It Takes a Village

Thanksgiving is less than a week away. Folks all over our city are uniting to provide food to those who can't afford a typical turkey & stuffing meal. Working at FBR provides a pretty cool opportunity to see firsthand the donations that are coming in.

Last week we welcomed a truck full of onions from Sakata Farms in Brighton into our warehouse. That 47,000 pound load of onions went a long way! This morning we watched as 4,600 pies and cakes from Village Inn were unloaded and stacked high. These mouth watering circles of goodness will be an added bonus to thousands of families who can't afford the basics, let alone extras like pie.

All the boxes in the background contain frozen pies from Village Inn!

It definitely takes a village to feed the hundreds of thousands of people served through our partner agencies. THANK YOU to the generous donors, volunteers and advocates of Food Bank of the Rockies. We couldn't fight hunger without you!

Friday Night with Will

Shaking hands with and accepting a check from Will Smith. Can't ask for much more on a random November Friday night. Will was in town this past weekend for the red carpet premier of his new movie "Seven Pounds." When we got the call that Will and Sony Pictures wanted to incorporate FBR into the evening by donating a check for turkeys as well as food from fans attending the premier, we didn't hesitate to gratefully accept.

FBR staff was on hand to get a sneak peak of Mr. Smith shaking hands with our own Kevin Seggelke and handing him a life sized check, which will purchase over 300 turkeys for our partner agencies. 981 pounds of donated food was loaded into our truck that night as well, making this one Friday night to remember.

Denver Broncos Champ Bailey and Brandon Marshall joined the festivities and gifted Will with his own Broncos jersey.

Special special thanks to Will, Sony Pictures and all those involved with making this Thanksgiving that much better for so many of our neighbors in need. Everyone...go see Seven Pounds on December 19th!

Our Annual Media Frenzy

What do you get when you mix local media personalities, shopping carts, a 3 minute shopping frenzy & fierce competitive drives? You get the 16th Annual Shop O Rama at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage. To kick-off the 2008 "Check Out Hunger" program, an easy way for people to donate to children’s programs through Food Bank of the Rockies' Nutrition Network. At local Natural Grocer locations, shoppers can add $1 or $5 coupons to their grocery bill November 1st through December 31st. Natural Grocers will match all customer donations up to $50,000. It's one of our favorite events and yesterday was proof why we look forward to this day each and every year!

The line up...CW2's Tom Green, Channel 4's Jim Benemann & Karen Leigh, FOX 31's Melissa Mollet & husband Jake, Denver Magazine's Katie Shapiro & Adria Marin and Natural Grocers owners Kemper & Heather Isely. Teams took off with their carts to load up with food as close to the total of $169.11 as possible (without going over!). Some teams carried calculators to keep track as they went and others threw in product and hoped for the best. You can guess which tactic brought about the winning total:)

Never before have we had totals like we did in yesterday's fierce shopping battle. Every team went over the total.....Channel 4 set a record for the highest total over the allotted amount! And yes, that includes the items Mr. Benemann is conveniently hiding behind his back in the photo below. Their spunk made up for their 5th place score!

Tom Green paired up with Heather Isely, but even the Vitamin Cottage expert wasn't enough to claim him as the 2008 winner. Note the spunk referred to above in the shot below.

The ladies from Denver Magazine couldn't have been closer to gaining bragging rights! They took 2nd place by a mere 15 cents. That's the closest runner up to date for this event.

Melissa stood by nervously awaiting the final results....

After a few dedicated years of determination, our friend Melissa Mollet brought home the title and shopping cart trophy for FOX 31. They were $2.29 over the total. She and Jake couldn't have been more proud. HUGE THANKS to Natural Grocers and all our media participants for another fantastic Shop O Rama! We'll look forward to next year's festivities!

Zeke

Zeke decided in his early years that he wasn't wanting for anything, so why not give back to those who are? Rather than stockpile the latest toys for his birthday party, he asked all his friends to donate food or money to FBR. That they did. Zeke, who's currently growing his hair out to donate to Locks of Love, toured our warehouse and shared some words of wisdom.

"What can people do if they don't have enough money to pay for food? They're suffering. It feels good to know that when people support FBR and agencies, it's like saving someones life who's starving. When you help, you're saving lives, so why not do it?" A little heart sure can go a long way.