Lollipop Lane

As you approach Lollipop Lane in Vacaville every December, the first thing you notice is the sound of holiday music blaring from outdoor speakers, and the blur of lights as you turn onto the street (known January through November as Shady Glen Avenue). Every house is decorated in the lollipop theme, Food Bank donation barrels are placed in front of many of the homes, and there, in front of the McKimmy home is Santa, listening to children’s wishes and letting out a right jolly laugh every now and then.


For the past eight years, Don and Yukiko McKimmy have encouraged visitors to Lollipop Lane to donate food and money to the Food Bank. With help from neighbors and numerous others, Don has made Lollipop Lane and Candy Cane Lane (one street over) a must-see destination each December. Appearing twice during the month are the Fellowship of the Ringers, a local bell ringing group that have volunteered their time for the past six years and perform their repertoire of holiday music for the hundreds of visitors who come by. This year, Lollypop Lane collected over 707 pounds of food!

Trick or Treating for Cans

California High School's Interact Club annually runs a "Trick or Treating for Cans" food drive and donates the food to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. This year, the food drive was completed with the help of three clubs from Cal High: Interact, Key Club, and the National Honor Society. A goal of this food drive was also to cover an even larger area than the previous years in order to obtain more food.

The food drive started out with the bag assembly. With the help of the Food Bank, Cal High was given around 5,000 plain, brown paper bags. The volunteers of the clubs grabbed a couple of staplers and began stapling flyers onto the paper bags. The flyer announced the food drive and what foods were needed. Next week, all the bags were handed around San Ramon and the households were given one week to fill up the bag. After that week was up, the clubs drove around San Ramon, picking up the bags of food. Once all this was done, the Food Bank drove the truck to Cal High and picked up all the food.



The total amount of food collected was 5,216 pounds! Christina, representing Cal High, was recognized on CBS5 (photo above), for the work that she and the three clubs did to help our neighbors in need!

Live Oak Elementary collects 1,869 pounds of food!

The students at Live Oak Elementary in San Ramon hosted a food drive for the Food Bank and the students also competed in a poster contest to help promote the drive!


Ms. Wright’s winning class-257 items total!

Finding room for more food...

Carting things to the loading area...

Michael Yao (below) & Emily Hay (above): Winners of the Live Oak Poster Contest

Thank you to all the Live Oak students for supporting the Food Bank and their neighbors in need!

Free Movies, Free Popcorn, Help End Hunger...

Two movie tickets, two popcorns for $10.50.
Bring a few cans of food for the hungry!

Read more on the Lemon Lady's Blog.

Lose For Good

Weight Watchers in El Cerrito has donated nearly a ton of food this year! Recently, the Food Bank picked up close to one thousand pounds of non-perishable food from Weight Watchers that symbolized the combined weight lost by the staff at the El Cerrito facility since September. As part of the Lose For Good Campaign, not only were staff encouraged to donate the weight they pledged to lose in non-perishable food, but their customers were encouraged to do the same. They will continue to collect food through the end of the year.

Fighting Hunger One Can Decorating Contest at a Time

Today I had the privilege of spending the morning at Muir Orthopaedic Specialists (MOS) in Brentwood and Walnut Creek as the honorary judge of their department decorating contest. Every year the different departments compete by decorating their offices and this year they used the non-perishable food they have been collecting for the Food Bank. It was such a creative and enjoyable way to raise awareness. Take a look at some of the photos below. Look at the details: the trees are made out of cans wrapped in brown paper, the “guys” on the football field are cans and even the tent is food wrapped in paper. MOS will also be collecting food throughout the rest of the year!

Thank you to everyone at MOS for all the hard work you did to collect the food and then use it in a creative way. You are all winners to the Food Bank!

Lisa Sherrill
Community Relations Manager

Ready, Set, Bag!

Join us for the theatrical tour kick off of Ready, Set, Bag! in the SF Bay Area next week:

Tues. Nov. 3rd at 7pm - Rialto Cinemas Elmwood (Berkeley)

Wed. Nov. 4th at 7pm - Rialto Cinemas Elmwood (Berkeley)

Thur. Nov. 5th at 7pm - Rialto Cinemas Cerrito (El Cerrito)

Thurs. Nov. 19th at 7pm - Roxie Theater (San Francisco)

In the Bay Area and across the country, Ready, Set, Bag! is partnering with local food banks to raise awareness, food, and money in this much needed time.

You'll get $1 off the ticket purchase for bringing in 2 or more cans and 50 cents off popcorn. This discount is sponsored by The Mechanics Bank and the Theaters and for each ticket purchased, the Mechanics Bank is also giving $1 to the food bank in that area.

