Loaves of Love

Whoever said little kids can’t make a big difference? With the help of mother and pre-kindergarten teacher, Christy Taylor, the children of Educare Learning Center rounded up a fantastic contribution of 32 loaves of bread and an assortment of clothing for their annual “Loaves of Love” bread drive to donate to Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services.

For the past five years, Educare Learning Center, an early childhood education center in Sacramento catering to children ages three to five, has been teaching children the importance of sharing through their cleverly dubbed “Loaves of Love” (L.O.L) donation effort which takes place during the holiday season.

“Each teacher explained to children why it’s important to donate and help those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We want the bread drive to provide a real-life example of that,” Taylor said. “So far, we’ve had an excellent turn-out for the program. More than ¾ of students contributed a loaf of bread to the drive. We even had jackets, blankets and shoes to donate this year!”

This year, students collected goods in addition to bread. “We hope that by including other items in the donation drive, it will teach the children to not only appreciate having food but also things like having a warm jacket,” Taylor explained. Yielding favorable results, this year’s inclusion of clothing to the drive provided four bags of jackets, blankets and shoes to donate to SFBFS.

“The children constantly see pictures of poor children from other countries, but they don’t know that people are starving in their own backyard,” Taylor remarked. “The drive helps them realize there are people here in need also.”

To keep the spirit of giving fresh in the children’s minds past the holiday season, Educare Learning Center also organizes a clothing drive every March which collects shoes, pants, shorts and t-shirts. By organizing donation efforts throughout the school year, the staff of Educare works continually to inspire compassion in the next generation of youth.

The donated from Educare students found  its way into the hands of families in need within a few hours of being dropped off.

 If you are interested in leading a donation drive, please visit www.sacramentofoodbank.org for more information.

Submitted by Matt Pruitt, AmeriCorps VISTA

One Click Per Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Typically it’s an apple that keeps the doctor away, but for the month of December, Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services (SFBFS) is extending that saying to include all fruits and vegetables. And, more importantly, how to prepare them.

Aprons in Action, The Home Depot Foundation’s monthly Facebook voting program, recently nominated SFBFS for December's competition. Only one of four selected charities, SFBFS has the opportunity to win a $25,000 gift card to Home Depot to finish the outdoor kitchen in the Demonstration Garden.

SFBFS’ Demonstration Garden began growing fresh fruits and vegetables in February 2012 and continues to provide fresh produce year-round. Items grown in the garden supplement weekly food distributions in the community as well as teach children and adults where food comes from. SFBFS built the Demonstration Garden to help families understand that they can take an active role in improving their health. Many families who receive services from SFBFS struggle with severe health concerns including high cholesterol, childhood obesity and diabetes. Each of these issues can be combated with proper nutrition, so SFBFS changed its food distribution model nearly 5 years ago and began offering an abundance of fresh produce instead of processed foods. Clients were overjoyed to receive such a gorgeous selection of fruits and veggies from local farms, but many were unfamiliar with the items and few knew how to prepare them for family meals. This concern spawned the idea of an education-focused gardening and food preparation area. The Demonstration Garden was born.

Just 10 months later, the Demonstration Garden is thriving and classes covering composting, seed saving and what to do with an abundance of zucchini are filled every week. The next step in the Demonstration Garden is to install an outdoor kitchen so families can learn how to prepare the food they grow or the items they receive at a food distribution.


In October, Rebuilding Together Sacramento got the ball rolling by nominating SFBFS for the Rebuilding Dreams project. Because of voters like you, SFBFS won the Rebuilding Dreams project and Rebuilding Together installed a foundation, structure and plumbing for the outdoor kitchen. SFBFS is now in the home stretch stage of construction and would greatly benefit from winning The Home Depot Foundation’s Aprons in Action award.

Vote for Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services to finish an outdoor kitchen for the Demonstration Garden! Just follow these easy steps:

• Visit http://apronsinaction.homedepotfoundation.org/
• Select the VOTE button to the right of Rebuilding Together Sacramento
• Vote once per day now through December 31

It's that easy. No form to fill out and the process will take less than 5 seconds. This contest runs on Facebook through the end of December and any member of Facebook can vote once per day for the charity of their choice. Remember that one click per day will help keep the doctor away by improving the health and providing nutrition education for local families in need.

Please cast your vote to make a difference for families in Sacramento!

It’s the easiest kitchen project you’ll work on all year.