What You Can Do - Community Service Projects

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Lacey Township Food Bank

"Sympathy sees and says 'I'm sorry.'
Compassion sees and says 'I'll help.'
When we learn the difference,
We can make a difference."

Author Unknown

 

Not everyone wants to get involved in the same way. This page offers suggestions on how you might participate.
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HELP WANTED
We're looking for a few folks, who would like to work on a weekday from 10:00 am till noon, manning the Food Bank. We currently have some dedicated folks already in that position that can use some help. With the scope of the new building layout looming, and possibly two distributions a month, we'd like to increase some of our storekeepers staff.

The job is fairly easy  - sorting foods, checking for expired dates, packing and storing foods, answering phone, food distributions and possible deliveries.

The only pay we offer is free training, fellowship, enhancing your passion for helping  550 +  clients, (almost half  of them children) , and a good feeling of a job well done.

Let me know if you're able and interested, or know of anyone that is. again, thanks for all you do,

 Pete, Head of Volunteers 

 
Call me  at the Food Bank -  609-242-2848   & leave your name and phone and I'll get right back to you.

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FOOD BANK NEEDS A PART TIME PHOTOGRAPHER
When & where? Over the course of a year, we need someone to take pictures of our activities  - think Xmas Parade, Apple Festival, Lacey Day, along with  Thanksgiving and Xmas distribution which usually fall on the 3rd Friday of the month. Teen Corp activities, groups presenting food, special events for the food bank kids - book, back to school, Haloween costume  and holiday presents days.  Let your fingers do the walking through the newsletters from the past and you'll get the idea. Give Pete a call at 242-2848 and offer your services.

PLEASE NOTE: WE WELCOME ANY AND ALL PROJECTS SUGGESTED BY GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS BUT ASK THAT YOU NOTIFY US BEFORE YOU START AND LET US KNOW ABOUT YOUR PROJECT TO SEE IF IT FITS WITHIN OUR GUIDELINES. CALL THE FOODBANK AT 609-242-2848 AND ASK TO SPEAK TO CO- CHAIRMAN PETE OR CO-CHAIRMAN  ED  TO SCHEDULE THE EVENT.

HOW CREATIVE WAS THIS?

The Employees, Residents and Families of TallWoods Care Center in Bayville, under the direction of Ms. Lee Borghesi and her staff,  once again filled a truck with donations of gifts and toys for the Lacey Food Bank Kids and they topped it off with a barrel of food to help restock our pantry shelves.  In the weeks leading up to Christmas, employees and visitors could donate a pair of warm new socks and get a Lollipop or put their name on a cut-out boot that would adorn the nurses stations and hallways; the $1.00 donation going toward the purchase of snowboots for our Food Bank Kids.  There was even a "Wear Your PJ to Work Day"
How's that for a creative and innovative approach to gifting? Thank You TallWoods for being a true Friend of the Lacey Food Bank! 
 
Now aren't you  inspired to do the same?

 

TEEN VOLUNTEER APPLICATION

 

YOUTH GROUPS & SERVICE PROJECTS

For youths looking to complete service project hours, any of the following could be organized and carried out individually or by signing up volunteers to do the work with you. 
 
We will sign off on any service requirements that have involved the student in more than just sorting food for a few hours on a weekend morning. (which requires  an adult volunteer to come in to supervise you) If you look through the newsletter you will see all the projects that have involved student volunteer work.

Call Co-Chairman Pete Peters  to sign up as a volunteer and  and make an effort to become sincerely engaged. as they are. Then we will be happy to sign off on your efforts or to provide you with a letter for  you college entrance resume. 
 
The food bank needs funds and food. For the former we suggest any typical fund raising event from car washes and bake sales to piggy bank penny collections.

Organize a food walk targeting one food item to be pledged per mile. One problem we have is collecting enough of one item to give to each client because it takes over 200 of an item to do this. We always need cereal, tuna or jelly.

Build a pyramid of one type of food, and challenge other classes or groups to beat them.(The Great Peanut Butter Pyramid Challenge?) The picture opportunities for this would be very effective. SuperBowl time ties in with a "souper bowl" collection project as done by the Ocean Acres Elementary School this past month.
 
Get permission to hold a schoolwide competition with the winning classroom given a pizza party as the prize. (Foodbank to supply all pizzas)
 
For sheer fun, sell lengths of masking tape to "nail" a favorite teacher to a wall. The Lacey H.S. cheerleaders run the popular Mr. Touchdown contest, campaigning for their chosen player by selling $1.00 votes. This fun project has raised nearly thousands of dollars for the food bank over the last several years.

In February, the volunteers provided candy kisses as a treat for the clients as they signed in. They also decorated with red valentine hearts. This created a little festivity for an otherwise drab day. This could become a class or troop project with the children adopting a month or holiday, decorating and providing an appropriately decorated cookie, cupcake, or greeting card.

 Nothing is more festive than the hundreds of cookie trays Girl Scout Troops bake and bring to the Christmas distribution in December. 

Another cookie project could be holiday cookies - 240 Valentine cookies , Shamrocks, Easter motifs, Halloween. A sweet treat for each client as they colledt their food.

If you are artistic, we need some artwork done - a banner, poster of welcome at the food bank, a mural to brighten our new space?

Perhaps your school would like to sponsor a poster contest and ask the library to display the entries from the children. This could be done at all grade levels. The focus of the posters should be on food, shopper donations at ShopRite,  & sharing and caring. We can give ribbons out to the winners in each grade category.The value in promoting public awareness of the plight of the hungry would be significant.