Your purchase will make a difference!

Q&A after the film with the directors and special guests from the film.

Please invite your friends, families and coworkers to join you at the screenings.

Trailer at: www.readysetbag.com
Become a fan of our new facebook fan page: http://tinyurl.com/readysetbag
Find your local food bank at bayareahunger.org

Eat Cheesecake, Fight Hunger

The Cheesecake Factory announced that over 320,000 cans of soup were collected across all Cheesecake Factory locations nationwide during the month of September. This surpassed the original goal of 100,000 cans.

On September 30, The Cheesecake Factory held its “You Dine, We’ll Donate” event across all locations. For every guest who dined at a Cheesecake Factory on that day and donated 2 cans of soup, 10% of their guest bill was donated to local food banks. Our local Cheesecake Factory collected 187 pounds of food.



Continuing through July 2010, for every slice of The Cheesecake Factory’s Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake sold, $0.25 will be donated to Feeding America. Having tried a slice (or two) myself, I highly recommend you visit your local Cheesecake Factory and enjoy Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake!

Defend Against Hunger

The Miromonte High School Football team is hosting a food drive and your team could be too! Contact Joan Tomasini at (800) 870-FOOD extension 208 or jtomasini@foodbankccs.org.

Saturday Food Drives + LDS Church Volunteers = Lots of Food!

In April, our future Eagle Scout, Tanner Kirk, surpassed his goal of 20,000 pounds of food by bringing in 20,027 pounds here to the Food Bank. Some of the food came in over a two week period, but in a single Saturday, we picked up 17,130 pounds of food. This food drive was connected to the three Mormon churches in San Ramon, Danville and Alamo. Volunteers put bags out at the houses on a Wednesday and volunteers picked up the food the following Saturday and brought the food to our truck at the Danville Mormon Church. Needless to say, we needed a larger truck so many of the families loaded up their cars and followed us to the Food Bank. We had 24 totes of food which we had to weigh and bring in the warehouse. Thank you to Tanner for bringing in so much food!

And a huge THANKS to the 100+ volunteers from the church who cleaned the racks, sorted food, cleaned breakrooms, baled cardboard, washed windows, and so much more.

Orinda in Action brought in 515 pounds in their 1st year on this same Saturday in April. The mayor was pleased and will include this in their next year’s Earth Day/Community Day projects. She is determined to collect a lot more food in the future years.

Thank you to those involved for making this a fantastic day and YAHOO for all the food!

Stamp Out Hunger this Saturday

Help the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger by placing nonperishable food items by your mailbox prior to your regular mail delivery on Saturday, May 9.

How to Participate:
1) On May 9th, simply place bags filled with nonperishable food items next to your mailbox. See our list of most-needed foods for suggestions.
2) Your letter carrier will pick your food donations up and the food will be delivered to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.
3) It’s that easy!

Learn more by reading stories from the frontlines: Letter Carriers who serve Contra Costa and Solano Counties.

Plant a Row for the Hungry

Join the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune, and the Contra Costa Master Gardeners in their project "Our Garden". The goal of "Our Garden" is to teach others how to grow vegetables in your own gardens, using environmentally responsible methods (from the Oakland Tribune website). They will be donating produce grown in the garden to the Food Bank and you can too! To learn more about Plant a Row, visit our website.

Realtors Give Back

Mike Handlin, newly elected President of Contra Costa Realtors In Motion, presented two checks on February 24 at their weekly meeting.

Lisa Sherrill, Community Relations Manager, from the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano received a check for $600.00. Margalit Ir, the groups treasurer, is a lender with Bank of America. B of A will match the donation turning it into $1200!!

Mary Perez, founder and director of Christmas for Everyone received a check for $500. Her organization receives food from the Food Bank.

Coming Soon!!! Save the Date!!!!
Fill the Food Bank shelves before Easter with Contra Costa Realtors in Motion Spring Harvest Campaign.

Donate non-perishable food so no one goes hungry while enjoying live music from High Cotton, tasty appetizers from WOW Gatherings and networking with friends on March 25, 2009 5:30 - 7:30 pm at California Custom Carpets, 6815 Dublin Boulevard in Dublin.

For more information please contact: Chairwoman Cathy Lee, secretary Contra Costa Realtors in Motion and owner of C.L. Design Services Home Staging at 925-351-6118 or Chairman Jim Walberg, Keller Williams Danville at 925-260-8800.

Souper School

Kings Valley Christian School collected 1,368 pounds of soup for their 100th day of school food drive!

County Connection picked up the boxes of food from the school and delivered it to the Food Bank.