Stamp Out Hunger!

On Saturday, May 14, 2011, the National Association of Letter Carriers will again help Stamp Out Hunger! across America. Campbell Soup Company, The United Way and Feeding America will be supporting this effort again this year.

Now in its 19th year, the Stamp Out Hunger! effort is the nation's largest single-day food drive. In 2010, they not only set a record with a total of 77.1 million pounds of food donated, but also surpassed one billion pounds of food collected over the 18-year history of the drive.

Locally, the Rochester branches of the NALC will participate in the national food drive which will collect food for distribution to Olmsted County residents through the Channel One Food Shelf program. Last year, Rochester letter carriers collected 53,350 pounds of food during the one day event.

To help Stamp Out Hunger! in Rochester this year, simply leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable food items next to your mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on May 14th.

Minnesota FoodShare Success!

During March, Channel One participated in the March FoodShare campaign and joined with food shelves across Minnesota to collect donations of money and food that support our local efforts to help feed people in need and reduce hunger in our community. We are excited to announce that we made our goal, securing 238,190 pounds of food and $162,678. This is an amazing accomplishment and we thank everyone who worked hard to make this year's campaign a success!

Feinstein Challenge

Channel One Food Bank and Food Shelf is participating in the “Feinstein Challenge” during March and April. Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein will donate $1 million to hunger relief agencies nationwide through his Challenge to Help Fight Hunger initiative.

Mr. Feinstein asks food banks, food shelves, and other hunger-relief organizations to use his donation to help raise additional funds from other sources. Nationwide, these organizations raise as much money as possible between March 1 and April 30, 2011. The more money we raise, the larger our share of the $1 million donation from this initiative. The results from the community's FoodShare activities and all donations that Channel One receives during the months of March and April are part of our eligibility for the “Feinstein Challenge.” Please click here to donate! Thank you for your support of Channel One and our participation in the Feinstein Challenge

Volunteers are Worth a Million!

On Monday, April 18th Channel One recognized some of our amazing volunteers at our annual Volunteer Banquet.

Paul Stellpflug was recognized with the Good Neighbor Award through WCCO Radio and Minnesota FoodShare. Paul is a volunteer in our food shelf as well as part of our "Glean Team." Paul also grows his own produce to donate to Channel One. Last year he donated approximately 25,000 pounds!

Long time volunteer, Don Ebling was honored with a Hunger Superhero Award. Don is part of our Tuesday food shelf crew and has donated over 2,000 hours of service to Channel One.

Eastwood Bank also went home with a Hunger Superhero Award for their continued support in the fight to end hunger. Not only does Eastwood Bank finacially support Channel One year round, they also encourage their employees to volunteer with us and have donated over 400 hours of volunteer service to Channel One in the past year.

Our last awards of the night went to Denny Butterbaugh, Don Hegland, and Bart Mork. These three gentleman volunteer at Channel One every Wednesday packing boxes for our MAC/NAPS program. Together they have volunteered over 1,700 hours and packed more boxes than we can even calculate! They truly are Hunger Superheroes!

Thank you to all of our volunteers for everything you do to help fight hunger!

Save the Date- Fireworks 2011!

Channel One will once again be collecting food and monetary donations at the Rochester Fireworks Spectacular on the 4th of July! Don't forget to bring your non-perishable food items when you come to view the fireworks. There will also be other ways to support the fireworks through food and monetary donations to Channel One in the weeks leading up to the fireworks. Stay tuned for more details!

Save the Date- National Night Out!

National Night Out 2011 will take place on Tuesday, August 2nd. This year National Night Out in Olmsted County will include a food drive to support Channel One. Every neighborhood event will be collecting food to help their neighbors in need!