Gifts from the Heart

Sometimes it is the students who teach the instructor, especially about the really important things.  As a volunteer technology instructor in the Adult Education program at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, I recently had one such experience. 

Learning how to use a computer, with its funny mouse and keyboard, is not easy for many people.  A puzzled look would come across a student's face when we opened Microsoft Word or created a folder. Some students could barely type. But they kept working hard for all seven weeks.  

As one recent class finished the final exercise I wondered if  the technology class was too hard.  Then one student handed me a thank you card signed by every student along with a nice donation to help Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services keep up its good work. I was so touched. That day I learned the value of volunteering and helping change people's lives for the better. 

Submitted by Peter Fusselman, Volunteer Instructor in Adult Education

For the Love of Gardening

Taylor’s Tip

Growing your own food can be very similar to being in a relationship. The initial first days feel brand new and fun! You prep, you plan, you take the time to create a welcoming oasis for the newcomer in your life. Then trouble begins. That seemingly pristine plant doesn’t live up to expectations. In fact, it has started to wither and take on a sickly yellowish green tinge to its once lush leaves. You water, you prune, you go crazy trying to salvage what’s left. As much as you try, nothing seems to work! By the end of the growing season you’re left with a brown and crispy graveyard… Reviving this relationship seems impossible.

However, there is hope!

While summer may be over, and your attempt at a flourishing garden filled with tomatoes and peppers has passed, there is always next year! Much like people, you have to find what vegetables and varieties work best for you and your space. As daunting as this may sound, don’t fret! That is what we do best at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services' Demonstration Garden. We are matchmakers for people and their plants. If it’s not working for you, we will find out why. We will happily introduce you to new techniques and skills to keep you and your plant in a happy and healthy gardening partnership. So stop by for class and we’ll hook you up ;)  

Submitted by Taylor Kornman, AmeriCorps VISTA

Lots of Fun. Plenty of Sun

Saturday June 22 marked Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services’ (SFBFS) 6^th annual Fun in the Sun fair at the Saca Community Learning Center (CLC). SFBFS’ Fun in the Sun event is a unique resource fair which offers games and activities for youngsters, information about valuable free community services, group yoga, a live band and a delicious barbecue to all its visitors. 

The day kicked-off bright and early at 8:30am with the help of Accenture who provided a fabulous volunteer staff of 14 who assisted with setting-up the event, supervising games and activities for the children and distributing free gifts to the visitors. In addition, 15 loyal SFBFS volunteers made it out for some Fun in the Sun as well helping prepare food, setting-up tents for vendors and serving snow cones.

Adult visitors to the event gathered resources from a variety of local agencies such as the North Sacramento Family Resource Center, La Familia, WEAVE, SMUD, Sacramento City College and Health Net while children enjoyed face painting, a bounce house, snow cones, and soaking brave volunteers in the dunk tank. Before leaving, each family was sure to grab a scrumptious hotdog for lunch courtesy of volunteer grill master, Marshall Graves. 

“It was great to help out at,” said Matthew Pruitt, AmeriCorps VISTA at SFBFS. “While I was taking a break, I experienced one of the most touching things- A young father was carrying his son as they left the event. His tot had an ear-to-ear to grin on his face while he enjoyed a blue snow cone. The two walked past me and after taking about five steps, the father turned around noticing my SFBFS name badge and said ‘I just want to say thank you for everything [SFBFS] does. [The Saca CLC] has helped us so much and it’s so great what you’re doing for the kids in this community.’ The young man set his materials down, shook my hand and he and his son continued down the street.”

The afternoon wrapped-up with a grand total of 550 visitors and 30 local agencies making an appearance. Accenture’s wonderful volunteer staff came to the rescue yet again, breaking-down the event in the blazing sunshine with a 95 degree temperature to boot.

A big thank-you goes to Accenture and everyone who made it out last Saturday. Fun in the Sun was a huge hit in the North Sacramento area for the sixth year in a row.

Bike Rodeo

On a sunny, Thursday afternoon in May, kids from Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services’ Youth Education program at Saca Community Learning Center  participated in a Bike Rodeo lead by volunteers from Mustard Seed Spin. These volunteers brought bikes, tools, activities and resources to share with our youth in order to teach them about bike safety, bike maintenance and to promote the healthy benefits of bike-riding.

Volunteers from Mustard Seed Spin Bike Rodeo created an obstacle course for youth to practice safe bike-riding habits. For example, through this practical and beneficial activity, a 13-year-old student learned something new and is now aware that there are hand signals you can use on a bike to safely ride and communicate in traffic. 

A 10-year-old student said that she had fun and, “learned how to change a flat tire and that it is very important to wear a helmet.” Students were shown demonstrations using watermelons as “stand-in heads”, which taught about the importance of always wearing your helmet when riding your bike to avoid head injuries. Also, as part of the Bike Rodeo each youth who needed a helmet received a free one to take home. This event was a terrifically informative, fun and engaging way to teach kids about bike safety and maintenance, as well as to give them the tools and understanding needed to safely enjoy bike-riding for years to come.

Thank you Mustard Seed Spin!

Submitted by Heather Kohlmeister, Youth Education Program Manager

Letter of Thanks

The following letter was shared on April 25, 2013 with Erika Ledbetter, Food Program Assistant at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. Heather volunteered her time in the Food program during the spring semester.

Dear Erika,

I have truly enjoyed my Service Learning time with Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. I had another class in community college where we had to do community service and chose to complete the hours with the local food bank. I was living in a different area then, and their program was purely food related. When I saw Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services on the list of approved sites, I immediately knew that I would complete my hours there because it was something I had a little experience doing already. When I came in for orientation, I quickly learned that my assumption that this food bank would be like the one that I already had worked for was way off. Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services is a fantastic organization that not only offers the food component but computer classes for all ages, tutoring, child care, clothing and a parent education component as well. I was surprised by how many different options were offered to the community through this organization I thought was all about food.

I knew right away that I would really enjoy the food distributions. My current job is in retail, so customer service is something that I am very familiar with. Handing out food at the food distributions reminds me a lot of customer service, where you do whatever you can to make the clients/customers happy during the short time they are choosing to spend with us. I have loved the interactions especially with the clients during the food distributions. Truthfully, I simply enjoy interacting with others. I have come to find that I really enjoy spending time with the other volunteers and the regular workers during the food distributions.

Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services is so organized and seems to have everything together, so I was slightly intimidated by the required project I had to complete for my Child Development 132 class, which was to find a way to improve the site in some way. I am glad to be able to contribute something that will hopefully really help the organization in the long run with produce information cards that have titles in different languages for non-English speakers.

Volunteering for Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services is something that I would love to continue doing after my Service Learning hours have been completed.

Sincerely,
Heather

Food Bank Club

The Food Bank Club was created to give youth in Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services' Youth Education program the opportunity to volunteer their time in other programs within the organization. During the 8 week session, youth lent a hand in the Food program to sort different food items to be given away at our local food distributions. The food bank club also helped in the Clothing program, the Parent Education's Baby Boutique and Demonstration Garden. The youth enjoyed being able to help in the different programs knowing that all their time and hard work would benefit families in need.

Food Bank Club volunteers in Parent Education

Submitted by Krystal Harrell
SFBFS' After School Academy Assistant