Tag Archive: second harvest food bank

Oct
26

Grind Out Hunger School Food Drive Kickoff Updates

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montevista2



Grind Out Hunger season is in full effect. We are traveling around the county speaking to schools, encouraging the kids to raise food/money for this years Grind Out Hunger Food Drive. We have been having a lot of positive feedback and all of the kids seem to be fired up! From what we are seeing it seems like they are getting it, they know that they a a huge part of solving the hunger issues we have in our county and beyond.

We thought we would give you all a quick update of our school presentation adventures…

Aptos High School

A few weeks ago we sat down with Aptos High School principal, Casey O’Brien and asked him why Aptos Jr. High crushed them in pounds raised for Grind Out Hunger last year. O’Brien, fired up, said that this year they would rock the Grind Out Hunger Food Drive. Their food drive kicks off this Friday, we are traveling over to Aptos High to present to the entire high school in order to get the kids amped and ready. We will also be announcing that we will be having a Skate Jam on their campus in a couple weeks. Our First ever skate jam hosted by a school. This is a HUGE stepping stone for Grind Out Hunger…We will update you all on that bit later.

Ceiba College Prep

A couple representatives from Ceiba College Prep came in to Second Harvest Food bank on Tuesday afternoon. They took a tour of the facility, filiming it, in order to create a short video to present to the rest of the students back at the school. They were able to flag down Danny Keith and get him to do a short, personal presentation to the kids on camera asking them to raise food and beat their 1,300 pound mark that they hit last year.

Mission Hill Middle School

Mission Hill Middle school is always a fun place to visit. Instead of presenting to a room of students we present on Mission Hill TV, which is broadcast to each class throughout the school. We sat in a small room and talked for a while about the Grind Out Hunger Food Drive and how the kids can get involved and raise the most amount of pounds for their school. Mission Hill is excited about selling our Grind Out Hunger wristbands. Each wristband is equivalent to 6 pounds of food! A great way to fund raise!

Monte Vista Middle School

Monte Vista Middle School, what a great campus and group of kids. We presented to them in their gym and got a phenomenal reaction from every single one. They had a whole assembly prepared showing videos as well as kids explaining to their peers what types of food to bring in to donate. We had a great time with all of those kids, we even had students come up to us giving us cash donations on the spot! How awesome is that!?! We are looking forward to seeing what Monte Vista will do this year after last years 6,000 pounds raised! Lets hit that 8,000 mark shall we? Or maybe 10,000!? You all have the drive and spirit! Let’s do this!

 

Recording a short video to present to Ceiba College Prep students.

Monte Vista Middle School

Grind Out Hunger founder, Danny Keith, speaking to Monte Vista Middle School.

Students at Monte Vista Middle School present to their peers what types of food to bring in to fill their donation barrels.

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Oct
26

Carolyn and Dakota Jones’ Break-A-Thon Raises 6,500+ Pounds

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Here is another story from the front lines of kids stepping up to the plate to help those in need…

Last Saturday Carolyn and Dakota, both black belts from Aptos Martial Arts Academy, broke 110 boards in the fight against hunger. Family, friends, and supporters pledged money per board with a large portion of the funds going to Second Harvest Food Bank. Students at Aptos Marital Arts all got together prior to the event and decorated all of the boards that Carolyn and Dakota were going to break. The art on the boards was a mix of encouragement, thanks, dedications to people and supporters, as well as struggles that they wanted to be symbolically broken through. Twin Lakes Church Pastor, René Schlaepfer showed up to support Carolyn and Dakota. A special board was saved for him to break at the very end of the event.

After the event Dakota expressed his thanks, “I knew that for every board we broke we could potentially save a life. I feel so blessed to have received the support we did. It is really awesome. Thank you all very much!”

This “Board Break-a-Thon” raised 6,560 Pounds of food!

Although these pounds aren’t being counted specifically towards Grind Out Hunger‘s food drive we wanted to highlight these two, seeing as they are two kids with big hearts. These pounds will be going toward Twin Lakes Church’s goal of 1 MILLION pounds for this seasons Second Harvest Food Banks Holiday Food Drive.

We are excited to have Twin Lakes Church supporting Second Harvest Food Bank – Santa Cruz in such a big way.

Thank You Carolyn and Dakota for your dedication and support.

Carolyn and Dakota both teamed up to break boards in the fight against hunger.

110 boards were broken and 6,560 Pounds of food were raised.

Twin Lakes Church Pastor, René Schlaepfer, breaks a board at the end of the event.

Carolyn and Dakota Jones

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Oct
16

Noah Gabay Speaks to Orchard School on Behalf of Grind Out Hunger

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Orchard School

We were approached by Noah Gabay a couple months ago. For his Bar Mitzvah he is required to complete a certain amount of community service hours he wanted to help out with local non-profit that he would be able to continue helping once his community service hours were completed. We first thought about putting him to work at our warehouse, sorting food or stuffing envelopes to send out to the community. This wasn’t what Noah wanted to do, he wanted to be more active and play a lead role in the fight against hunger. Noah told us that he wanted to present to kids on behalf of Grind Out Hunger. He wanted to stand up in front of groups and ask his peers to help him fight food insecurity within Santa Cruz County and beyond.

Thrilled, we quickly set up a meeting with Noah and went over facts, tips, and ideas for how a presentation would look. He took all of the info we threw at him, absorbed it, studied it and put it to perfect use. He presented to Orchard School last Thursday morning. We went along with him to show our support, but he did all the talking. The next day we received an email from the school requesting for materials to run a food drive. Noah has put Orchard School on the map this year for Grind Out Hunger. We cant wait to see what this school can do!

