Feeding Broward EMAILADDRESS:{email}|

Battling Hunger

By Marti Forman
This newsletter serves as a swift way to get information out to all of our friends and supporters. We can say "thanks" to many of the volunteers and supporters who offer us so much help while at the same time we can alert you to matters of concern. We are trying to simplify how we communicate with you so you can get the important alerts first and later return to click on and read about all that is going on in our community and see the pictures of our many friends helping us make Broward a better place.

As the tropics heat up, we stand poised for action. In the meantime, we are battling rampant hunger in our cities. Click here to read the 2007 Broward Hunger Survey created by The Million Meals Committee and funded by The Children's Services Council of Broward. This collaborative effort has quantified hunger in Broward and its results have awakened our community to the staggering levels of food insecurity experienced by our children and other vulnerable populations. With this tool in hand, we need your help to combat the increase in hunger experienced by our elderly, low-income families, our disabled citizens and sadly, our children. With your help, we can do better than this.

The Need

We hear you! Many of you have written to us asking The CFP to keep you informed on the latest news regarding hunger, poverty and homelessness.

Broward finally has quantified its hunger with its 2007 Hunger Survey. Households with incomes of $35,000 and less were interviewed. (About 1/3 of Broward residents fall into this income category.) Of those surveyed, about 96% admitted that food insecurity and/or hunger were real stresses in their lives. Click Here to learn more.

It must get tiring to hear about The CFP empty shelves, but as the largest community kitchen and the biggest family food pantry in Broward, it is extremely difficult to keep food on our shelves. Venice of America Letter Carrier's Union 2550 collected nearly 200,000 pounds of food for us in May. What a bounty! This is the most inspirational national collection of food in existence. The brainstorm of a single man and the collaboration of USPS and Campbell Foods, millions of Americans are fed with the food collected on that single day in May.

We are counting the days until Thanksgiving, when food donations will again peak. Please consider helping us through September and October. We've done the best we could do to stretch the Annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive Food, held in May of each year, over as many months as possible. We've run out of time and we've run out of food! Host a food drive at your church, temple, business, civic group, school, etc. With hunger skyrocketing, we need you more than ever! Call 954-792-2EAT to schedule your drive now.

The Hope

Volunteers provide more than 40% of the workforce that runs The Cooperative Feeding Program. We are tracking more than 1900 hours a month in volunteer time. Our volunteers range from "first timers" to those with 17 years of service and from elementary school to those in their 90's. It's hard to imagine such a formidable force moving the food, the clothing, processing the papers, comforting the troubled souls who arrive here daily. We always need more help. Are you in recovery from an addiction? CFP needs people to inspire others to a path of recovery. Do you know how to be a self-starter? The list of chores here is endless, but with hundreds of people awaiting services at any given moment, we need volunteers who can spring into action without a lot of direction. Can you drive around and pick up food? We need weekend drivers to pick up food in the Commercial Blvd./ University Drive area. Click here to see some of our volunteers in action and the wonderful services they are providing.

Call Chris at 954-792-2EAT or e-mail him at Chris@FeedingBroward.org for more information or to volunteer.

Calvary Chapel of Ft. Lauderdale is proving that faith and consistency can turn lives around. From hot dog cook outs to summer festivals, from Sunday Church service to Saturday recovery support groups, Calvary is proving that a core group of devoted people can save lives. When it seemed liked all doors were closed to the chronic homeless, Calvary members have taken on the project of helping our long-term homeless friends experience a loving family and also to have access to a life beyond life on the streets. Calvary Chapel members are living up to the challenge to feed, clothe and love those of the flock who are the "least of our brethren." Click here to see more information and some great photos on "The Refuge", Calvary Chapel's outreach to our community.

Sponsors and Donors: While volunteers maintain our daily operations, our sponsors and donors keep the lights on and doors open. Click here to see a list of this past quarter's sponsors and donors. Want to join them and be in the ranks of such illustrious companies, foundations and individuals as: Jarden Consumer Services, The Batchelor Foundation, Toshiba and BankAtlantic? Click here to find out how!

Ready to dance the night away for a great cause? The Sun-Sentinal and Sun Dream Yacht Charters, Inc. present Paradise Revisited, Changes In Latitude Party. The date is Friday, October 12, 2007, from 6:30 to 10:30 PM. Tickets are $150.00 per person. For full details and to buy tickets on-line go to www.feedingbroward.org/events.asp

Special Projects
No hurricanes need apply! Wouldn't it be great if we could just tell the hurricanes to stay away? Unfortunately wishful thinking won't make it happen. Click here to see how you can prepare for a hurricane and what CFP is doing to help our families be hurricane ready.