PAMF Food Drive Helps Ease Hunger for Local Children in Need

Posted on Aug 19, 2011 | 0 comments

PAMF’s Nancy Hidaka and Community Services Agency volunteer

Thanks to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Second Annual Summer Food Drive, several local families won’t go hungry this summer. This year’s food drive ran from June 1 to 30, and employees, doctors and patients contributed a total of 1,530 pounds of food (worth almost $2,300) to help feed local low-income kids and their families.

“Although there are many food drives during the holidays, I learned that summertime is actually the toughest season for many children, as they don’t have access to free or low-cost breakfasts and lunches at school to help stave off hunger,” says Sarah Kirby, regional philanthropy coordinator, who started the annual food drive last year. “By involving my colleagues at PAMF I felt like we could really make a difference in the lives of many local children and families.”

This year’s food drive topped last year’s efforts by more than 30 pounds of food. As last year, all food donations went to the Community Services Agency (CSA), a local food bank in Mountain View. Donation barrels were located at PAMF’ Dublin, Fremont, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Redwood Shores centers and many employees took the initiative to ensure the food drive was another success.

“We had great participation and ended up calling for pick up twice during the food drive as our bin was overflowing,” says Emma Chavarria, an executive assistant who together with Kelly Mcconnell, a volunteer coordinator, helped organize the drive at the Mountain ViewCenter. “We located our bin by the clinic’s main elevators to make it easy for both employees and patients to donate. Many patients were really happy to participate in the food drive and asked how long the food drive would continue.”

As the donations kept coming in, Chavarria and other food drive site coordinators asked if they could keep the food donation barrels for a little longer. Alison Hopkins, Community Services Agency volunteer director, was delighted to oblige and the food drive was extended another week to maximize donations.

Thea Peterson found another good way to boost donations.

“When I heard about the summer food drive it really melted my heart and I wanted to do all I could to help,” says Peterson, a Patient Services Representative at the Palo Alto Center. “I told my husband, Bill, who works at Trader Joe’s, about the drive and the next day he approached his manager, Joe, about a possible donation. The next thing Bill knew, Joe presented him with three shopping bags stuffed full of great food to donate to our drive. It was gratifying to see Trader Joe’s generosity for such a good cause.”

Missed the food drive but would like to help? Volunteer, donate online or drop off food donations at your local food bank:

• Community Services Agency (drop off location in Mountain View)
• Second Harvest Food Bank (drop off locations in San Carlos, San Jose and Santa Cruz)
• Alameda County Community Food Bank (drop off locations in Berkeley, Dublin, Fremont and Oakland)

Support Philanthropy at PAMF

If you are looking for another way to care for your neighbors, consider supporting PAMF’s charitable mission. You can visit our Philanthropy website to find out how you can help us continue to provide the best possible health care to patients and the community.