The holiday season can be a magical time that brings people together. Often, celebrations and get-togethers are accompanied by a much-anticipated shared meal. However, for some, the holidays can be difficult, and those holiday meals (as well as others) may be hard to provide for their children.
Children are what make the holidays fun and filled with laughter! But child hunger is a serious year-round issue. Sadly, during the holiday season, there are some unique struggles–the first of which is the focus on collecting and distributing toys. Every adult wants a child to be a child, enjoying games and toys until adulthood takes over. But with inflation on the rise and food insecurity increasing, we propose that in addition to donating toys this year, you also share a part of your holiday table!
Holiday Break
While children are in school, they have access to the USDA National School Lunch Program. This program provides food to over 30 million kids per day that otherwise might go without. During the school year, Food Finders helps families over the weekend with a program called Food 4 Kids, but Holiday breaks mean that those children do not have access to either program. This may mean a decreased food availability or a financial strain on their parents as more food than usual is needed to feed their families.
With holiday movies playing everywhere, families are pressured to provide more food for their children during the holidays. These big Holiday Spreads include classic foods like turkey and ham, both of which have increased in cost since the Pandemic. The emotional impact on children and their parents makes the celebrations experienced by neighbors and friends more disheartening when you cannot afford the traditional meal.
Holiday Food
Although the quantity of food is a concern, quality is also important to ensure children get the nutrients they need to be healthy. Low-quality food can greatly impact tiny stomachs. This can affect energy, focus, and even long-term health.Eating regular, nutritious meals over the holiday break means that kids can return to school in the new year ready to learn.
What Helps During the Holiday Season?
Did you know that most annual giving takes place in December? That means that donations, including food donations, increase around the holiday season. That can help to offset the increase in needs for food insecure families, especially for organizations like Food Finders. We have hundreds of volunteers who come to our warehouse to help us fill bags and boxes with holiday foods and distribute them to our local nonprofit agencies that share these meals with people who need them.
Our #OneMillionMeals campaign makes donating meals easy–during the Holiday Season and throughout the year. Our Food Rescue Operations collect good food and repurpose it with the help of over 400 nonprofit agencies. Donating to this program helps us to meet our one million meal goal each month, especially during December. Every donation can be made directly to the#OneMillionMeals campaign. It will go straight to our local nonprofit partners, who will help seniors, families, kids, the homeless, and veterans all struggling with food insecurity.
Make An Impact: Share Your Holiday Table
Your donations this Holiday Season help to combat hunger, especially during times of the year when children and their families need it the most.
CANstruction is going to be coming to a close soon! There’s still time, today and tomorrow, to head over to the Cove Hotel (200 E Willow St, Long Beach, CA 90806), and check out the three amazing pieces this year’s teams designed and put together. Centered around the theme “Yes She CAN!” the sculptures were made to honor pioneering women of the past and future.
The first sculpture you’re greeted with is made in honor of Amelia Earhart. Her trailblazing contributions to the field of aviation still have massive impacts today. This sculpture recreates the plane she used to perform many of her feats, the Lockheed Vega. The piece reminds the viewer of the many records she broke during her career, and the massive advancement of women in aviation. Tragically lost over the pacific ocean, in her attempt to fly around the world, her career was cut short. Her tremendous achievements are remembered even today, honored in many ways by men and women who she inspired and who look up to her. This team used some unique tools to achieve the amazing final product. A combination of wire and custom circular attachments at the end of cans allowed them to put together long poles of cans, necessary for their final stunning sculpture.
The second sculpture is a re-CANstruction of the Hearst Castle. The castle itself was designed by Julia Morgan, a Civil Engineering graduate of UC Berkeley. In 1919, she was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst to design what would come to be known as the Hearst Castle. This CANstruction pays homage to not only the amazing engineering and design she achieved, but also her long lasting influence and legacy. A women engineer and architect at the turn of the 20th century, who pioneered the way for women in Engineering and Architecture.
