Grind Out Hunger is voted Best Hunger Fighter in the Good Times Best of Santa Cruz 2009!!! I am so stoked that Grind Out Hunger is starting to get some real legs. Please email info@grindouthunger.org to get involved!
Here is the article retyped:
He’s local, he’s cool and he’s eager to get kid’s to know about hunger and how they can combat it. He’s Danny Keith and boy, is he on one heck of a mission. It began in 2004, when Keith, the owner of Santa Cruz Skate Shop and Santa Cruz Surf Shop, launched Grind Out Hunger. The idea was to speak to kids at local schools and “encourage youth in helping peers” with the issue of hunger. Over the course of five years, he has motivated elementary, middle-school and high school students and their posses to donate food-hundreds of thousands of pounds of food at that. (You’d have to witness Keith’s amazing vigor in person to know just how infectious his personality is-he boasts 20 speaking engagements a year.) Last year, Keith nabbed the Generation Next Award from Second Harvest Food Bank, which he has partnered with in the Grind Out Hunger campaign-it runs alongside the Second Harvest’s holiday drive in the fall and winter. (Last year’s tally: 60,000 pounds of food.) Up next: Working with Second Harvest on “packaging” the model Keith uses here-speaking to kids-and allowing other food banks to utilize the program through media kits and DVD’s featuring some of Keith’s enigmatic verve. “I just don’t think anybody should go hungry…there are more than 40,000 people a month going through Second Harvest and a large chunk are children,” the 39-year-old says. “Our future is our children…if we can educate and feed them. People shouldn’t go hungry but kids, they don’t have control over it.” (See grindouthunger.org) Greg Archer editor
Second Harvest Food Bank Hunger Fighter Award dinner was awesome and the facilities at the Santa Cruz Elks Lodge were incredible. I always enjoy going to Second Harvest Food Bank functions, it just makes you feel so good hanging out with everyone. Being that this is the 4th year of Grind Out Hunger which works with local Elementary, Middle and High School kids by motivating them to contribute to the Holiday Food Drive. Grind Out Hunger utilizes the Action Sports channel to encourage the youth to raise the most pound per student at their school for over $1200 in prizes from Santa Cruz Skate Shop. I was able to speak once again on behalf of Grind Out Hunger and announce the winning schools and preach the word against hunger. This years winners went over the top once again and made the Grind Out Hunger program have another successful year. The winners of this years skate deck, trophy and bragging rights are:
Elementary School: Carden School of Santa Cruz $300 prize
Middle School: Salesian Junior High School $300 prize
High School: Empire Academy$600 prize
With Generation Next award going to Watsonville High School with a 416% increase over 2007 and Brook Knoll for raising 2683 pounds of food.
Ok, so here it is in all its glory. I did think we would have better success this year but it seems that the recession has taken its toll on our program as well (we barely missed last years totals). 2009 we are going to hit the ground running and get things switched back around. I will announce the official winners after the dinner on March 4th at the Elks Lodge. If you see your school on here and want to be a part of our program please email dk@grindouthunger.org for 2009!
Well another Grind Out Hunger campaign has ended and now we await the winners of this years contest. After speaking at Garden Elementary, Gateway School, Del Mar Elementary, Pajaro Valley High School, Mission Hill Elementary and a few luncheons, Turkey Tuesdays at Safeway on Soquel and the last appearance at Sav Mart on 41st Ave we did our best to get the word out. Kids seemed responsive and stoked, but with the bad economy and downturn in people having extra this year, I am hopeful we can at least raise a significant amount of food for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. Looking forward to announcing the winners and doing some interviews for our new site that has been so graciously provided by Sleepless Media, if you need anything web see them! Thanks Jon!!! Below are some Grind Out Hunger pictures and articles that made their way out there.
This was the first two weeks of the Grind Out Hunger campaign I do with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz/San Benito Counties. I have to say every time this year I get excited to go see the kids and speak to them about Grind Out Hunger at their elementary/middle and high schools. This weeks engagements included Gateway School, Garden Elementary School, and double session at Del Mar Elementary in addition to the Annual Second Harvest Holiday Kickoff Luncheon.
The above graphic is a skateboard we made to promote the Grind Out Hunger campaign, we sell them for $100 with all proceeds donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank ($1 = $9 worth of food and we sold 50 of these last year) It also doubles as a trophy for the winning schools. I enjoy being able to bring the message to the action sports youth in our area, I feel that if informed kids have the biggest hearts and love a competition. In case you are new to the blog, the structure of the Grind Out Hunger contest consists of three divisions; elementary, middle school and high school. The rules of the contest are the school with the most pounds per student raised will win a gift certificate to Santa Cruz Skate Shop ($300 for elementary and middle schools, while high schools receive $600). 2007 Grind Out Hunger campaign collected 150,000 pounds of food on behalf of the Second Harvest Food Bank. I wonder if last years standouts Aptos High and Empire Academy will rise to the challenge once again and help Grind Out Hunger. Stay tuned as I keep you all up to date with this years initiative.
