STUFH supporters:
Letters from STUFH participants
(3/14/08)
Greetings Dan,
I just wanted to take a few minutes to once again thank you for your
wonderful support and partnership. STUFH is bringing great attention
to the growing need to feed throughout the country.
Each year, the numbers from the STUFH program continue to grow. This year, we're looking forward to getting even more colleges and universities involved as we host our first annual city-wide food drive, which will be part of the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank 35th Anniversary celebration.
We appreciate your time, commitment, and enthusiasm. Keep up the fantastic work!
Jeanna Kindle
Las Angeles Regional Food Bank
(11/15/07)
I wanted to let you know that the first semester of STUFH here at
U of I is going well! We have volunteered at the Eastern Illinois
Foodbank and raised about $500 dollars for them during their Food
for Families annual food and fundraiser. Actually, there was a newspaper
article in the News-Gazette (the Champaign-Urbana newspaper) titled
"Students have the right STUFH to fight hunger". They interviewed
me about the group and how we raise money at night when people are
going out to the bars carrying cash and have a more generous attitude.
We only did it 4 times for two hours a night and made $500 dollars!
Our next big event is a campus wide food drive at the end of the semester
(1st 2 weeks in December- last week of class and finals week). We
are going to put bins in all the dorms and then with enough manpower,
we are going to go to all the big apartment complexes and collect
like trick or treating!
I am so glad I started STUFH because I never really did any volunteering
up until now and it is a really great feeling! Lisa Bralts at Eastern
Illinois Foodbank is so great to work with. Other groups are starting
to take notice and want to collaborate on projects, so it is a campus-wide
movement!
Just thought I would keep you up-to-date!
Take care,
Jenny Westerkamp
(7/09/07)
Hi Dan!
This year, the Indiana University students leaving
the dorms for the
summer donated 3,647 pounds of food to the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
This is 620 more pounds than last year!
Stephanie Solomon
Hoosier Hills Food Bank
Volunteer/Meal Share Coordinator
volunteer@hhfoodbank.org
(7/03/07)
Greetings Dan,
I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how well the
program is working for the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Some of
the students at USC came up with a great program they call "Dining
Dollars." Through that program we have collected well over 2
tons of food! At the end of the school year, the students use their
leftover dining dollars to purchase non-perishable food which comes
to the Foodbank.
The students at Cal Poly Pomona (my son's Alma Mater) use their
agriculture department to harvest products grown at the University.
In conjunction with the generosity of one Del Monte, we received a
large donation of bananas in addition to the food drive pounds collected
as a result of the hard work of the Phi Upsilon Omicron members.
Cal State Los Angeles has also been a strong supporter
of the Foodbank, as well as and the Kappa Kappa Gamas.
A few words simply aren't enough to convey our gratitude for your
support and partnership!
Jeanna Kindle
Product Donations Director
(323) 234-3030 x 129
jkindle@lafoodbank.org
(7/02/07)
The University of Washington's Summer Scram program captures unwanted
materials from approximately 5,000 departing students who live in
the residence halls. Each June during move out, students throw away
tons of reusable materials. The goal of Summer Scram is to divert
those reusable goods, such as food, books, clothing, household goods,
and cell phones, to charitable organizations.
Summer Scram 2007 provided eight "Donation Stations" at each residence hall from May 25 through June 9, 2006. Program partners included Northwest Center, Food Lifeline, and Better World Books/Mona's Children. Any materials that required special recycling and disposal, such as TVs, computer monitors, and refrigerators, were collected and handled by UW Surplus. Total weights for material collected at Summer Scram 2007 are as follows:
13,363 pounds of clothing (Northwest Center)
4,485 pounds of household goods (Northwest Center)
1,389 pounds of non-perishable food items (Food Lifeline)
1,250 pounds of books (Better World Books/Mona's Children)
30 pounds of batteries (UW Environmental Health & Safety)
17 pounds of cell phones (Collective Good)
3,852 pounds of special recyclables (UW Surplus)
110 pounds of toiletries and cleaning products (Real Change)
Thank you...