In addition to the above suggestions, advisors might want to look at the ideas offered to clubs and organizations.

We ask that public contact with recipients be limited. Many of them are elderly and proud, not accustomed to accepting charity and public scrutiny would mortify them. Parents of needy children don't want them to be embarrassed in front of their school mates. Also, physical space is very limited.

We can and will schedule "giftings" to the food bank and take pictures for distribution to the newspapers. We will also publish them on our website newsletter.

Feel free to call the the food bank at 242-2848 and leave a message so someone can work with you on your project.

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" In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make "

Abby Road, the Beetles

INDIVIDUALS

We are looking forward to working with you on any level. There are so many possibilities, depending on how much tiime you can give - as you can see below, even once a month can help us .

Are you a take charge organized person? We participate in  several public events during the year that could use a coordinator  along with  helpers  needed to staff the food bank table at public information days . Storekeepers are needed from Monday to Friday from 10 :00 - noon - a good role for someone who can commit to weekly schedules. You could deliver food to those who cannot attend distribution day , canvas local businesses to find more sponsors or solicit gifts for the clients Xmas drawing in December (gift certificates for pizzas, lunches, bakery goods etc.)

"Guy" volunteers are always needed to collect food once a week  from the lobby pull out drawere  at ShopRite, and to help move the food each month on the third Thursday.  And if you are in good sound health are hearty and able to do more, sign up to help  the food bank clients doing small fix- it jobs, raking , mowing and shoveling for the elderly and handicapped clients.

The pay is lousy ( okay, non-existent) but the rewards are high. And you get the chance to rub elbows with the elite of Lacey Township, that great bunch of food bank volunteers who welcome all with open arms.

Just call the foodbank at 609-242-2848 and leave a message. We'll get back to you to  discuss your volunteer potential  Or e-mail us at LFB@laceyfoodbank.ORG  or    hpeters@laceyfoodbank.ORG

LACEYFOODBANK@AOL.COM

STILL NOT CONVINCED? AS AN INCENTIVE WE OFFER YOU .....

VOLUNTEERS GET THEIR OWN
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SANTA HAT!

IMPORTANT NOTICE
"Every year about this time, a solicitation comes from the Monmouth Ocean Food Bank, directed at our schools and youth organizations. First, we would like to say that Monmouth Ocean Food Bank is the "mother" food bank for food pantry & soup kitchens in  both counties and we value our alliance with them. The Lacey Food Bank benefits from this association by being able to buy pantry food at a reduced cost, and to receive free USDA food that is distributed to us utilizing MOFB as a clearing house.
 
That said, what most people in Lacey do not realize is that when you hold a food drive for them here in Lacey,  the food is sent all the way up  to Monmouth County. When we  receive the  monthly list of available foods , we  order &  BUY the food from them at a (sometimes) slightly lower cost than from the supermarket.
 
Then Monmouth Ocean turns around and delivers it back down to Lacey to us. This hardly makes sense, and forces us to purchase the same food that you could have given to us directly.  
 
Food drives  held within our Lacey community are critically important to us in meeting our commitment to those who need food.
 
I would ask you to consider this when making your decisions to donate to out of town food drives.  Please consider  "doing your little bit of good" right here in Lacey Township.  Use the bins at Shop Rite or drop your donation off at the Lacey Food Bank, Monday to Friday from 10 am-Noon.  Those hours not convenient?  Give us a call, we'll work something out.   The volunteers and the clients of the Lacey Food Bank would really appreciate it.   - Laura Caroccia
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DROP IN & SAY HELLO

Clubs & Organizations

#1. Gift an annual pledge of $250 to support one client.This enables us to buy a year's worth of food coupons from ShopRite and supplemental food not generally given in quantity during food drives.

#2. Assemble a special one time gift for our clients. Fruit baskets at the holidays comes to mind.Or canned hams at Christmas and Easter. But it could be anything that we can not provide because of limitations in storing fresh or frozen food and given at any time of the year.

#3. Organize a coupon " clipping & shopping "club with friends, neighbors or members of your organization- Dick Sansone, the "stores master", has assembled some astounding double\triple coupon examples with a variety of food gotten free or almost free and will be happy to share them with you.

Members of the club also benefit by getting non food coupons for personal use by combining and swapping as well as the sociability factor. The cost is insignificant - what you spend you end up saving! The food bank will benefit from all the addtional food, and you will feel good about yourself at the same time.

#4. Hold a one item campaign - assembling a large amount of one item - cereal, juice, canned meats. Perhaps members could be charged "admission" to meetings for the year or during the period of the campaign. The Lacey Woman's Club collects over a 100 cans of tuna at their monthly meetings. The stores master will be happy to tell you what he needs. Call him at 693-6357.

#5. Run a walkathon, a card party, cake sale or car wash. Any type of fundraiser with the proceeds going to the food bank.

#6. Garden Club? A gift of your fresh produce in growing season, or from an organized group gleaning in nearby farm fields would be a welcome change from canned vegetables for our clients. Select a member of your organization to be a liason with the food bank as a way of keeping in touch with our needs.
#7. Sign up your neighborood or organization to be "Secret Santas" for a food bank family of children. The Food Bank Kids committee will give you a profile of the children , their ages, sizes, needs and wants.

And always, be attuned and sensitive to those who might need help and encourage them to sign up for the program.