Select food drive dates
First, you should decide on dates for your food drive.
Contact Second Harvest
Download and complete our School Participation Food Drive form. Contact Andy at (831) 722-7110 ext. 213 or andy@thefoodbank.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with questions.
Set a goal
Each $1 counts as 3 pounds of food. A great tip for a successful food drive is setting a goal.
Get creative!
Compete against classrooms, add competition to your homecoming, challenge your teachers, plan an event, collect food or cash from your neighbors and friends.
How many barrels?
Determine how many barrels to order (one barrel holds an average of 125 pounds of food).
Schedule Delivery and Pickup
Once you have planned your drive, you should contact Second Harvest to arrange for delivery of barrels, donation envelopes, bags and other supplies you may need to conduct your drive.
Students Helping Students
Compete against other local schools and win big! Santa Cruz Skate Shop have teamed up with Second Harvest to reward your outstanding effort through Grind Out Hunger. The elementary, junior high and high school with the most pounds of food per student collected will receive a total of $1,200 worth of merchandise from Santa Cruz Skate Shop. The winning elementary school will receive a $300 gift certificate as well as the winning junior high. The winning high school will recieve a $600 gift certificate! The real winners are students in our community that won’t go hungry.
Grind Out Hunger is really having an impact on the skateboarders and the youth. As I have already mentioned in previous posts, Grind Out Hunger is setup to challenge area elementary, middle and high schools to raise the most pounds (cash counts $1 = $9 worth of food) per student. 2006 champion Aptos High raised 20,000 pounds and equal to about 14lbs per student and won overall poundage, but it was Empire Academy that stepped it up and managed to wrangle 125 pound per student raising a little over 4600 pounds. Empire Academy got creative and did gift wrapping, bake sales and other out of the box ideas. So Second Harvest brought pizza’s and we went and spoke at Empire Academy to award them with their $600 gift certificate to Santa Cruz Skate Shop and answer any questions. The kids were very humble and stoked to have won the challenge…they also stated that in 2008 they are not only going to win the per pound challenge, but the overall total pounds raised. It looks like Aptos High has something to worry about as Empire Academy is looking to take a title Aptos High has held for three years. 2007 Grind Out Hunger raised 130,000 pounds of food for the Second Harvest Food Bank through the local elementary, middle and high schools. Don’t forget to join the Grind Out Hunger Facebook cause.
So for the last four years I have been promoting Grind Out Hunger, a campaign that targets the skateboarding youth to get involved with food drives and the Second Harvest Food Bank. The idea came to me four years ago when I was approached again to place a food donation barrel in my Santa Cruz Skate Shop…and I thought..”how can I get my customers to understand the need to help people that are not able to meet their needs”. That’s when Grind Out Hunger was born. I decided to not only give 30% discount to anyone that brought in 5 lbs of food, but I partnered up with the Second Harvest Food Bank to challenge the counties area high schools to collect the most food they could over the holiday period. The winner of the challenge would receive a $600 gift certificate to the Santa Cruz Skate Shop. That first year our program collected 40,000 pounds of food. Over the years we evolved the program, refined it and made it even better. This last year we extended our program to Jr High and Elementary school kids, and begun to actually go and speak at as many schools that would hear our vision of the Youth contributing and implementing our Grind Out Hunger campaign. I spoke to thousands of kids to motivate and dangle that carrot. The result was this years raising of 130,000 pounds of food!!!! I was moved to tears at the Second Harvest Annual Food Bank mixer when the totals were announced. I couldn’t believe we had managed to make this happen, our little idea had manifested into a living breathing entity. This year we also made a “Grind Out Hunger” skateboard that was sold for $100 donation all of which goes to the Second Harvest Food Bank (we sold quite a few of these, if you want to get one, dk at mediadescent dot com)I was awarded with the “Next Generation” award
for using alternative measures to help raise food and bring awareness to a group the Food Bank had been struggling to penetrate. We had dozens of schools participating and motivated…the goal for 2008-9 is to double that number to 250,000 pounds of food and to graduate the program to possibly franchise it out to other food banks to utilize. With the help of Andy and Christine at the Second Harvest Food Bank, “Grind Out Hunger” has legs and will become available in 2009-10 for use in other areas as we are going to be developing packets and DVD’s complete with instructions on how to acquire sponsors etc. It is my passion to make sure “Grind Out Hunger” goes nationwide and motivates the skaters of the USA to help out. Here is how it works
Grind Out Hunger campaign runs from October to December with the challenge to collect the most pounds of food per student (if you have 1400 kids and raise 14000 pounds of food that equals 10 pounds per student) by either collecting food or cash donations (every dollar equals 3 pounds of food).
High School’s win $600
Jr High School’s win $300
Elementary School’s win $300
Help us “Grind Out Hunger”
If you want to help out or want to sponsor our program please post a comment and we can begin email dialogue. No one in the USA should go hungry. Please visit our FaceBook cause for Grind Out Hunger and get involved.