Kristin Elko
Program Coordinator
University of Washington Recycling Program
www.uwrecycling.com
6/14/07
"I am so pleased that the STUFH program was created! I feel
this program is an easy way for students to give back to their local
communities. It's a great feeling to know that unused food items are
going for a good cause as opposed to being thrown away. Every year
I get phone calls from the students wanting to know when we are going
to start collecting food again... It's as if they can't wait for the
collection boxes to appear! I enjoy working with our local Food Center
and they are always very helpful in arranging times to drop off the
donations."
Kristie Brinkley, Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the University of Central Missouri
(6/07/07)
Dan,
It was another successful year at the University
of Arizona during
move-out. Residents were even more generous this year in donating
items they didn't want to take or couldn't take home with them. Food
donations were up from last year and we donated 3,720 pounds of food
to our local Community Food Bank. In addition to food, approximately
another 37,000 pounds of "stuff" was donated to local non-profits
in our community. This included many microwaves, lots of clothing,
bikes, furniture, pictures, stereo's, DVD players, small appliances
and televisions! It is hard to believe without our collection program
that all of this "stuff" would go into the trash - benefiting
no one! It is a good feeling knowing there are people in our community
that don't have to go "without" because of our program.
Deb Hanson
Deborah J. Hanson, ASID
Project & Environmental Coordinator
University of Arizona, Residence Life
hanson@life.arizona.edu
(3/15/07)
We distributed 7.7 million pounds of food last fiscal year
in southern Colorado, and assisted approximately 85,000 people through
a number of feeding programs. Our mission is to alleviate hunger in
southern Colorado through helping to feed, helping to educate, and
being advocates for those who are hungry.
Don Loyd
Care and Share, the America's Second Harvest Food Bank for Southern
Colorado
(10/2006)
Cats for Cans was great this year! Last year brought in a little less
than
4000 lbs. This year we have received 13,339lbs! Wahoo! Keep in touch
with
me, I would like to try to get the dorms to donate at the end of the
semesters like we talked about earlier this year. Hopefully we can
get that
going! Talk to you soon!
Natascha Phillip
Executive Director
Flint Hills Breadbasket
905 Yuma St.
Manhattan, KS 66502
(785) 537-0730
(7/2006)
Aloha Dan, We did have a very successful spring campaign with the
University of Hawaii system with students and faculty raising thousands
of dollars and pounds of food to help feed Hawaii's hungry. Thank
you for your support! Mahalo for helping feed Hawaii's hungry!
Polly Kauahi, Director of Fund Development
Hawaii Foodbank, Inc.
2611 Kilihau Street
Honolulu, HI 96819
(8/2005)
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for your commitment to ending hunger
and
for the creation of the STUFH organization. Our partnership with STUFH
and local schools in San Francisco will allow us to distribute more
food
to our neighbors in need. This year, our goal is to distribute 25
million
pounds of food - enough to provide more than 53,000 meals to hungry
San
Franciscans every day. Low-income people continue to face many
challenges, not least of which is a lack of recognition that they
remain
susceptible to hunger. In 2004, local meal and food assistance agencies
reported that demand for their services increased by up to 20 percent.
A
study from the New America Foundation reported that workers from the
middle and low end of the wage scale suffered real wage losses over
the
last year, increasing the number of working families unable to acquire
enough nutrition. Many families, even with two working parents, make
far
too little to live on, but too much to qualify for government food
assistance. The San Francisco Food Bank programs provide a critical
support for households trying to sustain a precarious juggling act
between
rent, utilities, medical costs, transportation and food.
The Food Bank feels strongly that ending hunger is
both a moral imperative
and a viable goal for San Francisco. STUFH's support will alleviate
the
need for thousands of San Franciscans to make the agonizing choice
between
paying for rent, seeking medical treatment, or eating. Thank you for
helping us pursue a stronger, healthier San Francisco!
