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We visited Rio Del Mar Elementary yesterday to speak to their student leadership class that meets in the school library. This group of 16+ kids were fired up ready to learn about the food drive and jump into food drive/fundraising mode. Grind Out Hunger founder, Danny Keith congratulated them again for being last years Grind Out Hunger Generation Next award winners. We know that these kids worked hard to raise 4,700 pounds last year and know they have to potential to become the Elementary champions this year.

This year thier set goal has been put at 8,000 pounds! Amazing. The teachers and students did the math and figured that if each student brought it $5 or 15 pounds of food they could hit their goal, easy. To encourage this the school is doing a small raffle for kids that bring in food to donate. Every student that brings in canned food donations gets a raffle ticket to be entered to win sweet prizes! They are also having a classroom competition where each room is competing against each other to raise the most pounds!!! We are LOVING all this competition for a good cause. Everyone working towards a common goal of helping out their peers in need is truly inspirational.

Each student in the leadership class that we spoke to was given a Grind Out Hunger wristband and a button. These kids are the ones that know the facts, they are the hunger fighter champions at their school, running the food drive. If any of the other students  on campus have questions about the food drive all they have to do is look for one of their friends wearing a green Grind Out Hunger wristband and/or button.

We are looking forward to supporting Rio Del Mar Elementary during their food drive.

Good luck kids! And thank you for being so motivated to help this cause!
Have fun and raise some pounds!

2010 Generation Next Award

Grind Out Hunger wristband leaders.

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Its amazing what the youth can do when empowered. What started out 7 years ago as a way to teach kids altruism and compassion for their community has turned into a full blown spectacle. The goal for 2010 Grind Out Hunger campaign in Santa Cruz County was 250,000 pounds almost double 2009′s raise of 130,000 pounds.

This year was a bit different, Grind Out Hunger added a new partner with Skateworks Skateshop

Bill Strubing of Skateworks Skateshop

to combine forces with Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop, Jimbo Phillips Graphix and 102.5 KDON.  2010 for Grind Out Hunger was by far the craziest it has ever been, with the need to feed kids up more than ever and the students buckling down and getting serious about rising to the challenge.

St Francis came and helped at Santa Cruz County Fair

It all started with the Santa Cruz County Fair and education days collecting over 3000 pounds, great start to a busy year.

Then the speaking tour began, St Francis High, Aptos Jr. High, Cabrillo College, Gateway Elementary, Happy Valley Elementary, Lakeview Middle School, Santa Cruz High, Salesian Elementary and the list goes on.

3D Constructions Dominic Cusimano is a madman!

3D Constructions Dominic Cusimano and Jesse Gullings Painting spent over a month building ramps at Second Harvest Food Bank  so that Grind Out Hunger could do the 1st Annual Skateathon sponsored by Rotary Interact at Twin Lakes Church raking in over 13,000 pounds of food and giving away a 1999 Red Mustang (WHAT!).

1st Annual Skateathon at Twin Lakes Church raised 13,000 pounds of food

That led to Whole Foods Market Santa Cruz stepping up and throwing down the 1st annual SkateJam presented by Whole Foods Market Santa Cruz and Rotary Interact (see the theme here?) both of these events were peppered by rain but it did not deter the kids from coming out and skating while donating food to a great cause.

Whole Foods Market Santa Cruz and The Skate Jam

It seemed that the kids were on a roll, school after school was smashing their previous years raise and setting new standards, gauntlets were being thrown down and some claims of who was beating who at what were circulating around feverishly as no one wanted to be left behind on this one.  With $1800 in gift certificates up for grabs from Skateworks Skateshop and Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop, here are your 2010 Grind Out Hunger Champions!

The 2010 Grind Out Hunger Heavy Weight Champion was Monterey Coast Preparatory, Sinda Merritt and her students really set the bar raising over 21,000 pounds of food!! This amazing group of angels were relentless in their pursuit of raising food for kids putting the goal well ahead of themselves. Over the last three years with Grind Out Hunger, Sinda and crew have pulled in just under 40,000 pounds of food…not bad for 25 kids (do the math thats 1600 pounds per student!) Monterey Coast Prep takes home $600 in gift certificates to Skateworks Skateshop and Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop.

These kids got creative capping off their drive with "FREE" gift wrapping that raised thousands of dollars!

