a website for posting and signing up for volunteer opportunities. This can be done remotely over a period of a few months.
• Administrative Assistant/Receptionist at our warehouse (4554 Hollister Ave.) to answer the phones and help with invoicing on Mondays and Fridays from 7:30am – 2:30pm. This is a long-term position.

If you would like to help even more, we have almost depleted our food supply from the holiday food drives and still need to purchase food for our summer programs. You can drop off your food donations at our warehouse, make a financial contribution online https://secure.qgiv.com/for/fosbc/, or mail your financial contribution to the address listed below. For every dollar that you donate, we are able to purchase $17 worth of food!!

Since we have to purchase millions of dollars of food each year for our programs, we are looking for a way to be able to rely on a constant stream of income. Setting up monthly or annual donation payments is a great way for us to achieve that goal! Every bit helps, so any amount that you can spare on a monthly or annual basis is appreciated.

Thank you so very much for any type of support you can help us with!!

Sincerely,

Melissa Howard

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