Food Pantry Charity Project

[Kerlin]

Okay, this one has been cooking for a little while now, and with the brainstorming help of a whole bunch of people I'm glad to bring you the final plans for our first Farscape Charity Project!

Food Pantry Donation Plans

What:
Any nonperishable food item. Some examples of this would include: canned vegetables, cereals, pasta, canned sauces, soups canned and/or dried, dried foods. Basically anything that won’t go bad.

Many food pantries will also take personal hygiene products: shampoo, soap, razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shaving cream, etc.

To tie this in to Farscape, we’re asking that Scapers purchase food products that have been advertised during these last 11 episodes of Farscape. When you do this, please either purchase the items on a separate receipt or highlight the donated items on the receipt and then send the receipt to the address below. Once all the receipts are received we will compile the figures and be able to show the advertisers just how much we are willing to spend on their products because they advertised during Farscape, and that their products have been used toward a humanitarian goal.

These advertisers include: Lea & Perrins, Campbell’s Soup, Unilever, Gillette, Pfizer Consumer Health, Proctor & Gamble, Schick, Alberto Culver, Wyeth, General Mills, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Quaker Oatmeal, and Walgreen’s. Please see the reply below for specific products.

Save Farscape Charity
PO Box 51
Middlebury, VT
05753

This is so we can keep track of how much Scapers have donated. There will also be a poll in the forums on Monday asking you how much you donated and to recount some of your experiences in donating.

In addition, or if you are not in a position to donate food, we’d like to ask everyone to click on http://www.thehungersite.com. If you feel like being extra Scapery and humanitarian, sign up for the reminder emails here: http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites.woa/558/wa/RegistrationDirectAction/RBTEntry?RBT=THSReminderService5&mc=h062501&wosid=VR4000V9000GW300Z&revisionCode=ths_nav_p08_reg_reminder_txt
This is a simple, easy thing to do; you get emails every weekday and help contribute food to the needy. It takes a maximum of 30 seconds each morning to do.

Please note that we are not requiring people to purchase from advertisers! Our main goal is to get people to donate food; if you have an item in your household that you would rather donate instead of purchasing more food, please donate that!

Where:
Your local food pantry or food shelf. There are two quick, easy ways to find out where exactly this is:

1) http://www.worldhungeryear.org/nhc_data/nhc_01.asp - this website will bring you to a searchable
database of places across the US. It’s not complete though, and for smaller towns it might be a better idea to try option 2.

2) Look in the community pages of your local phone book. There should be a listing for contact information for your local food pantry right there.

When:
For two weeks after episode 4.22 airs; that is, anytime from Sunday, March 23 through Sunday, April 6. Please make sure all receipts are mailed to the PO Box by Sunday, April 13.

Why:
Well, there are all sorts of good reasons why anyone would donate to a food pantry. Because it’s a decent thing to do goes without saying. As to why Scapers are organizing this:

1) Regular charitable events are an excellent way to stay together as a community. The tight-knit Scaper community is going to be our greatest asset after 4.22, and we need to preserve that sense of group cohesion.

2) In purchasing items from advertisers, we are showing our support for companies that have chosen to advertise during Farscape. Advertisers drive television; if we purchase their products, they will take notice, and they will let the Sci-Fi Channel know. This has happened in the past and will happen again if we keep up the pressure.

[Kerlin]

EDIT: Any of the starred products are ESPECIALLY good to buy. Please try to make an extra effort to purchase these items! (Thank you, Sparky, for letting us know!)

EDIT2: Per TKScaper's excellent suggestion, advertisers for pet food/products have been added at the bottom. These are also excellent items to donate.

ConAgra Foods
Hunt's Manwich
Healthy Choice Soup
Orville Redenbacher
Banquet Homestyle Bakes

Lea & Perrins
**Original Worcestershire Sauce

Campbell Soup
**Prego Traditional Pasta Sauce
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Pace Chunky Salsa
Soup at Hand

Unilever
**Ragu Rich and Meaty Pasta Sauce

Kraft Foods
Capri Sun
**A1 Steak Sauce
**Double Delight Oreos (mint and cream)
Post Shredded Wheat
**Maxwell House Coffee
Post Grapenuts
Chips Ahoy Cookie Bars
Honey Bunches of Oats
Jello Instant Pudding
**Planters Nuts

Gillette
**Oral B Toothbrushes
Mach Three Turbo Razors
Gillette Shave Gel
Right Guard Xtreme Sport Power Stripe

Pfizer Consumer Health
Cortizone 10 Plus
Halls Fruit Breezers
Cool Mint Listerine

Proctor & Gamble
Head & Shoulders Shampoo
Pantene Pro V Shampoo/Conditioner
Vicks NyQuil
Zest Soap

Schick
Xtreme 3 Razors

Wyeth
Centrum and Centrum Silver
Robitussin Vitamin C Drops

Alberto Culver
St. Ives Whipped Silk Lotion

General Mills
**Chex Trail Mix
**Honey Nut Chex Mix

Quaker Oatmeal
Quaker Oatmeal

Walgreen's
Walgreen's Pharmacy
* for this advertiser, just purchase the products at the store

Purina
Beggin' Strips
Cat Chow
Kitten Chow

Clorox
Fresh Step Litter

More advertisers will hopefully be added as the 4.22 work is completed!