St Francis Central Coast Catholic High School, John Marheineke and the students invited Grind Out Hunger to come speak at their campus. Just over 200 kids attend the school and had barely participated in the food drive in years past. This was the 1st stop for 2010 Grind Out Hunger, you could feel the energy from the kids and they were pumped up. When asked what their goal was,  the students blurted out “8000 POUNDS”…later when speaking with John he was obviously worried, “How in the world are we going to do that??”.  In reality it didn’t matter if they did, the fact was they had a goal, were focused and no matter what they would give it 100%.  Grind Out Hunger is proud to say that the students and staff  not only hit the 8000 pounds they passed it. Congrats on the 10,001 pounds!!!!! St Francis Central Coast Catholic High School skates away with $600 in gift certificates to Skateworks Skateshop and Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop.

St Francis Central Coast Catholic High School sold 10 Grind Out Hunger skate decks totaling 3000 pounds!

Aptos Jr. High was a veteran of 2009 Grind Out Hunger and they lost no time is establishing that 2010 was going to be a record breaker.  Brian Saxton and his students proceeded to make challenges, prizes and selling hot cocoa…whatever it took to hit 10,000 pounds. Well…Aptos Jr. High not only did that they went to a whopping 11,662 pounds. Aptos Jr. High pulls a repeat and wheels away $300 in gift certificates to Skateworks Skateshop and Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop.

Aptos Jr. High presents a check to Grind Out Hunger for $3500 or 10,500 pounds!

Gateway Elementary is also no stranger to the Grind Out Hunger challenge. The staff and students here always get creative and focus on the end goal of feeding kids. The presentation at Gateway is always fun as the kids are so inquisitive about how the food gets distributed, what kind of food can they bring in and how much more the dollar actually allows the purchase of healthy nutritious food. Thank goodness this is our future at work, its apparent that if we continue to provide altruistic ways for the youth of today to participate, society will become a better place. Gateway Elementary dropped 6,545 pounds into the barrels and captured 1st place for Elementary schools. Gateway Elementary slashes its way to $300 in gift certificates to Skateworks Skateshop and Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop.

Gateway students are always excited when Grind Out Hunger starts up!

At the end of it all, the youth in all their amazingness (is that a word?) managed to roll right by the 250,000 pound number, sliding in at a cool 278,616 pounds setting a new record and firmly placing the youth of Santa Cruz County as the 3rd largest contributor to the Second Harvest Holiday Food Drive 2.1 million pound goal. It is impressive the direction that Grind Out Hunger is going and there is some amazing news on the horizon for this kid powered charity so stay tuned! Below is a list of the winners of the 2010 Grind Out Hunger Challenge with a full list of schools…is your school involved? If not email HERE and get involved.

Here is a total showing of all 2010 Grind Out Hunger schools, the 1st line is a total of all events like skate jams, online cash donations and anonymous donors. This year was a 1st for the colleges UCSC and Cabrillo College to participate in Grind Out Hunger. Both of these campuses are like small cities with over 40,000 students and staff between them its obvious that the partnership with higher education has some incredible possibilities!

There are also some honorable mentions of schools that made this their 1st year with Grind Out Hunger. Watch out for these schools next year!

Enjoy the 2010 Grind Out Hunger Scrapbook!

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Grind Out Hunger 2010 goal of 250,000 pounds

7 years ago when Grind Out Hunger was founded, I would have never imagined that it could become such a powerful tool for the youth. As I sit here and write on this day of excitement and family gatherings aka Christmas Eve, I can only think of all of the families that will have a holiday meal because the youth of Santa Cruz County stepped up and made a dent in the overall need of Second Harvest Food Banks 2.1 Million pound goal. I started this year at St. Francis High School, John Marheineke invited me out and the students claimed “8000 pounds is our goal”…he pulled me aside and asked me if I was crazy they had never raised more than a couple hundred pounds…I said to him “watch what these kids will do”…bookend that with Monterey Coast Prep’s Sinda Merrit excerpt from Facebook chats and phone calls “Hi its Sinda, this year Monterey Coast Prep is planning to double 2009′s raise of 8000 pounds, just thought I would give you a heads up”…

Then the year was off to a whirl wind Santa Cruz County Fair on September 15th was the official kickoff for the window on Grind Out Hunger overall thousands of kids came through and dropped food into the Grind Out Hunger Halfpipe…I must mention that we had some serious support from the Strubing Family/Skateworks Skate Shop, 102.5 KDON and The Morning Madhouse, Jimbo Phillips Graphix, Second Harvest Food Bank, FRINGE Gear, TAC Apparel, Shawn Hatjes/Santa Cruz Waves, 3D Construction , Jesse Gullings Painting, SKATEBOARDS.com, Rotary Interact and Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop.