The final sculpture you’ll come across looks towards the future. It envisions the first female astronaut on the moon. The sculpture relied on the use of different platforms that allowed the designers to create unique shapes, wider in the middle and narrower down at the bottom. We were told the astronaut herself was particularly difficult to build, needing precise measurements and careful balance. The final completion is a beautiful look into the future, what could be and what we can hope and strive for.
These sculptures will be up through tomorrow at the Cove Hotel. Come down with cans of your own to vote on your favorite creation, and check back at the end of the week to find out if your favorite won. In benefit of food finders, the cans used for the pieces and the cans donated by patrons will all be collected by Food Finders and redistributed to our partner agencies after the 26th.
Not that we want to be doom and gloom, but seriously, making a will is a pretty important part of adulthood. A will is a legal document that sets forth your wishes regarding the distribution of your property and the care of any minor children. No matter what you have, or whether or not you have children, maybe you have pets–they count too, right?
Your wishes are paramount. If no one knows your wishes and you haven’t taken some time to outline them–nothing will be carried out if you die without a will. And just think of those left behind: your heirs, family, siblings, and loved ones may spend additional time, unnecessary money, and tremendous emotional energy to settle your affairs after you’re gone.
We know that no single document will resolve every issue after your death, a will—officially known as a last will and testament—can come close. So we went to some experts to begin the month of August-Make A Will Month-to start you off with some reason why it is essential to have a will. Plus, Free Will offers everyone an opportunity to make a will, for free! So the cost of creating a will cannot be one of the reasons why you don’t make a will this month.
The ten most important reasons to have a will
Written by Freewill.com
1. Save time, money, and stress for your loved ones.
Almost all estates have to go to probate court to start the legal process overseeing the distribution of assets. But when you don’t have a will, the court process — known as intestate administration — can get especially complicated. Without a will, the court has to name an administrator to administer your estate. And this can be time-consuming, expensive, and even contentious for your loved ones.
One of the top reasons to have a will is to streamline this court process. When you have a will, you can choose the person you want to handle your estate, making it easier for your loved ones.
2. Determine who will manage your estate.
As mentioned above, deciding who will handle your estate is a great reason to have a will. When you write a will, you become a “testator” and have the opportunity to nominate an “executor.” This is the person who will be in charge of wrapping up all your affairs.
Being an executor is an important job. Their responsibilities may include everything from closing bank accounts to liquidating assets. So you should choose someone who is capable and who you trust to carry out these activities. If you don’t choose an executor in your will, the court will pick one for you — and it may not be the person you’d want.
3. Decide who gets your assets and property — and who does not.
Most people know that a will lets them decide who will get their property. As the testator, you can name people as beneficiaries for specific assets. You can also name beneficiaries for any property that you don’t list — the “residuary” of your estate. When your executor handles your will, they’ll be in charge of distributing these assets.
You might not be aware that you can also use a will to help ensure that some people don’t receive anything. For example, you might want to prevent an ex-spouse from receiving an inheritance. Or, if one child received your support through school, you might want to make sure a second child gets their fair share, too.
4. Choose who will take care of your minor children.
If you’re a parent, you can use your will to nominate a guardian for your minor children. The surviving parent will usually get sole legal custody if one parent dies. But if both parents pass, this is one of the most important reasons to have a will.
A guardian will be responsible for all your children’s daily needs, including food, housing, health care, education, and clothing. And if you don’t nominate a guardian in your will, a court will have to choose one for you. This could mean that someone you would not have chosen will be raising your kids.
5. Provide a home for your pets.
British shorthair and golden retriever friendly
Owning a pet is a great reason to have a will. With a will, you can make sure that someone takes care of your pet after you die. The law considers pets to be property, so you can’t leave any assets to your pet with your will. But you can name a beneficiary for your pet, leaving them to a trusted friend or family member. You can ask that person to act as a caretaker or guardian for your pet, and even leave them funds to provide for your pet’s care.
