The Monthly Morsel

Recap of March 2024

Announcements and Updates:

Volunteer Appreciation Week 2024!

April 22-26 is National Volunteer Appreciation week and we are celebrating you! We hope you can join us for a get-together on Friday after the Rocklin distribution with some food, games, silly activities, and a brief recap and update about the impact of your hard work. There will be some other little surprises sprinkled throughout the week, so sign up for a shift if you haven't already!

Please click here to RSVP for the party so we know how much food to order!

Share Your Volunteer Story!

Our Development staff is looking for volunteers willing to share their volunteer story and how they came to love PFB as part of a fundraising effort to help us keep up with the increased food insecurity we've seen in recent months. If you'd be willing to share your volunteer story with our Development team to help spread the word about PFB, please click here to email Grace for more info. It would entail a brief interview with our Philanthropy Manager in whatever medium you're most comfortable! No photos or videos required :)

Driver Assistants Needed to Help On Retail Routes

Our fabulous fleet of drivers needs some folks to come along on their retail pickup routes to help load and sort the product donated by the stores. Must be able to sit, stand, lift up to 30lbs from the ground, and safely work on and around a loading dock. This opportunity would happen weekly on Mondays or Thursdays from 6-10am.

Please email Jeremy@placerfoodbank.org for more info and to sign up if you're interested!

Kaseberg School Distribution Help Needed!

We need a few more people who are available to help hand out the bags of food we deliver to Kaseberg Elementary in Roseville on the third and fourth Fridays of each month during the school year. It's only a 45-minute shift, from 1:30-2:15pm, and you'd be working with another volunteer to hand the bags to the students on their way home. We currently need help for May's week 4 delivery, and we'll need help again in the fall once school starts again.

Please email Jeremy@placerfoodbank.org for more info and to sign up if you're interested!

March 2024 Recap:

Produce bags packed: 22,909 bags

Meal Kits distributed: 4,580

Total volunteer hours: 2,020 hours

Individual volunteers: 354 people

We had a little mix-up with our data importation process this month (Grace's fault - I'm so sorry!) so we only have the household numbers ready to share with you for March.

We'll include more data in the May Morsel!

Cameron Park:

287 households

Pollock Pines:

237 households

Sheridan:

305 households

Georgetown:

110 households

Foresthill:

242 households

Roseville:

864 households

Placerville:

471 households

Colfax:

137 households

Lincoln:

461 households

Rocklin:

615 households

Volunteer Spotlight:

Lovingly compiled by Jeremy + Heidi

Brian H.

Favorite Food? Prime Rib

Favorite volunteer opportunity at Placer Food Bank? Meal Kit Makers. Putting the boxes together was similar to a job I had in college.

Hobbies? Collecting stamps, camping and spending time with my wife and grandkids.

Fun Facts? Volunteered at a hospice thrift shop and drove for Red Cross Blood Drive in Virginia. Retired from teaching.

Favorite music? Simon and Garfunkel. 60’s music.

How did you hear about the food bank? My friend's daughter used to be a volunteer here before they hired her. (Heidi)

Sally K.

What brought you to PFB? My mother, father and two older sisters devoted time to community service, so it is natural for me to follow in their footsteps. Because of the need to help fight hunger, while living in Colfax I volunteered each week at the Auburn Interfaith Food Closet. After moving to Lincoln my husband and I picked up food donations each week from Starbucks and Raleys for the Lincoln Salt Mine Food Closet.

Why do you like to volunteer here? My daughter is Heidi and her enthusiasm for the goals of this organization and for her work with the people here influenced me to volunteer for the Placer Food Bank.

What is your favorite volunteer activity here? I enjoy working in Produce.

What are your hobbies? My hobbies include gardening, quilting, traveling, camping and attending plays.

What is an interesting fact or two about you? For our camping trips we had a 1968 Westphalia VW camper followed by a 1988 version of the Westphalia van.

What is your favorite book (or two)? My favorite book, read when I was 18, is still LES MISERABLES. A more recent favorite is ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE.

What is your favorite movie (or two)? A favorite Movie is The Way We Were. A favorite television series is the English ' All Creatures Great and Small.'

ACWA-JPIA Service Group

On March 5^th Placer Food Bank had the pleasure of hosting a volunteer group from ACWA JPIA once again. The Association of California Water Agencies Joint Powers Insurance Authority - ACWA JPIA for short - is a partnership of water agencies dedicated to avoiding the high cost of commercial insurance. Formed in 1979, JPIA is not an insurance agency or carrier. It is a risk-sharing pool for property, liability, workers' compensation and employee benefits, which allows for more rate stability, broader coverage and expanded benefits and services than private insurance. The group started their shift by participating in an engaging and thought-provoking educational activity presented by a PFB volunteer, Helen Anderson-Clark. Their group work focused on ways that ordinary folks can play direct roles in addressing issues related to food deserts in our communities. Their discussion was followed by a productive shift of packing meal kits which are boxes of non-perishable food items that go out through our Senior Program and through our Pantry-to-Go (free mobile food distributions).

HPE Service Group

This fun and energetic team from Hewlett Packard Enterprise returned to PFB as they stated they have enjoyed helping and serving the community in the past. They packed meal kits after participating in Helen’s presentation related to the food provided at our mobile food distributions which includes produce, bakery items, and meal kits (boxes of non-perishable food items). According to the group’s organizer, HPE is “the global edge-to-cloud company built to transform your business. By helping everyone connect, protect, analyze, and act on all your data and applications wherever they live, from edge to cloud, you can turn insights into outcomes at the speed required to thrive in today's complex world.” We look forward to their next shift with us!

April Birthdays

Happy birthday to all of our volunteers born this coming month!

Be sure to wish these folks a happy birthday if you see them this month:

Anishka N

Darci B

Cindy B

Linda G

Emily K

Chitra J

Patrice H

Debra B

Becke O

Paige C

Liam O

4/6

4/10

4/11

4/13

4/14

4/15

4/17

David T

Cindy R

Rishitha R

Jay T

Rene A

Kimberly M

Karl A

Jeffrey B

Janet W

Yeshwanth A

4/19

4/20

4/21

4/23

4/24

4/25

4/28

With gratitude and best wishes,

Heidi, Grace, Jeremy, Shatonia, and Johnny

We want to hear from YOU!

Use this link to submit anonymous comments, concerns, feedback, or other thoughts about your volunteer experience at Placer Food Bank!

All feedback helps us keep growing and improving the volunteer program. Thanks!

Submit your feedback here!

Keep in Touch! Follow Placer Food Bank on Facebook and Instagram:

If you ever feel inclined and able to make a financial donation,

click here to view our online donation website.

Please know that the last thing we want is to make volunteers to feel pressured to donate money, because you are already so generous with your time. We so appreciate your gift of time and spirit, so please don't ever worry that it's not enough on its own.