The 21st annual Friends Feeding Friends Food Drive sponsored by the Temple-Belton Board of Realtors was a success! More than 21,000 pounds of food and more than $1,000 in donations was collected in Temple, Belton and Salado to help feed our hungry neighbors in North Central Texas.

The following Partner Agencies will directly benefit from the generosity of our North Central Texas neighbors: Churches Touching Lives for Christ, Love of Christ, Open Arms UMC, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, Taylors Valley Baptist Church, Helping Hands Ministries, Christ the King Catholic Church and First Baptist Church Salado.

Thank you, to our partners: Temple Independent School District, Belton Independent School District, Salado Independent School District, Central Texas Christian School, Central Texas Now KCEN-HD, PacTiv, Walmart, and Brookshire Brothers for uniting our community to help end hunger.

Applied Materials Solar Car Races

At Applied Materials, corporate responsibility is about improving the way people live and helping to create a bright future in the communities in which they operate.  We’re grateful that once again, Applied Materials focused their efforts on local hunger relief. Through a combination of tried-and-true Applied Materials favorite events, and a twist on some new ones, they raised more than $123,000 and 432 pounds of food. Thank you, Applied Materials, for your long-standing commitment to fighting hunger in our community! Enjoy these photos of their fundraising events from our friends, and hunger heroes, at Applied Materials.

Our “Turn Hungry Holidays into Happy Holidays” campaign sponsored by FOX 7 and SolarWinds, was a great success. Your generous gifts of more than $500,000 provide nourishment and hope for our neighbors in need. This campaign was very special for us; we raised more funds than last year, and our sponsors put their own spin on the campaign to engage their employees and help lead the technology community in ending hunger.

SolarWinds issued a challenge to technology companies in Central Texas to beat the $13,000 in cash and food donations raised by their employees during their two-week drive.

For Microsoft, them’s fightin’ words and they stepped up to the challenge. It was great to have two competitors in the business world use that energy and enthusiasm to nourish the hungry in our community.

“The Microsoft team in Austin was proud to participate in this year’s Food Drive Challenge. Thank you to SolarWinds for inviting us. We had a lot of fun raising the donations and hope to do it again next year,” said Gary Geddes from Microsoft.

Team Microsoft

Congratulations to Microsoft for beating SolarWinds in the Geeks who Give Challenge.  Enjoy those bragging rights.

Josh Stephens, also known as “Head Geek” at SolarWinds, shares a wrap up of the campaign on his blog.

A little while back I wrote a blog post entitled “Hunger Sucks” that we used to help drive awareness to the Capital Area Food Bank’s (CAFB) “Turn Hungry Holidays into Happy Holidays” food and fundraising campaign. It was a call to arms to fellow geeks out there to step up and help fight hunger here in Austin and within the greater metropolitan area. You stepped up big time. Here are some of the results.

You see, for the past three years SolarWinds has been supporting the CAFB through holiday food and fundraising drives. This year, we wanted to take it a step farther by underwriting the area-wide campaign and challenging other Austin technology companies to help as well. With the help of other technologists in the area and fellow tech company Microsoft, we raised a total of over $17,000 AND 2,300 pounds of food AND there were over 225 participants!!! As my buddy Justin Endres here at SolarWinds would say – OUTSTANDING!!!

I’ve gotta tell you, I was impressed by the way that everyone stepped up. CAFB has been great to work with; we’re looking forward to our next event with them sometime soon. They’ve asked us to volunteer at the Austin Reggae Festival in April. I just might be too redneck for reggae, but heck, to help fight hunger, maybe even I could channel my inner Rastafarian. Sing it with me… “Don’t worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright.”

Thanks again for your contributions and for those of you that didn’t get a chance to help – there’s still time. You can go online to CAFB now and donate directly to help end hunger.

Flame on…

Josh

Thank you, Josh, for being our Hunger Hero. We had a lot of fun working with you and your team this past year, and plan on having even more fun at the Austin Reggae Festival. And, just for you, we WILL flame on.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Q88032YN4]

It’s that time of the year again – time to join the biggest youth-led food and fund drive in Central Texas.  Each year we like to mix it up and encourage more people to participate.  Last year, Tyson Foods challenged you to comment on their blog , which triggered a 100-pound food donation.