6. Leave instructions for your digital assets.
Your digital assets may include online accounts, such as Facebook or email, and digital files or property (photos, videos, domain names, etc). In your will, you can name a digital executor to manage these assets after you pass. You can leave them to specific people, and also include information on how you want them handled (e.g. if you’d like an account closed).
7. Lower the potential for family disputes.
If you have complicated family dynamics, there’s a good reason to have a will. When you die without a will, your family will have to guess at what your final wishes were. And chances are, they won’t always agree. This ambiguity can create friction, and even fights, which sometimes lasts a lifetime. Creating a will solves the problem by eliminating the guesswork.
8. Support your favorite causes and leave a legacy.
Many people want to leave a positive impact on the world after they pass. And a great way to do this is to support the charities or causes you love most. When you write a will, you can preserve your legacy by leaving a part of your estate to a charitable organization.
If you use FreeWill to make your will, this is super simple to do. Our tool allows you to select your favorite causes with just a few clicks.
9. Provide funeral instructions.
You may not want to think about your own funeral. But if you do think about it now, and leave instructions with your will, you can lessen the burden on your loved ones after you pass. While these instructions aren’t legally binding, they can give your executors and loved ones some guidance on your wishes.
When you include instructions, you can name a funeral executor to manage the process, give suggestions for the service and location, make requests for your final resting place, and more.
10. It’s easy to make a will and gain peace of mind.
Some folks put off creating or updating their will because they assume their loved ones will automatically get an inheritance. But this isn’t always true. Probate can be a long and expensive process for your heirs. Plus, a will only addresses your current circumstances. You should update it over time as your needs and the people in your life change.
When you create or update your will, you can look after your loved ones and give them an easy map to follow after you pass. This gives many people peace of mind, making it one of the most important reasons to have a will.
And it’s easier than ever to make a will. Unless you have a large or particularly complex estate, contentious family dynamics, or feel like you need expert advice from an attorney, you can prepare your will without a lawyer. With FreeWill, for example, you can create your own will for free, using our simple, online self-help tools.
Let’s Gear Up for “Summer To End Hunger” Food Donation Event
Springtime is the best season to think about cleaning out cabinets and drawers and we want to help you make room for summer with some ideas to feel better and make an impact!
Your Kitchen Cupboards Called to Say: “Help!”
Overstocked with Pandemic shutdown “hoarding,” our cupboards may be filled with too much food. Check the labels and start putting food items in a box that are not going to get used. Donating overstocked non-perishable foods are a wonderful way to organize and make an impact in your community.
Food Drives Help To Feed People With The Most Need
So much of our foods get thrown away when they can be donated and redistributed through organizations like Food Finders. See our Food List below
When You Donate Food To Avoid Food Waste and Help The Environment
Food banks are especially important in the food distribution process. They work with their local communities to ensure that everyone has access to healthful foods. They solicit, receive, store, and distribute fresh produce (when available) and pantry staples (like the foods we are listing below).
Food Banks and Pantries help people get connected to other essential benefits and serve as community hubs for volunteers who are serving their local communities.
How To Host A Food Drive
Any business, community center, Library, retailer, or city location can host a food drive. Food Finders will provide a storage bin, signage, and donation food lists. Food Finders will also arrange to pick up all the collected food items from you!
Plastic jars of unsweetened applesauce serve as a great quick snack with just enough fiber and vitamin C. Applesauce is also a smart choice because it preserves well on food bank shelves.
2. Canned Beans
Full of protein and fiber, canned beans offer a superb and nourishing way to fill an empty tummy. Try to look for low-sodium variations whenever available.
3. Canned Chicken
While canned chicken may seem like a simple choice, it is high in protein content and can be a perfect item for those on the go. Additionally, its versatility makes it a popular item at food banks.Try adding this non-perishable item into soups, casseroles, sandwiches, or crackers!
