Liz Taylor ♥

Liz Taylor ♥

Liz Taylor ♥

One of the joys of being the Co-Founder of The 3000 Club is witnessing how our involvement is creating an impact in our lives!

When I first met Jodie Wilson, owner of www.DiscoverTheRegion.com, in one of the networking groups in Surprise last year, she immediately grasped the severity of problem we have trying to rescue the millions of pounds of produce that are thrown away in Nogales. Not only did she join the volunteer group that went to Nogales before Thanksgiving Day last year, but she decided to do much more than that. Since January, Jodie was able to coordinate three produce distributions, with the latest one on January 28, 2009. Jodie had gladly accepted her new title of The 3000 Club Produce Ambassador. 

Liz Taylor ♥

During the past few weeks, our Executive Director from Borderland Food Bank Yolanda Soto, worked feverishly to find homes for rescued Roma and regular tomatoes, orange bell peppers and European cucumbers. In one of her daily offerings, there were mixtures of these produce weighing over 200,000 pounds!

According to Yolanda Soto, Executive Director of Borderland Food Bank, in January and February, Borderland was saturated with rescued tomatoes. It became extremely difficult to find these tomatoes homes and they had to end up dumping at least 50 percent of them.

In Arizona, the only food banks that accepted tomatoes were St. Mary’s Alliance, Wilcox, Northern Arizona Food Bank and our newest agency, Valley View Food Bank in Surprise. There were different types of tomatoes: beef, vine ripe, house, cherry, grape, Roma and regular. Borderland did a lot of repacking for three weeks in January, until it started receiving 90% good product. The saturation of tomatoes was due to a reduction in the market price of tomatoes. Thanks to Yolanda Soto for all her hard work.  

Liz Taylor ♥

Bins of Clothes

In mid November, we received our first trailer load of clothes and right away we put our inmate program to work. They separated them into various categories such as women, mens, boys, girls, babies and shoes. After all the clothes were organized, they were placed in brand new duffle bags which had been donated to us thru the Northern Arizona Food Bank. In the end, we filled up 600 requests which was approximately 2,400 children, 600 ladies and 420 men.Â
On Friday, February 27, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we will be having our second event. We have 40 bins of clothes that we have not done anything with except unload it from the trailer and place them in bins. We’re thinking of just having the people go thru the bins and take what they need. We will be supplying them with a grocery basket which they will fill up. We will also be distributing produce on that day and boxes of sparkling green tea which Kerry Ketchum got donated for us.
Special thanks to The 3000 Club for making this possible.

Liz Taylor ♥

Thus, I could barely believe my ears when I heard on the radio about the $25,000 dollar goodie bags handed out to the (already rich) celebs at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards yesterday. Back in November, In a story in USA Today,  a Californian Foodbank reported 100% increase in demand in the last year with donations declining over the same period. Given that people are losing their homes all over America - losing jobs  - increasingly having to turn to charitable organisations for basic necessities - does it not make you begin to wonder what the Grammy organisers were thinking? Or is it just me that is filled with a sense of disgust?

When you think that just two of these goodie bags could fund the rescue and distribution of 30 million pounds of produce to foodbanks all over the United Sates for a whole year …

How much better would those gifts have been if they had been used for such purposes? I for one will not be tuning in to watch such a display of conspicuous consumption in such difficult times.  I find it totally inappropriate!

Jasper Blake
Dude Blog Your Business 

Lon Taylor strongly encouraged the attendees to support The 3000 Club because not only are we attempting to save over 30 million pounds of produce from being thrown in the dump every single year but we have started reclaiming medical equipment and supplies to have a greener future. Most of you have seen how The 3000 Club has evolved since its formal introduction in May of 2008. As we are creating more public awareness about the ongoing waste, we are also creating excitement with many who want to become involved.

We received numerous compliments from the attendees who enjoyed hearing the vocals of Eric Velada and Isabelle Davis and watching the Ballroom exhibitions from Carmi Racoma and Jessie Navarro. While many have ballroom danced, many have also enjoyed the line dancing which went on until midnight!

The Miss Asia Arizona Beauty Pageant Fashion Show was a great hit with the beautiful women displaying their evening gowns and national costumes. We thank Nina Kasuga, Miss Asia Arizona 2008 and her court Rachanee Jaurequi, Miss Asia Arizona 2008 First Princess, Kajal Patel, Miss Asia Arizona 2008 Third Princess and the other models and staff for a spectacularl fashion show.

Of course, this would not have been possible without the wonderful support from its Founder and Executive Director, Gene Flores. Gene founded Miss Asia Arizona Pageant in November 2002 with a vision of uniting the growing Asian/Pacific Islander community in Arizona. Gene Flores is a celebrity in his own right, dubbed the Ricky Martin of the Philippines and former Mr. Asia of California. We appreciate your taking the time from your hectic schedule to be a part of this big event.

 

 

I want to thank Les Gin, President of Asian Bank, my co-host for sharing the opportunity to recognize The 3000 Club Ambassadors and our Event Sponsors. He was able to work the entire room, acknowledging everyone and calling out the raffle winners .

We thank Jodie for successfully finding sponsors - Valley View Community Food Bank, 5 Iglesia Apostolica De La Fe En Cristo Jesus Churches in the West Valley and A Group Called 39 and Holding - for these pallets which we are able to transport to Youngtown for only $15 per pallet. Just imagine $15 can cover the transportation cost to rescue and distribute 1,500 lbs of produce to hundreds of hungry families!

We hope to continue this outreach on a regular basis. If you or know of anyone who might be interested in sponsoring a pallet or several pallets, please contact Jodie at jwilson78@cox.net.

The 3000 Club had its first annual Ball at the Phoenix Airport Marriott Hotel with over 250 guests. Here are some highlights with Lon Taylor, Don Stewart, Ethel Luzario, Yolanda Soto and Kerry Ketchum.