This year, along with Austin’s competing television networks, radio stations, print publications, grocery stores and other community  partners, we’re teaming up with the Boy Scouts of Central Texas to reach our goal of one million meals.  We can achieve our goal with fun activities for you online and in your Central Texas community. Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Join a team. Search online to find your team or start a new team and get registered.

2. Register your team for MLK Day. When you register online, you’ll receive your monthly e-newsletter and a free Resource Kit to help promote your event.

3. Enter the CAFB Souper Bowl of Caring Blog Contest.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5PaRCFsvp8]

Show off your creative talent by sending us a blog post with a photo gallery or video about your work with Souper Bowl of Caring.  Winning entries will be featured on our blog at blog.austinfoodbank.org and on our Facebook page.

You’ll also get a limited edition Hunger is UNacceptable t-shirt and water bottle, as well as a special guided tour of the Food Bank for you and your friends.  This is a great opportunity for youth to build their resume, for college applications, and to demonstrate leadership in your community. Click here to enter.

Contest Rules

• It must be about Souper Bowl of Caring.
• It must mention our goal of raising 1 million meals.
• It must include the words “Hunger is unacceptable.”
• Videos must be no longer than 3 minutes.

4. Donate online. Take a virtual shopping trip by putting food items into your online shopping cart. Then click “Donate” to donate the cost of those items to the Food Bank. It’s a fun way to help end hunger!

5. Support the “Scouting for Food” Food Drive

The Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts will be conducting a Food and Fund Drive in many areas throughout Central Texas. Scouts will leave door hangers on your door the week of January 22 – 29 and return to pick up non-perishable food items the following Saturday.  Your donation will support a Capital Area Food Bank Partner Agency in your community.

On February 5, you’re invited to join us for the 101st anniversary celebration of the Scouting movement at the 62nd annual Boy Scout Parade and Report to the State of Texas in conjunction with the Souper Bowl of Caring. Watch the Boy Scouts State Parade on Congress Avenue where the scouts will collect healthy, non-perishable food donations for our Central Texas neighbors in need.

6. Donate at your local Randalls, H-E-B and Central Market’s

While you’re shopping for snacks for game day, consider sharing a meal with those in need. Purchase pre-packaged bags of most-needed items or look for tear-off coupons in the amounts of $1, $3 and $5 at checkout stands in area Randalls, H-E-B and Central Market grocery stores.  Your purchase of a pre-packaged bag at either retailer provides two meals for a family of four.

7. Participate in Souper Bowl of Caring and save on Harlem Globetrotters tickets

The Harlem Globetrotters “4 Times the Fun” World Tour is coming to Austin on Friday, January 28.  When you support Souper Bowl of Caring you’ll save $7 on tickets. Learn more.

Thank you, Partners:

HEB, Central Market, Randalls, FOX 7, News 8, KEYE TV, KVUE-TV, TeleFutura, Telemundo, Univision, The CW, My Austin TV, KVET, KASE 101, AM 1300 The Zone, Buena 104.3, La Jefa 107.7, Relevant Radio 970 AM, The Statesman, The Jewish Outlook, Ahora sí, Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts of America, and Harlem Globetrotters.

Did you know the Food Bank supports the Waco community?  Today’s 20th annual Food for Families Food Drive provides direct support to many of our Partner Agencies in the Waco area.  It’s one of the largest one-day food drives in Texas with 16 donation sites throughout the area. For Partner Agencies like Caritas of Waco, the need is urgent.

From Caritas of Waco’s Blog:

It’s not getting any better. What I mean is, the number of people coming to Caritas and to other local food pantries in Waco is not slacking off. Our client volumes are up between 35 and 40 percent in the first eight months of 2010, compared to the same period last year. That means the drain on our food supplies has been telling.

We really strive to provide an average of 85lbs of  food per client family. Unfortunately, in the month of September, we only were able to provide 48lbs of food per client family due to low food donations.

For a list of donation sites and more information about the drive, click here. The drive ends at 8 p.m. today.