4. Canned Meat (SPAM and Ham)
Do you have some extra SPAM or canned ham? If so, make sure to drop it off at your local food donation site. It’s shelf-stable, does not require much preparation or equipment to eat, and provides a quick source of protein that keeps individuals feeling full for longer periods of time.
5. Canned Fish (Tuna and Salmon)
Canned fish has various vitamins, especially omega-3 fatty acids and protein. Many food banks are in need of canned tuna and salmon because it makes for such a convenient and easy meal.
6. Canned Vegetables
Residents in need are continuously requesting lively, nutrient-dense, and fiber-rich vegetables. Make sure to grab low-sodium options. Canned variations also last the longest on a food bank’s shelves. Food banks frequently hand out recipes that utilize the items they have in stock.
7. Crackers
Are an ideal snack or can be used as a base for canned proteins. They are also shelf-stable and portable, making them perfect for snacks and lunches. Whole-grain crackers are the best bet.
8. Cooking Oils (Olive and Canola)
Food banks heavily depend on these essential and costlier items to be donated. Canola and olive oils are the preeminent choices because of their monounsaturated fats and minor flavor.
9. Dried Herbs and Spices
It is hard to cook a flavorsome meal without herbs and spices. So, drop a few in your shopping cart to donate! We suggest sticking to the fundamentals: oregano, basil, salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and cinnamon.
10. Fruit (Canned or Dried)
Fruit, whether dried, canned or in plastic cups can make superb snacks for young children and adults. Select those that are packaged in water or fruit juice instead of sugary syrups.
11. Nuts
With a handful of nuts, they deliver protein and nutrients instantaneously, which has made them perfect for snacks and lunches. Food banks have a difficult time obtaining them due to their higher price, so they heavily rely on donations. Go for unsalted varieties when possible.
12. Granola Bars
Food banks are continuously in need of fast and easy items that families can throw into lunches or eat on the go. Granola bars are the answer. Try to look for the ones that have fewer grams of sugar, made with oats, or other whole grains.
13. Instant Mashed Potatoes
Instant potatoes last a very long time and require minimal cooking tools and ingredients. They are also a beloved staple item in every age group, making an item that goes quickly off Food Banks’ shelves.
14. Grocery Meals in a Box
An entire meal that’s shelf-stable and in one package is the best way to nourish a hungry tummy. It is very popular with those who do not have a stocked kitchen or tools needed to prepare a meal. The best options are pasta, rice, and soup kits (particularly those that are lower in sodium and higher in fiber and protein).
15. Pasta
In Food banks, pasta is a staple item since it can be easily turned into a meal. Opt for whole-grain selections that offer more fiber and nutrition compared to white pasta.
16. Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is a high source of protein that can be eaten alone or combined with other food items. Since both children and adults like it, peanut butter is easily one of the most desired items at food banks.
17. Rice
This popular item is filling, versatile, easy to prepare, and store. Consider substituting white rice for brown rice instead because it is a healthier option with much more fiber to offer. Quinoa is another great alternative item to donate if feasible.
18. Shelf-stable and Powdered Milk
The best part of this item is that no refrigeration is required to keep it fresh, which makes it available to everyone. More importantly, milk delivers a much-needed source of calcium and protein (especially for a developing child).
19. Whole Grain Cereal
This is another popular item with all age groups. Whole-grain cereal makes for a healthy and quick breakfast or snack. Some selections are low in sugar and high in fiber that helps provide nutrients to good digestive bacteria, which then release substances that help lower levels of inflammation body-wide.
20. Honey
This is a sweet, viscous food substance that can be used as a natural sweetener. It is rich in antioxidants and propolis, which each promote burn and wound healing. It can also be used to help suppress coughing in children.