Big shout out to Noah for doing this. We hear that Noah is going to continue speaking to classes and schools around the county. We will be sure to keep you all updated as he continues to help spread the word of Grind Out Hunger. Be sure to check out the YouTube video we embedded below of Noah presenting to Orchard School.

If you would like to help out Grind Out Hunger in any way, please feel free to send us an email:
shawn@grindouthunger.org

Noah Presenting to Orchard School
Noah Handing out Grind Out Hunger Wristbands
Noah standing next to Grind Out Hunger founder, Danny Keith.


Check out a video of Noah presenting to Orchard School!!

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Oct
12

2nd Annual Skate-A-Thon Raises 6,000 Pounds!

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2nd Annual Skate-A-Thon

This past Saturday was our 2nd Annual Skate-A-Thon at Twin Lakes Church. It was the first time we were able to put our NEW 48ft trailer to the test. We hauled the ramps to Twin Lakes Church at around 830am Saturday morning and unloaded them all by 10am. With help of a few of the Twin lakes staff we were able to get everything done quickly and smoothly. Last year this event had on and off rain, this year we couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sun was shining with barley any clouds in the sky. Having nice weather, fun music, a great crowd, and a bunch of kids skating made this event the success that it was.

Kids started showing up to skate right at 10am. Many of them stayed all the way from 10am-4pm. Our mission during these events is to create a safe, fun environment for kids to skate for a good cause. It bring awareness to the youth as well as their families about the hunger issues in Santa Cruz County and beyond. They are able to see how supporting the community can be combined with fun activities such as skateboarding.

We had a table set up with merch and a place to purchase raffle tickets. Items we had available included; hats, stickers, buttons, wristbands, and skate decks. We ended up raffling off 2 skate decks signed by Jimbo Phillips as well as a Grind Out hunger hat.  Twin lakes Church Pastor, René Schlaepfer even stopped by the event for a bit to show his support. He was thrilled about the environment we had set up for kids to skate in support of a good cause.

The event ended up raising 1,500+ pounds of food including both cash and canned food donations. The Helen and Will Webster Foundation ended up giving us a $1500 cash donation totaling our poundage to 6,000!!!

Thanks to Dominic Cusimano, owner of 3D Construction for helping with setup and ramp repairs, Ben K of TAC Apparel Company for helping with this years flyer, Jimbo Phillips for signing decks and being a huge supporter of the cause
Big thanks to Twin Lakes Church and their staff for providing the space for the event as well as setup and breakdown support.

We also wanted to give a shout out to Mike Murray, who shot photos during the event and shared them with us on our facebook page. Be sure to head over to www.facebook.com/grindouthunger to check some of them out!

Can’s wait until next year!
Be sure to be on the lookout for our next skate event. Another one is in the works. Stay tuned.

Putting Our New 48ft Trailer to the Test.

Colby Phillips shredding...

Dropping in...

Our New Grind Out Hunger Stickers.

Zane Keith tearing it up at the Skate-A-Thon

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Oct
04

Carolyn and Dakota Jones Break Boards to Fight Hunger

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tae kwon do 2, 10-1

Carolyn breaking a board. Photo Credit: Tarmo Hannula of the Register Pajaronian

POWER TO THE YOUTH!

Twin Lakes Church is a huge supporter of Grind Out Hunger and Second Harvest Food Bank. Their poundage goal this year has been set to 1,000,000 Pounds!! Each church member, including the youth, have been asked to raise $100 by the end of December. Carolyn, 11, and her brother Dakota, both black belts in Tae Kwon Do, have decided to use their experience in martial arts to help fight hunger. They both are going to break 100 wooden boards and are asking friends, family, and supporters to pledge money per board. Pledges can be made at:www.boardbreakathon.com

Grind Out Hunger will be there to document this event. Show up and show your support!

The duo will complete the Break-A-Thon Saturday October 22nd from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM at Twin Lakes Church Gymnasium located at 2701 Cabrillo College Drive in Aptos, California. The event will be filmed and posted on www.boardbreakathon.com and to YouTube.

 

Goal: $1000.00

Pledged: $2,137.00 (As of 10/22/11)

 

Carolyn explains: , “Going hungry hurts a lot more than breaking boards. We can do this so we will.”

Break-A-Thon to Fight Hunger

WHAT: The duo will be breaking 100 boards to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank.

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Oct. 22, 2011

WHERE: Twin Lakes Church gymnasium, 2701 Cabrillo College Drive, Aptos.

DETAILS: Pledges can be made at www.boardbreakathon.com

Carolyn

Dakota

Read article from Santa Cruz Sentinel: HERE

Read article from Register Pajaronian: HERE

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Oct
03

Grind Out Hunger Speaks to Northern California Girl Scouts

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Girl Scouts Grind Out Hunger 5

Northern California Girls Scout Troops gather at the boardwalk to learn about the issues of hunger and how they can make a difference.

This past Saturday Grind Out Hunger took a trip to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to speak to a large group of Girl Scouts from all over Northern California.

We presented on stage at the beach alongside Second Harvest Food Bank AmeriCorps volunteers, Esperance and Eva. They informed and educated the girls about the issues of hunger in our community, how they could help, and about the importance of nutrition.

When Grind Out Hunger took the stage we informed the girls of the program and the importance of the youth stepping forward and making a difference. It’s all about empowering the kids. They are our future…

After our presentation we asked them to make posters expressing their feelings about hunger. Girls flooded the tables grabbing crayons and paper in support of making a difference. Some of them took their posters home with them to share with their classmates back at school, others handed them to us wanting us to keep their art.

Thanks Girl Scout troops for being so attentive and wanting to help service the community! You all rock!
Hope you enjoyed your stay in Santa Cruz!

Here are some photos of the day and their poster creations.

After the presentation the Girl Scout Troops make posters expressing their feeling on the issue of hunger.





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