Kathleen
Kathleen McMakin
Food Drives and Events Coordinator
San Francisco Food Bank
900 Pennsylvania Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94107
kmcmakin@sffb.org
www.sffoodbank.org
(8/2005)
Hi Dan,
I thought I would send you the results for our first
"dorm dump." Both Whitworth College and Gonzaga University
here in Spokane participated with us at Second Harvest to donate food
as they exited the dorms. The school's raised just over 1,000 pounds
of food for us.
We are so excited to do this event again and I think we came up with
some better ideas to promote the drive and grow for next year. Thank
you for your Web site; it was a great resource for us as we planned.
Best Regards,
Andrea Boyle
Special Events Coordinator
Second Harvest Inland Northwest
1234 East Front Avenue
Spokane, Washington 99202
(509) 534.6678 ext. 233
Fax: (509) 534.8252
aboyle@secondharvest.org
(8/2005)
Good morning, Dan,
On behalf of all of us at the Central Virginia Foodbank, I would like
to thank you and STUFH for contacting the colleges and universities
in the Central Virginia area to encourage their student residents
to donate, not throw-away. In May, we were the beneficiary of 1,246
pounds of food from University of Richmond and 896 pounds from Randolph
Macon College, directly resulting from your efforts. I look forward
to working with you to expand the word throughout our entire service
area.
Best regards,
Brenda Miller
Food Drive Coordinator
Central Virginia Foodbank, Inc.
1415 Rhoadmiller Street
Richmond, Virginia 23220
(804)521-3272
(8/2005)
Hi Dan,
Thanks for your call today - I thought I'd jot you a quick email before
it
slips my mind. (We're in the middle of our biggest fundraiser right
now!)
We had a great end-of-year drive this year with the
University of
Washington. This was the second year we'd worked with UW and we've
been
very pleased. This year they collected 2,202 pounds of food over the
course of two and a half weeks, with most of the food coming during
the
few days surrounding graduation. The drive is run by the Recycling
&
Solid Waste department - my contact is the program coordinator for
the
department.
They staged outdoor collection sites near dorms at
nine (9) areas of
campus. To combat our traditional Seattle rains, they set up tents
at each
station and worked with several non-profits to get collection bins
for
food, clothing and household items. Food Lifeline provided food
collection barrels and worked with our partner agency the University
Food
Bank to check the barrels every day. Other non-profits made separate
arrangements and pickups for the clothing and household items. University
employees also monitored the donation stations daily for safety and
cleanliness.
The University did great signage to supplement our
Food Lifeline posters,
and provided detailed maps for our drivers.
We did have the challenge again this year of kids
throwing trash in the
barrels, and also some homeless folks in the area who bypassed the
food
bank system by taking food directly from the barrels (we can only
assume
they needed the food!), but overall it was a success this year.
Thanks,
Special Events Coordinator
Food Lifeline
www.foodlifeline.org
(2005)
"Our partnership with the Tucson Community Food Bank allowed
4,178 pounds in 2004 to go to needy individuals instead of to the
landfill. What a rewarding feeling to know we prevented someone from
going to bed hungry! The results not only show the amount of good
"stufh" students throw away, but it also gives them an idea
of the amount of good they provide by donating items they no longer
want or need. We can make a difference!"
Deb Hanson
Project & Enviornmental Coordinator
University of Arizona
Dan,
So nice speaking with you this morning. As I said, America's second harvest calculates that 1.28lbs is a meal. We collected 686 pounds of food from dorms in Akron on Friday May 13, 2005. That's 536 meals that students at University of Akron made possible for people in their community. I believe the students who participate in STUFF feel a national connection to the impact they can have on hunger. Its surely a mistake to underestimate young Americans when they resolve to help out. I look forward to the next school break, when our Foodbank hopes students in the area will once again participate in this small step with huge rewards. You guys are great for coordinating such a drive and it means a lot to the people we serve that college students in Akron would show such compassion.
Best regards,
Ericka Abram
Food Donor Coordinator
Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank
546 Grant Street
Akron, OH 44311-1158
330-535-6900, ext. 125