21. Soup, Stew, and Chili
These substances act as a warm and satisfying lunch or dinner. You can find these items in canned or packaged form and they are often sold as a complete meal with protein (meat) and veggies. If possible, attempt to find reduced-sodium alternatives.
What to skip when donating to your local food bank:
Junk food (chips, cookies, candy)
Packaged items with glass or cellophane (these can be easily broken in transit)
Items that require can openers or cooking equipment
Instead, try to donate pop-top cans–whether for veggies, meat or fruit
On April 1st, to kick off the month, we launched our annual Birthday Campaign to help grow our food rescue operations. When you think about all that has happened over 33 years—one woman starting to collect food in her garage to now where we are rescuing food with refrigerated trucks then sorting and packing donated food in a square food warehouse—we are certain to meet all of our goals and make an impact on reducing food waste and hunger here in Southern California!
Growth in our 33rd year is a priority. Now more than ever we are working together to make a strong social impact that will affect future generations to come!
Growing Our Food Operations
As you may know, our mission here at Food Finders is to eliminate hunger and food waste through food rescue. This operation is led by our wonderful team of passionate and dedicated volunteers, donors, partner agencies, community members–and of course, an incredible group at our office and warehouse in Los Alamitos. This month we will be highlighting a different aspect of our operations each week and spotlighting key team members who run the operation.
What is the overall goal?
Our goal is to raise $75,000 towards our food rescue operations. While I know this may seem like a large amount of money, it is going to a good cause. In 2021, for example, we had a goal to raise $50,000 and our grand total was $62,454–a huge success that allowed us to rescue 15, 917, 982 Pounds of Food!!
2022 Business Types for food donations
Our focus for this year is on our operations.
In 2022, the State of California SB- 1383 went into effect. SB 1383’s statute requires businesses in certain categories to begin the repurposing of not less than 20% of edible food that they currently dispose of be recovered for human consumption.
We have a new Food Acquisitions Team to meet the demand: Tray Turner and Mark Eden, who are out meeting with our current Food Donors while also updating our processes and adding in new businesses each day.
In the month of January, our Food Acquisitions department started off with some amazing numbers:
Food Finders Rescued – 1,238,000 Pounds of Food – that is over 1 Million Meals that were delivered by our non-profit partners in January 2022. And in addition to rescuing and repurposing food (that normally would have ended up in a landfill), we also helped planet Earth –672,410 Pounds of CO2 diverted as well as 564,675,000 Gallons of water saved!
Inside the Food Finders Warehouse
Warehouse Sorting Bins
The Food Finders Warehouse is a busy place. On any given day, there will be volunteers sorting and packing bags or boxes while trucks are pulling up in the back to deliver pallets of food. Without our invaluable warehouse team, though, we would not be able to rescue as much food as we have in the past 33 years that Food Finders has been operating.
Cesar Herrera, our Warehouse Manager, runs the show where he is constantly moving and shifting around staple food items to our food programs. These items significantly increase depending on the time of day, week or year. Last week, we had Fox News Channel 11 visit us to talk about our work and relationship with the Kaiser Permanente Food Donors.
With your birthday donations last year, we were able to continue to grow as COVID was winding down, and this year we are on track to grow our team, update and purchase more food delivery trucks, and rescue more food as the demand from businesses rises in 2022.
In the digital age it is so easy to support and advocate for Food Finders.
The largest Social Media Network, Facebook, has a great personal fundraising tool that gives each one of us the power to make change by enlisting our family and friends in the fight against hunger, food waste and the resulting global problems from both.
Start A Personal Fundraiser
Facebook Fundraising
If you invited 10 friends to donate $10 to your “Fight Hunger” fundraiser, you would be providing 11,000 meals to help fight food insecurity in your community.
Visit this link for step by step instructions on how to set up a birthday fundraiser on Facebook.
Mobile Fundraising
For those of you who do not have a Facebook page, use your Mobile Phone!