Once the year kicked off I then began my rounds to schools, Monterey Bay Academy, St Francis High, Ceiba College Prep, Ocean Alternative School, Spring Hill Elementary, Aptos Jr High, Mission Hill Middle School, Santa Cruz High, Soquel High, Monte Vista Christian, Lakeview Middle School, Salesian Elementary, Gateway Elementary, Cabrillo College and there are probably more I am missing that I visited. This is not including all of the schools that participated in the Grind Out Hunger contest!! Rio Del Mar Elementary, Monterey Coast Prep, Aptos High School, Harbor High, Watsonville High, UCSC and lots more. All along the way watching as kids eyes lit up realizing their goal…

There were special events this year, Tarp Surfing came on board and raised 500 pounds, Rapid Fire donated their concert proceeds to Grind Out Hunger, 3D Construction’s Dominc Cusimano and Jesse Gullings Painting along with wood donated from Big Creek and Pro Build built a mobile skatepark allowing Grind Out Hunger to have skate events with Twin Lakes Church and Rotary Interact had the 1st Annual Skateathon as did Whole Foods Santa Cruz and Rotary Interact Skate Jam. Whole Foods Capitola held a Taste of Elegance and a few anonymous donors supported Grind Out Hunger and the youth. Home Space/Work Space did a 3 day extravaganza raising over $1000.  Shawn Hatjes Photography made photo post cards and donated profits to Grind Out Hunger. Appetizer Media donated proceeds from their iPhone Game and tons of skateboards were sold this year by the schools. It seemed as if everyone in Santa Cruz County was aware of Grind Out Hunger and wanted to help.

People Magazine recognized Grind Out Hunger as an All Star Among Us which meant we got to stand at home plate during a SF Giants game and providing the chance to run some food drives in Atlanta and New Jersey which ultimately, the goal is to take Grind Out Hunger nationwide.

This was another year of press with Grind Out Hunger getting coverage in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Register Pajaronian, Aptos Times, Mid County Post, GoodTimes, Santa Cruz Weekly, The Huffington Post, People Magazine, KSBW 8, KION 46, Community TV and Santa Cruz Waves.

2010 was one of success, numerous schools went above the 10,000 pound mark while one school went above the 20,000 pound mark all skating towards the 250,000 pound goal for this year.

A full recap with poundage from each school is coming as Second Harvest is still tallying the results from all that was collected in the 2010 Grind Out Hunger campaign and I have a feeling…call it a hunch…ok I have inside info…because the youth of Santa Cruz County decided they wanted to feed kids this year I am confident we will meet that goal of 250,00 pounds.

As I close, please take a moment and recognize the youth of Santa Cruz County, their supporters, their schools and their hearts which drove them to collect as much food and cash as humanly possible to feed kids.

I also want to recognize the staff that made all of this possible at Second Harvest Food Bank, Willy Elliot-McCrea whom without I could have never gotten off the ground, Sam Neider my trusty Grind Out Hunger assistant, Bly Morales for helping me make sure I knew where I was supposed to be and snapping pics, Lisa Allyn for keeping the spreadsheet straight, Vicki Lowell for blogging it up, Clyde Kimura for handling all of those barrel pick ups at schools around the county, All of the Second Harvest Drivers that had to go into the schools and get those full barrels, Brooke Johnson for tolerating the madness of delivering ramps all over the place and blessing the use of trucks, Victor Kimura for organizing insurance coverage for the skate events, Ernesto Nieves for organizing the storage and delivery of the skate ramps, Carlos Juarez, Doug Brooks, Mark Rodriguez and Frank Hernandez for hauling and deploying ramps even in the pouring rain so kids could skate, Megan Riggs for coming out and manning the tables at the skate events and finally accounting for counting all those dollars and cents the kids donated to make our goal of 250,000 pounds. Meet the Second Harvest Staff Here I genuinely thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Enjoy the pics from this years 2010 Grind Out Hunger campaign….Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Stay tuned for a full update in 2011 as we announce the total pounds raised, the standouts that made it happen and the plans for 2011 Grind Out Hunger…

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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!