Blessings Winter 2014

Blessings Winter 2014 Final_cover.pdf

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1/7/14

11:55 AM

BLESSINGS A newsletter for the supporters of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina

WINTER 2014

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Hector

Bill

Jeff Dick

Kim

Kieron

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message from kay

By the time you all are reading this, the holiday season is over and we have moved into 2014. For those of us at Second Harvest, the months of October, November and December are a virtual whirlwind. It is the busiest quarter of the year with folks from all over our region stepping in to host food drives, to volunteer in record numbers and to make financial donations. There is so much activity that it is hard to squeeze everything into our newsletter.

I lost my father in 2013 and for those of you who have felt the loss of a parent or anyone you held close and dear, you know that it causes you to reflect often on all of the happy times you spent with that person. As I reflected, I remembered how much my Dad loved Christmas and all the wonderful things that come along with that season. And I remembered how much he loved our family and how hard he worked to give us the best possible life.

He and my Mom were great photographers, not so much in the skill level, but in the sheer volume of the photos they took. Every Christmas was carefully recorded on the old Polaroid in black and white.

My mom would take a photo of the tree, the toys we received and the family and then carefully place the photos into small albums marked by year, with very detailed descriptions. I ran across some of these as I dug through some of my Dad’s things.

My Dad loved looking at our newsletters. I think between you and me, he was pretty proud of what we do here at the Food Bank. He would pour over them and loved to look at the pictures. So it hit me that moving forward, we would turn our holiday Blessings into a photo album, a scrapbook of sorts, showing you all of the wonderful things you helped us accomplish this year. That way we can squeeze in as much as possible.

There is very little narrative and lots and lots of photos. And in every photo, you can see a little more about how you helped all of our neighbors this year have a much happier holiday season. Whether you attended one of our special events, volunteered at one of our food distributions, made a corporate or food donation, hosted a food drive, or sent an individual donation, it all made a big difference for some very special children, families and seniors.

Thank you for everything each of you did to help us in 2013. And as you look at these photos, may you be reminded of how lucky we all are – to have food, to have family and to have a roof over our heads.

And may you be reminded of someone as special as my Dad.

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TASTE OF THE PANTHERS

On October 28th, our friends from the Carolina Panthers and Bank of America joined forces with E&J Gallo Winery and the region’s finest restaurants to host the 6th annual Taste of the Panthers. Thanks to their support over $100,000 was raised to support the Food Bank’s Child Hunger Programs.

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PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS e2 emeril’s eatery 5 Church Barrington’s Restaurant Blue Restaurant & Bar Bonterra Dining & Wine Room Chima Brazilian Steakhouse Delaware North Companies Dressler’s Restaurant Enso Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar Ilios Noche Johnson & Wales University Krispy Kreme Mimosa Grill Napa on Providence Rooster’s Woodfired Kitchen Vivace Wolfgang Puck | Pizza Bar Zebra Restaurant & Fine Catering 5

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Harris Teeter’s Annual Harvest Feast Marathon was held the two weekends leading up to Thanksgiving and raised well over $100,000, and close to one thousand turkeys. Thanks to all the Harris Teeter customers who participated in the annual in-store food drive by purchasing scan cards. Special thanks to Smart Chicken for donating a tractor trailer load of chicken and to David Weekly Homes and Ryland Homes for donating over 500 turkeys. For the fourth straight year, Harris Teeter and the brands listed to the left, helped provide and pack two thousand Thanksgiving bags for families in need. Special thanks to Thomas and Kelly Davis, and Panther players: Brandon LaFell, Garry Williams, RJ Webb, and Bruce Campbell who helped pack the bags as well as making a special delivery to one of our Kids Cafe sites.

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CAM’S THANKSGIVING JAM

On November 25th, the Newton Family hosted the first annual “Cam Thanksgiving Jam”. Working with Second Harvest and the NC Music Factory, over 700 children from the Food Bank’s Kid’s Cafe sites were fed a delicious Thanksgiving meal. Families also received special to-go bags, furnished by Harris Teeter, that included an entire Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks to Cam for being #1 in the fight to end child hunger.

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BANK OF AMERICA | MAKES THE HOLIDAYS BRIGHT Star Panther running back, DeAngelo Williams, joined volunteers from Bank of America to make the holidays brighter for students at Walter G. Byers Elementary School. The Food Bank provides a backpack program at the school, and Bank of America’s $70,000 donation will help Second Harvest provide mobile pantries, like the one held at Walter G. Byers.

SECOND HARVEST SELECTED FOR NEIGHBORHOOD BUILDER AWARD Bank of America recently announced that Second Harvest Food Bank had been selected for this year’s Neighborhood Builder Award. The highest honor bestowed by Bank of America, the Award recognizes outstanding non-profits. The $200,000 award will help Second Harvest improve scanning technology in our warehouse operations.

Second Harvest previously won the award in 2008.