Here is a link to the Food Finders Crowdfunding Page. The process is the same–set up your personal page and ask 10 friends to make a $10 (or more) donation to help us continue to rescue food and help to feed the communities in our neighborhood.
Celebrate Our 33 Years
Stay tuned during the entire month of April to learn about each part of our Food Rescue Operations. Start your fundraiser, or reach out to us to volunteer! Everything we do makes an impact.
Nicole Swayne is a Digital Marketing Intern at Food Finders. She is a student at Cal State Long Beach.
According to the Girl Scouts: When a troop goes for the Bronze Award, they are representing what Girl Scouts can achieve in their communities. And it’s not just earning a patch and its done!
Earning the Girl Scout Bronze Award involves planning, commitment and the time to complete an Impact Journey in their community. They must build a team; explore their community; choose a project that will have a longer term impact; plan what to do; put that plan into motion; and then spread the word about what they are doing!
They will be out in the community talking about their program, progress and the impact of their volunteering long into the future.
Troop 2863 from Long Beach has chosen Food Finder’s Food 4 Kids Program as their Bronze Award project. Prior to COVID, the Food 4 Kids Program was delivering 385 bags of food every week to 15 Title 1 Long Beach Elementary Schools. In many cases, these bags of food provided families with their only weekend food option.
Starting the Food 4 Kids program back up is exciting for Food Finders because the program was halted during COVID. With the Girl Scouts here to help pack the bags of food, and then deliver them to the schools we are able to get the Food 4 Kids bags out of the warehouse and into the hands of families faster. Groups like the Girl Scouts can help us to fill the need for volunteers needed in the early afternoon hours. Many volunteers can only come early in the morning or late in the day but these bags of food need to be delivered just before school lets out on Friday–just in time for school kids heading home for the weekend.
What Is A Title 1 School?
According to the Department of Education a Title 1 School is: a school in which children from low-income families make up at least 40 percent of enrollment and are eligible to use Title I funds to operate schoolwide programs that serve all children in the school in order to raise the achievement of the lowest-achieving students. For the city of Long Beach, Title 1 students are about 85% of enrollment!
Providing meals for the weekend is critical to the learning of children when they return to class on Monday. One of the site directors at Lincoln Elementary told us: “We noticed that bringing this partnership to our site brought our families closer to the program. It created a better school climate where families felt cared for and considered outside their child’s academics. Families’ well-being and needs became attended to and the responses (to picking up the bags) showed great need.”
Hunger Impacts Learning
The consequences of going hungry on a child are long term. We already know that hunger curbs a child’s physical development but did you know that it also inhibits their ability to focus and perform in class? If children cannot learn how can they have any hope of lifting themselves out of poverty?
The Food 4 Kids Program is an opportunity for all of us to give a child a helping hand somewhere in the future. This is the key to the Bronze Award program Troop 2863 is working on right now. If they can pack and sort, and then deliver food to kids in their own community, then those kids have a better chance of learning more in school. If they learn more their opportunities in life are increased. Everyone benefits!
“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” (Sally Koch)
As Girl Scouts, these girls in Troop 2863 know that they will earn this Bronze award with courage, confidence, and character because this work to help kids in food-insecure communities is a small act of kindness that will make a big difference in the world they are growing up into!
A donor of ours recently shared that he loves supporting Food Finders, which he started doing through his company giving campaign, then began volunteering as a food rescuer where he sees the program benefits firsthand. “It’s like I’m helping 3 organizations at once–Food Finders, the recipient, and the food donor.” It’s a wonderful testament on how to have a huge impact with a single focus.
We call it the Trifecta of Giving.
Food Finders’ mission is two-fold, which is to help reduce hunger and help the environment by rescuing food and reducing food waste. We tend to emphasize the former more than the latter in our messages and outcomes, but let’s look at some real and impactful numbers overall.
