Campaign Spotlight: Valero Benicia Refinery

10 Ways You Can Fight Hunger In the Bay Area

December 30, 2009 By Olu Johnson Leave a Comment

Bank of America employees during Week of Caring at the San Francisco Food Bank

Over on our twitter feed, we found out about twitterforfood.com which is using social media to help fight hunger. As we head into the end of the year, there are many people in the Bay Area who won’t have a big traditional meal with family. According to area food banks, demand is expected to be higher this year than it was last year. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help these families.

At The office

Turn your office Holiday party into a food drive. Have people bring cans of food for the food bank in your area to make your holiday party more meaningful.

Give your boss a present to remember. Instead of another gift, make a donation to a hunger relief organization in their name.

Be a secret Santa to your local food bank. Make your secret Santa gifts sacks of food for the food bank.

Create an “Office Space” food drive. Fill up a cubicle to the top with non-perishable food for your local food bank.

At home:

Try gift matching with your local food bank. When you buy a gift for someone in your family, set aside the same amount of money to give to your favorite hunger relief organization in December. A big commitment with a bigger payoff!

Put a Secret Santa Sack on your tree or with your decorations. Add a sack with a picture of Santa and the logo of a hunger organization on it. All month, let your family and friends fill the sack with money secretly. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ll collect!

Have a food drive at your neighborhood holiday party. If you have a neighborhood get together, ask everyone to bring a cash or food donation to the party for your local food bank.

At your place of worship:

Have a holiday food-drive service. Pick a week to have everyone bring non-perishable food for your local food bank to your regular services.

Charge “admission” to your holiday celebration service. If your Church normally has a special service for the holidays, make a voluntary price of “admission” a can of food or small donation to a local hunger-relief organization.

Take your youth group to the food bank. Coordinate with your local food bank and take your youth group to help sort food or help in some way. Have them bring a can of food too!

Filed Under: Road to Recovery Tagged With: food, Health, hunger, Income, road, Road to Recovery

Win A Ham For Your Favorite Nonprofit

December 8, 2009 By Olu Johnson Leave a Comment

(image by Dave Heinzel via stock.xchng)

Over on our twitter feed, we learned about a really interesting promotion that is going on from now until Christmas Day. Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats is donating three hams a week to charity. Every week they’re picking a random fan from their Facebook page. Said person will then choose a charity of his/her choice and 4505 will deliver a 25-pound ham to that particular charity or non profit.To enter this raffle simply become a fan of theirs on Facebook.

4505 Meats is a local company specializing in a wide variety of meat related products including some excellent chicharrones . They also offer classes in butchering Find more about them here.

Filed Under: Road to Recovery, United Way Partners Tagged With: food, giving, Income, partners, road

Campaign Spotlight: Valero Benicia Refinery

September 30, 2009 By Olu Johnson Leave a Comment

Having Fun is an excellent way to get employees into the spirit of giving. Special events and activities that are both exciting and engaging are an easy way to increase your company’s campaign dollars and to rally your employees for a good cause.

At the Valero Benicia Refinery this year, employees injected both creativity and fun into a variety of fundraising events:

The Chili Cook-off Kick-off: To kick-start their United Way campaign, the refinery hosts a company-wide BBQ , which includes a Chili Cook-off and Salsa Contest. Despite fierce competition among a dozen fancifully named employee teams, the Angry Bovine Group won both categories.

“Pacesetter” Campaign: The day before the Chili Cook-Off, 85 members of Valero management and past Leadership Donors ($1,000+) got the campaign off to a strong start by collectively pledging $240,150. The results of the pacesetter campaign were announced at the Cook-Off to inspire all Valero employees to give generously.

Auction: Among other great prizes, like Warrior’s tickets, Valero auctioned off several “United Way” parking spaces at the refinery, which are highly coveted, convenient parking spots reserved for year round use by the highest bidder. The parking spots sold for thousands of dollars, which benefit United Way’s Road to Recovery.

Pizza: To help employees better understand the challenges faced by the community, Valero hosted more than 20 pizza lunches over the course of a month, in which employees heard from United Way and other nonprofit speakers about issues in the community and how much their campaign is doing to help.

Month of Caring: During this event, employees volunteered at local nonprofits, helping them spruce up their facilities and serve clients. Benefiting nonprofits included: Bay Area Crisis Nursery, International Bird Rescue Research Center, Rush Ranch at the Solano Land Trust, and the Loma Vista Farm. The slide show below shows Valero volunteers in action.

If your company is conducting fun events on the campaign trail, let us know by leaving a comment below. We’re always interesting in seeing exactly how people LIVE UNITED around the Bay Area.