[Kerlin]

I'd also like to give a big huge thanks to the following people who have been working with me on this and who will hopefully be presenting projects of their own in the coming months:

Twich, Tiriel, ejp, Chaym, cleverfox, Chryse, and uisceboo.

Any questions, post here and they will be answered :).

[akimbo]

Excellent Kerlin. I need a few arns to digest this, but wanted to say: great job! :aok:

[AyuRocks]

Great idea!!

I'll see what I can do.

Ashley

[Kerlin]

And...bump. Glad you like it, akimbo :D

[Chryse]

bump
:)
aileen

[Kerlin]

:bounce:

[Twich]

Big bump for an awesome idea. :) Come on 'Scapers! We know you have the heart...show everybody else!

[Dominar of Action]

Can we make a donation if we don't have time to shop/drop off at the local food pantry?

[Kerlin]

Most of them will take donations, I'm very sure. And there's always the http://www.thehungersite.com option.

We're just trying to get good stuff done :). Shopping from advertisers is the ideal option, but not the necessary one! Perhaps, DoA, you could get some kind of receipt from the food pantry and send that to the PO Box so that we have a record of how much was donated?

[Chryse]

*bump*

Come on scapers, even 1 can of soup will do!

:)
aileen

[Kerlin]

Beat me to it, Chryse :) Thanks!

[buggabboo]

you out do yourself daily, chica.

awesome idea and way to take the bull by the horns and organize it. rock on.

buggs

[ejp]

:bounce:

Bump!

It's been several years since I had much to do with food pantries, but as I recall, lots of donations of this kind seem to dry up in the spring as the weather warms up. People associate cold and hungry, but not spring/new life and hungry.

So do what you can, guys, even if it is just a can of soup! I'm off to the store later this week, for a lunchtime delivery on friday or thereabouts.

And if you have any stories about participating in this drive that you want to share, post them here so I can get them into the press release!

E

[Sparky]

I love this!!!!!
I worked at a homeless shelter for 2 years. I imagine food banks also have the same gaps, since the shelter's food was 100% donated.
Here are a few things from the list that are rarer than hen's teeth and very special when they get them. Not putting down the real food items at all, but
Toothbrushes
A-1 Sauce
Prego
Worcestershire Sauce
Ragu
Oreos
Coffee
Nuts and Trail Mix

are all extreme treats because no one donates them.
With the spaghetti sauces, it is convenience for the working poor, with the A-1 and Worcestershire it is just really good for the kind of foods you can scrape together, Oreos are unheard of. Think about it, these extras are not in the pantry often,but provide a very nice break.

[cleverfox]

Well, this is terrific. I've got my printout of the foodstuffs (I love that word) I need to buy. Have located a place on 114th Street (New York City) by my home base to donate to. Feeling good, feelin' all Scapery!
How can we get more people interested? And maybe we can continue after the two week period? Or am I mad as a hatter?
-CF

[Kerlin]

Well, this is now a news item that everyone loading the front page will see first thing, so I'd say that's about as publicly announced as we can get it :)

Honestly, if people want to continue donating after the two week period I'd love it. The thing is we need *some* sort of end to the campaign so that we can move on to other charity projects...quite a few in the works ;).

[Kerlin]

Sparky - THANK YOU for your help! I will go back and edit my original product post to star products that are especially needed. I love Scapers, they know everything :D

[samati75]

So maybe this is awnsered above, but what, then, do you do with the receipts?

Bump (maybe pin this, too?)

Edit (one microt later): Ok, I see. Oh, look! Post #100!

[TKScaper]

I'm shopping Sat!!!!!!! Were there any advertisers for pet foods? I can't remember. I regularly donate food to my local animal shelters and I feed 5 D'Argo sized dogs everyday. This adds up to some nice size reciepts. And I'm so impressed at organization, and dedication of all who are doing the homework to get these projects off the ground. I know it's time consuming and hard work. THANKS TO ALL WHO ARE COORDINATING THESE EFFORTS.

[Sparky]

Originally posted by cleverfox
How can we get more people interested? And maybe we can continue after the two week period? Or am I mad as a hatter?
-CF
Here is an idea I used successfully for KFC to get more people interested. ASK your Co-workers or neighbors to chip in. We have a non-biz email group [fun]list at work. You can get more donations that way, or talking to a group you belong to (civic, hobby, neighbor assoc.) and OFFERING to do the shopping for them if they give you money. I got a lot of KFC orders by picking up food for people.

[Sweet Dominar],
Can we make a donation if we don't have time to shop/drop off at the local food pantry?
One idea is to see if your food bank picks up donations. Small town pantries do that. Another idea again is to talk to local groups or biz peers and see if they could collect and drop off as a group proj. or there is another individual who wants to. Our boy scouts come around 2 times a year for food bank donations. I could buy stuff now and hand off to them if I can't get out. Maybe you have the same troop.;)
I love all these big Scaper hearts helping others:love2:

One note: with the time mail takes, and a lag in people seeing this, 3 or 4 weeks would allow for a more impressive showing, in case people overseas want to participate. Instead of doing weekly updates, you could just do one at the end so it's not time-consuming and wouldn't interfere with other projects so much?