Food Finders provides an average of 30,000 meals worth of food…DAILY! Hard to imagine, but given that millions of pounds of fresh produce, dairy products, meats, prepared foods, baked goods, and nonperishables are donated annually, it adds up quickly, and the more donors realize we’re a resource, the more it adds up. Your donation, be it money or food or volunteer time, helps us run a well-oiled nonprofit and ensure we connect all the dots—or food–efficiently. So, you’re already a part of a bigger picture just by helping Food Finders.
Which leads us to the second arm of the trifecta — our partner agencies. Right now, we serve more than 550 nonprofit partners that are spread across four Southern California counties. That’s a huge reach. This includes large missions that feed hundreds of people daily down to small recovery homes that feed roughly a dozen people. When volunteers come and pack a few dozen food boxes or rescue a hundred pounds of fresh food, dozens of people in need can eat as a result, all in exchange for an hour or two of time. It also means those agencies providing the food directly can save some of their hard-earned funding to use on other services or spread their dollar farther. How rewarding is that?
When it comes to helping our more than 700 food donors, we’re more in demand now than ever. Many businesses are having to reduce their organic waste by 75%, per new state mandates. Restaurants, grocers, food distribution centers, and even a corporate kitchens, schools and hospitals must ensure that excess food is diverted, meaning composted, converted to animal feed, or our favorite, donated to feed people, because starting January, fines will be enforced. Many businesses are already a step-ahead and have been donating food overages for years. Saving money for our food donors so they can do the right thing is a no-brainer, and the third arm of our trifecta.
Sounds like a win-win-win so far!
But, wait, there’s more. Our environment appreciates your support as well. Imagine what it means when 16 million pounds of wholesome food is diverted from landfills? Thankfully, someone already calculated for us. It means 8.6 million pounds of Co2e are eliminated. It also equates to 7,296,000,000 (that’s not a typo) gallons of water saved. Food takes a lot of water to grow, plus labor and transportation to get it to market. You’re essentially helping our planet when you support Food Finders.
One final bonus—supporting our organization, you are helping YOU. Sharing a kindness keeps us well mentally and all around.
So, on behalf of everyone we serve, thank you for choosing to support Food Finders. Be well.
If you would like to make an impact on reducing food waste and hunger help us grow our food rescue operations: Donate
We’re approaching the time of year so many people see as the break in a long string of busy months and repeated tasks that constitute everyday life. The holidays—no matter your practice, beliefs, or customs, are a time to celebrate and convene with family and friends, if only for a day or two.
At places like Food Finders, it’s the busiest time of year, with food distributions often doubling and partners asking for specialty items or hoping for extra food like turkeys and other traditional fare to give to individuals and families who, like everyone else, look forward to a special meal they can share with those they love.
Beyond food, we know we’re providing things like hope, security, stability, and even joy. What do you think of when you think of holidays? Do you have a favorite food you look forward to eating in front of the fireplace? You might host a potluck at work or bake for friends? Maybe you visit family that you live away from or take a special trip that holds meaning for just that time of year.
Like, remember the time you made your first turkey and how great it turned out? How your grandpa told the best jokes whenever he drank a little eggnog? Or what about the time you had tacos instead of a traditional meal and it was the best holiday dinner you’d ever had because of who you shared it with?
We know that food is the gateway to so many holiday highlights, albeit a huge part, and can mean the difference between a wonderful experience and a woeful one. Which is why we make the extra effort to plan, produce and provide so much during this time of year. Being a resource that can make the difference between a forgettable and a memorable holiday is extra meaningful, and hearing stories of gratitude make it that much more rewarding.
We hope you’ll play a part in this year’s holiday season that involves giving back, whether it’s food or something equally important. To learn more about what Food Finders is doing, see our events page.
If you would like to make an impact on reducing food waste and hunger help us grow our food rescue operations: Donate
Food Finders is a nonprofit 501c3 food rescue organization with a mission to rescue food, reduce hunger, and improve nutrition in the communities we serve.
Tax ID# 33-0412749
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