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DRAYTON FLORENCE SHOPS WITH KIDS

On December 16th, the Drayton Florence Foundation sponsored a shopping event for 58 children (twice the #29 that Drayton sports on his Panther jersey) at Target Midtown. Half the children were from one of the Food Bank’s emergency shelters and the other half were children of veterans from various Food Bank Kid’s Cafe sites. Drayton brought along more than a dozen of his Panther teammates and Sir Purr to make sure every kid had a special holiday. Thanks to Data Imaging and Hanes for donating sweatshirts for all the children.

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STUDENT HUNGER DRIVE

Thanks to the 17 high schools who participated in the 4th annual Student Hunger Drive. Over 145,000 pounds of food was collected. The drive has grown steadily each year since 2011. This year’s great performance brings the cumulative total to almost 340,000 pounds.

FOOD LION & WESTERN UNION In October, Food Lion & Western Union announced gifts to nine food banks including Second Harvest in Charlotte to help support our child hunger programs. Kay Carter is pictured with Food Lion Charitable Foundation President, Kevin Hill, accepting a $20,000 donation that will support our Kid’s Cafe program.

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PARTNER APPRECIATION On September 5th, the Food Bank honored partners in every area of operations with our Annual Partner Appreciation Luncheon. Held at Myers Park United Methodist Church, the lunch was catered by Best Impressions and featured the music of Hanoch Hickman.

Awards were presented in the following categories: Community Partnership, Food Industry, Youth, Food Drive, Group Financial, Special Event, Group Volunteer, Individual Volunteer and New Partner. The Food Bank also announced this year’s Ted Heyward Award Winner, Dale Ensor, and this year’s Frank Timberlake Award Winner, Carolinas Healthcare.

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THANK YOU PARTNERS www.secondharvestmetrolina.org

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CORNUCOPIA IS ALL THE BUZZ On November 26th, the Charlotte Bobcats (soon to be Hornets) hosted the annual Cornucopia event at Time Warner Cable Arena. Thanks to the Bobcats, Food Lion, Wells Fargo and Coke, over a thousand families received a Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings.

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11TH ANNUAL STREET TURKEYS The very next day, November 27th, the Bobcats and Food Lion surprised Second Harvest at the 11th Annual Street Turkeys. They arrived with 500 turkeys.

All of the funds and turkeys raised at the event, sponsored by Sports Radio 610AM were donated to Second Harvest and our partner agency, Loaves & Fishes.

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HOLIDAY SHIMMER

Benefitting Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina

presented by

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On October 3rd, Second Harvest hosted the First Annual Wine, Women & Shoes event at the Charlotte City Club. Presented by Felix Sabates Mercedes-Benz of South Charlotte, the night featured boutique shopping, an amazing live and silent auction, fashion show, and of course “shoe guys�.

Other sponsors included Giving Tree Realty, Technocom, Whole Foods, Balfour Beatty, Charlotte Metro Credit Union, Piedmont Natural Gas, Perrys, Goods Home Furnishings, Family Dollar, Spirit Communications, Johnston, Allison and Hoard and Johnson & Wales.

Special thanks to our Emcee Natalie Pasquarella and our media sponsors V101.9 and K104.7.

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PROVIDING HOPE IN NC

On October 9th, Food Lion President, Beth Newlands Campbell, surprised the North Carolina Food Banks with $500,000 in gift cards to support families across the state in need of food assistance. Kay Carter, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, currently serves as the board chair for the North Carolina Association of Feeding America Food Banks. According to Kay, “It is our honor to have Food Lion headquartered in our service region. They work alongside the food banks every day to end hunger and food insecurity throughout North Carolina.”

RACING TO END HUNGER THIS HOLIDAY SEASON On November 22nd, Smithfield, Lowes Foods and Richard Petty Motorsports announced a donation of 345,000 pounds of protein to the North Carolina Food Banks as part of the “Helping Hungry Homes” tour. The donation was announced in Winston-Salem with racing legend Richard Petty on site.

Immediately following the announcement, truck loads of protein headed throughout the state just in time to help make the holidays brighter for those in need.

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BANKING ON A BRIGHTER HOLIDAY

From December 1st - December 13th, Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, SunTrust and Wells Fargo raised food and funds during the seventh annual Bank 2 Bank Drive.

Designed around the theme of “ Make an Investment in Our Future”, this year’s drive raised over 375,000 pounds.

This year’s amazing drive helped bring our seven-year total to over 1.6 million pounds.

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Electrolux Bissel Van

Thanks to Bissell and all of their corporate tenants, the Food Bank has a brand new van that will help us deliver even more food to those in need in our region. On December 20th, Smokey and Howard Bissell were on hand to present the keys to Kay Carter, Second Harvest CEO. Bissell also donated a turkey for each of their 380 corporate tenants. Following the van presentation, turkeys were delivered to Second Harvest partners that feed on site including Center of Hope, Men’s Shelter, Urban Ministry, Charlotte Rescue Mission and Hope Haven.

On December 18th and December 31st, Electrolux delivered 124 freezers, refrigerators and stoves to Second Harvest. The appliances were distributed to dozens of the food bank’s partner agencies throughout our 19 county region.