[Kerlin]

TKScaper, PM'd you and edited my original product list to reflect pet food. Wonderful thought, thank you!!

Sparky, I'm a little confused by what you mean about "weekly updates." I just reread my original post (because sometimes I am just that scatterbrained ;)) but I'm still not sure where you got that from - could you clarify a bit?

[Sparky]

Kerlin, I think I misread this statement about the 2 week period:
The thing is we need *some* sort of end to the campaign so that we can move on to other charity projects...quite a few in the works
I tho't you were saying 2 weeks was the deadline because it took time away from future projects. Then I tho't it took time because of all the tabulating and posting of results, so I tho't if you didn't count them until the end it could go longer than 2 weeks and you could do the other projects.

Don't worry, lots of people can't understand my imaginary logiic including me!

Love that you added pet food! I've always thought of animals as the closest thing on earth to aliens - thinking, feeling, no opposable thumbs, speak another language and misunderstood. And so many are homeless too! They need big Scaper Lovin!!

:lizard:

[cleverfox]

Okay, you guys are rockin'! Just to make sure I'm organized with all these ideas and thoughts:
1. We donate food items to local charities.
2. It's cool if those food items/other are on the list of advertisers as well, to show them their advertising for Farscape is working.
3. We mail the receipt to the PO Box.
4. Someone organizes those receipts as proof of our Scaper Charity Organization, to be publicized as part of our overall grassroots campaign.
5. After about a month, this project will be considered closed.

Okay, if I misunderstood anything, let me know. Or hit me on the head. Either way, I'm buying, I'm dropping, and I'm mailing.

And I'm happily 'Scapering Away!

-cleverfox

[Chaym]

EJP, here's my little bit for the food drive. It wasn't much as I still don't know when I'll start working for the post office and my unemployment runs out at the end of the month. Luckily, it turns out I actually had some of the listed food items :D

My foods were donated to: Middlesex County Food Organization & Outreach Distribution Services (732-729-0880), via: a Food Drive through Ryan Academy, North Brunswick, NJ (it's my son's preschool/kindergarten)

Items donated included:

Items on the list that were donated & cost
Campbell Soup-Cream of Mushroom Soup-$0.98
Kraft-Maxwell House Coffee-$1.49
Kraft-Honey Bunches of Oats-$3.49
Quaker Oatmeal-Quaker Oatmeal-$2.49

Other items were donated that we’re on the list, but were from the manufacturers listed
Con Agra Foods – Hunts tomato sauce - $2.00
General Mills Foods – box of cereal - $2.49

Kerlin, these were all printed up and are being mailed to the P.O.Box.

[Chaym]

Here's some info for those wanting to donate in the central New Jersey area. (Sorry that I didn't have time to do a complete list as BraScape took up a lot of time.)

Who: M.C.F.O.O.D.S. (Middlesex County Food Organization & Outreach Distribution Services)

Contact #: (732-729-0880)

Drop Off Sites - Year Round: Public Libraries located in Dunellen, Edison, Milltown, Monroe, North Brunswick, Plainsboro, South Brunswick, Spotswood, and Woodbridge.

All items will be distributed to needy families in Middlesex County. They specificly ask for: vegetables, stew, meat, soup, tuna fish, fruit, peanut butter, jelly, pasta, cereal, diapers, and baby cereal.

However, I LOVE the other items listed by the person who worked in a food pantry. And I know in our area, coffee is *always* going on sale for under $2.00 a can.

My husband works for the Middlesex County Board of Social Services and can get us info on local women's shelters (I project I hope to start up this spring), men shelters, food pantries, etc.

[Chaym]

bump
:hi:

[akimbo]

Goodness, I had to get to page three to find this.

As soon as I finish the PO Box replies, I'll look at this again. Sorry, I'm feeling a bit swamped the last few days.

[Chryse]

Clicked on the hungersite today.

:)
aileen

[Kerlin]

((((akimbo)))) I know the feeling...was just heading off to bump this thread myself, and all you wonderful Scapers had already done it for me :).

It's almost the weekend, which means grocery shopping - print out the advertiser list, take it with you, and throw a couple extra cans of food in the cart to help feed needy people in your community! Doesn't cost too much, helps out the campaign, AND gets you major warm fuzzies and good karma!

[Chryse]

*bump*
clicked on the hungersite again today. That's all you need to do. :)

:)
aileen

[Kerlin]

:bounce:

[ejp]

I figured I would bump this again since we are heading into the weekend, an ideal time for grocery shopping for all us working scapers.

Pick up a couple of extra cans of soup if you can, or if you can't, click on http://www.thehungersite.com

And please, if you have any interesting, unique, funny, or really just plain ordinary experiences that you would like to share regarding this project, let me know so I can share them in the press release I am working on in between getting swallowed by RL.

EJP

[waltersgirl]

bump

[Chryse]

I clicked on the Hungersite today.
Did you?

:)
aileen

[waltersgirl]

i did this morning. :D