Galindo Elementary Leadership Council students held a food drive during Souper Bowl of Caring. Watch the video –

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_x2HXuoay0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Thanks to everyone who supported this year’s Souper Bowl of Caring. Because of the great turnout, we’re still picking up donations from the stores! Stay tuned to see if your donations reached our goal of providing 750,000 meals.

Did you do something fun for Souper Bowl of Caring? Share your story with us in the comments section below. We love hearing from you!

Click here for more opportunities to get involved through our community events.

Help us provide emergency food assistance to those affected by Hurricane Ike.

Visit the Food Bank this week and drop off donations at our “Drive-Thru Food Drive.” There’s no need to leave your car – just drive through and a volunteer will accept your donations. It’s that easy!

Five items requested:
1) bottled water
2) granola bars
3) canned meats (pop-top lids)
4) peanut butter
5) diapers

Hours
Wednesday, September 10 – Friday, September 12, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday, September 13, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Also during the HAM-up Tweet-up)
Sunday, September 14, noon – 5 p.m.

Location
Capital Area Food Bank, 8201 South Congress Avenue (between William Cannon & Slaughter Lane)

Can’t come by – donate online!
If you can’t donate items in person, please donate online and choose the box for “My donation is for Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief only” to restrict your donation to disaster relief efforts. Every $5 donated = $20 worth of nutritious food.

Thank you for your help.

We know you’re passionate about two things as much as we are – the online community and ending hunger. How can we take that passion into something both fun and meaningful?

We talked (yes, in person!) to some of the great minds on Twitter, and the HAM-up Tweet-up was born.

Get it? HAM… September is Hunger Action Month … Hamming it up… Clever huh?

Then the ideas really started flying.

How about a competition for donating ham and other protein products?

How about a can-struction competition?

How about we ask people to donate their weight in food?

How about we ask people to donate the cost of meals for the day to the Food Bank?

How about we ask the community to volunteer at some Food Bank partner agencies on a specific day?

As the ideas and the excitement grew, we realized that this day of hunger-ending-awesome-ness shouldn’t be just contained by a couple of folks gathered around a computer. As much as this day is about the 40,000 hungry Central Texans relying on the Food Bank each week, it’s also about you.

So mark in your calendars Saturday, September 13 for the HAM-up Tweet-up. It’s not a particularly meaningful day in Austin or hunger history, but there’s no major home football game that day, and we guess you’ll probably be looking for something cool to do.

Send us your ideas for our first inaugural HAM-up Tweet-up!

You can also follow Advocacy and Online Marketing Manager, Lisa Goddard, on twitter: @lisa_goddard

Special thanks to tweeters, @MikeChapman and @michellegreer for their enthusiasm and creativity.

Nothing beats collaboration to help end hunger. This time, local media and business team up and encourage the community to give.

Yesterday, we kicked off the 8th Annual CBS-42 KEYE Food & Fund Drive with our friends, Chris with CBS-42 KEYE and Connie with Randalls.

We’ll be on our “tour” of Randalls stores every day of the drive (through Sunday, July 27 ) going live on air mornings, 5 p.m., and 6 p.m.

Friday morning, Fred Cantu and Liz Dannheim will broadcast their morning show live from the Randalls at Research & Braker. Come out and say hi!

Choose how you’d like to participate in this year’s drive:

• Go to any area Randalls grocery store. At the register, tear off a $1 or $5 scan coupon and hand it to the cashier. The donation will be added to your final grocery bill.
• Or buy a pre-packaged bag of the Food Bank’s most-needed items. Look for bags in the front of each Randalls.
• Or drop off non-perishable food items. Check for specially-marked barrels in each Randalls store.
• Or donate online on the Food Bank website.

BIG thanks to CBS-42 KEYE and Randalls for 8 years of enthusiasm and committment to this drive.

Liz Dannheim with CBS-42 talks to Otis Jackson, a volunteer with Bastrop County Food Pantry for a Food Drive story. Jackson said it costs $125 to fill the gas tank on their van, and that cuts into their food budget.

Yesterday’s news coverage on CBS-42 KEYE:
Food Banks Desperate for More Supplies as Need Rises