Organizations benefitting from the donation included soup kitchens, homeless shelters, emergency pantries, and low-income child and senior programs. Schneider National Transport, which has a hub in Charlotte donated time and labor to transport the appliances.

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Bethlehem Center was the site of Second Harvest Food Bank’s announcement of our new “Surprise Inside” program. This ongoing program will surprise a different partner agency each quarter with most requested items. Bethlehem Center serves some of Charlotte’s most impoverished areas and has been a partner of Second Harvest since 1983. The Food Bank sponsors both a Kid’s Cafe and a Backpack program at the site.

Second Harvest arrived at Bethlehem Center on December 17th, with two truck loads of food boxes, turkeys, school supplies, gifts and more. The donation will impact almost 1000 families and seniors served by Bethlehem Center’s after school and Head Start programs.

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Second Harvest was honored again this year by being selected to participate as the charity of choice for the Novant Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Food Bank has participated in the parade with our partner, Food Lion, for the past several years.

Thanks to Novant and Center City Partners for making this year’s parade the biggest and best yet. Special thanks to attendees who helped raise food and funds for the Food Bank.

Thanks to our friends at Charlotte Oktoberfest for selecting Second Harvest as a beneficiary of the event. The $25,000 received will be used to support our Child Hunger programs.

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Special thanks to WCNC News Channel 36, Congressman Robert Pittenger, CMS Schools and The Billy Graham Library for supporting a Holiday food and funds drive benefitting Second Harvest Food Bank. On November 26th, WCNC viewers were encouraged to drop off food and financial donations to the Billy Graham Library. In addition, all of the CMS schools collected food to support the drive.

The drive was spearheaded by Congressman Pittenger following a visit to Second Harvest.

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FOOD DRIVES Piedmont Natural Gas held their third annual food drive for Second Harvest on December 4th. Employees and Santa Claus were on hand to collect food from customers and staff. For the third straight year, Piedmont doubled the prior year, the grand total for 2013; 5,367 pounds.

For the past fourteen years, Temple Beth El has been holding a food drive to honor Yom Kippur. This year’s drive raised 3,560 pounds for Second Harvest.

Thanks to our friends at Winthrop University for sponsoring a potato gleaning in late October. Almost 41,000 pounds of potatoes were donated to the Food Bank thanks to these students.

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The Carolina Renaissance Festival has been offering special admission incentives to those who bring food for Second Harvest since 2007. This year the drive collected over 3,000 pounds, the most ever.

For the past several years, Sangrock Black Belt World in Monroe has sponsored a food drive for Second Harvest. The 2013 drive raised over 6,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank, which will be used to help those in need in Union County.

Twice each year, Mecklenburg Community Church holds food drives to benefit Second Harvest. This fall, members collected almost 7,300 pounds to help us feed hungry children and seniors.

www.secondharvestmetrolina.org

FOOD DRIVES Thanks to BASF who raised 106,787 pounds of food in their fourth annual drive for Second Harvest. In the past four years, BASF has raised over 400,000 pounds for the Food Bank.

Check out the canned-structure built by our friends at Quicken Loans.

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FOOD DRIVES Michael A. DeMayo’s Law offices have supported Second Harvest for many years with food and financial donations. Their 2013 drive raised almost 10,000 pounds to help us feed hungry children and seniors.

Thanks to our friends at Griffin Commercial Tire for offering special incentives to customers who donated canned and boxed goods. Because of their efforts, over 2,000 pounds of food was raised for Second Harvest.

Thanks to the amazing students at Charlotte Country Day School for raising 4,228 pounds to make the holidays brighter for families in need.

We are grateful to our friends at Parker Hannifin Corporation for supporting us again this year by raising food and funds to help us end hunger. The company raised almost 3,300 pounds of food and also donated 26 turkeys.

Our friends at Roundpoint Mortgage Company sponsored a food drive for Second Harvest for the second straight year. The 2013 total was 8,570 pounds, bringing their twoyear total to over 15,000 pounds.

Many thanks to the awesome students at Providence Day School for collecting 3,278 pounds for Second Harvest. Your efforts made the holidays brighter for so many in need.

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KIDS CORNER

Kids Corner

Randolph Middle School Castle of Cans

Ace Mentoring Primrose School

Randolph IB Middle School hosted its second annual Walk-A-Thon on November 15th. Students raised money for the community in the form of direct donations and donations per laps completed during a 90 minute period. The students did an incredible job of raising $2,975 for Second Harvest.

Each year, Primrose School at Austin Village sponsors a Caring & Giving Can-A-Thon event. The event is part of the school’s Helping Hands program and is designed to teach children to give of themselves and help others. Families are invited to participate with their children and highlights of the program include: * Performing simple age appropriate chores at home to earn money to purchase canned foods to donate. * Teachers working with the children to create shopping lists and then traveling to Harris Teeter to purchase canned food items. * Families shopping together and bringing donations to the school.

Finally, the schools load up their bus with all the donations and take them to Second Harvest at the Food Bank’s annual Harvest Feast.

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