If anyone is interested in helping out. We are once again trying to do a mass food drive in Sept. Please see Sir Goldcrest's post from E-Sam below.
Due to the resounding success of last year's Amtgard-wide Food Fight, the Kingdoms are rallying again this year.
If you are unfamiliar with the event;
The Kingdoms pull together and put out Kingdom-wide calls for their lands to support the local food bank/pantry all on the same weekend. September 18-19th is the weekend thats been established for 2010.
The idea is to focus support across all of Amtgard to show just how much impact we can have when we all work together towards one goal.
Now as for specifics, there are very few.
- As I said before, the designated weekend for 2010 is 18-19 September.
- Each Kingdom's Circle of Knights have a POC to work with their Kingdom and individual lands to assist in planning events.
- Once the weekend is completed, the CoK reps will post their results so that we can gather some final metrics and announce them to everyone that participated, so that we can see just how great an impact we were able to make.
- All proceeds/donations are for the local food bank/pantries.
- The type/running of each event is up to each land hosting it.
- Keep in mind, we’d like to encourage groups to support their local agencies not only through donations but by volunteering and educating members and the local community as well.
Some ideas:
- Dollar/Can Food Tournaments
- Can Food Drive/Collections
- Sell sodas/snacks and donate profits (this is particularly good if you have something already planned that weekend)
- Last Years most successful event (dollars raised) was hosted by Traitor's Gate (CK) when they held a special battlegame. You paid $1 to tweak a rule.
More specifics:
Just like last year, September was selected because it falls in a bit of a dead zone for food banks. They spend the summer supplying free lunches to children usually supported through free/reduced school meals.
Also, people often associate food bank drives with the holidays. Obviously, this puts them a bit behind the power curve. Any support we can do in advance helps them be better prepared for the winter months/holidays.
http://feedingamerica.org is the new website for the nations leading domestic hunger relief charity. They have built a network of member food banks/pantries and other programs to fight hunger. You can find information about local programs and ways to help throught their website. You can also read the 2010 Hunger study.
Some highlights from the study:
•The 37 million Americans served annually by Feeding America include nearly 14 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.
•Each week, approximately 5.7 million people receive emergency food assistance from an agency served by a Feeding America member. This is a 27percent increase over numbers reported in Hunger in America 2006 study, which reported that 4.5 million people were served each week.
•These numbers are based on surveys conducted at emergency feeding centers, such as soup kitchens and food pantries, but do not factor in many individuals also served at non-emergency locations, such as Kids Cafe programs and senior centers.
I'd ask everyone to look it over for local information on different ways to maximize assistance. The website has plenty of information that will often encourage support once the details are out. For example,
Many people don’t realize that Food Banks step up and organize free meals to replace those normally served as free/reduced meals to children during the school year.
Also, for every dollar raised, it equates to approximately 13 dollars in buying power through sponsorships and charitable discounts. That $1 donation helps provide 7 meals to men, women and children facing hunger.
I'm proud to say that we already have initial POCs/Reps from each of the Kingdoms. I look forward to adding Tal Dagore should things go well for them at Clan this year.
Present Reps:
BL Iago
EH Forest
CK Sylvanista
GP Jeddak
IM Kezgar
GV Ce'dar
DS Randall
WL VACANT Pending word back from WL leadership
NW Covina
BS Moonshine
CG Wolfen
RW Michael
DW Loptr
Some of these are tentative and will be updated as necessary.
I can’t say it enough, the main goal is for us all to get behind something and demonstrate just how effective we can be on a national scale when we all get behind it. We did it last year with great results in a much shorter amount of time to prep, I'm sure that this year will be an even greater success.
Historical info can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19081&p=449491&hilit=amtgard+food+bank#p449491
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19368&hilit=amtgard+food+bank
http://amtwiki.net/amtwiki/index.php/Amtgard_Food_Fight
Please post any questions or event suggestions you may have. We are always interested in hearing new ways to encourage participation both at the fund/food raising events but ways to encourage people to volunteer their time as well.
We'll be posting a website soon with additional information to include specifics on a number of competitions (Slogan/Song/Video/Photo etc...) we will hold over the next couple of months. Those competitions will earn your Kingdom points towards being named the Winner of the 2010 Amtgard Food Fight!
Until then, take a moment to look at the outstanding logos that Alona has graciously built for our use.
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/g ... ight-1.png
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/g ... tcan-1.png
Lastly, I'd like to say thank you to a few folks that in addition to the POCS have already started donating their time and effort towards this years event.
Alona, Thank you for providing us the outstanding artwork
Linden, Thank you for the research and helping rustle up some POCs
Randall and Iago...You were instant supporters last year and didn't skip a beat with helping again this year. I can't say thank you enough...You guys make it possible!
Thank you for your time,
GoldCrest
AMTGARDWIDE FOOD FIGHT
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Blackheart
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Blackheart
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Hopper