Keeping Busy in October – All That is Missing is You!

The S.A.F.E. Food Pantry is finishing off October with a bang.  With three events in three days, our goal to spread awareness about the need for gluten free and allergy-friendly food for those in need is truly happening.
 
On Thursday, October 26, Dr. Donna DeCosta from FoodASC was our featured speaker at our quarterly Food for Thought session.  Her talk on The 3 E's to Empowerment: Passing the Food Allergy Baton covered the main topics to Evaluate, Educate, and Equip children who have food allergies.  These tips also apply to parents of those with celiac disease and other related medical conditions as well as adults.  For more information on this talk, please visit: www.foodasc.com/safe.  While you are there, don’t forget to sign up to join the Food ASC community.
 
Our fall gluten free and allergy friendly food drive took place on Saturday, October 28 at the Giant Food in Clarksville, Maryland.  We were fortunate to have sunny yet cool weather as we embarked on our quarterly community food drive.  We appreciate our new and returning donors for making our food drive a success.  If you would still like to donate, you can:

• Donate $10 or $20 for a gluten free or allergy friendly basket
  
• Drop off food at One Dish Cuisine during their business hours.  There is a plastic box just inside the front door.
• Contact us for a pick up
  
• Send a check to our mailing address:  S.A.F.E. Food Pantry, 9770 Patuxent Woods, Suite 316, Columbia, MD  21046
  

Thank you to our phenomenal food drive volunteers: Allan, Ivette, June, Stephanie, and Tiffany for making this happen as well as our food drive committee team members: Kerry, Libby, Michael, and Monique.
 
Also, on Saturday, October 28, our Youth Fighting Hunger team was invited to the Cel-Kids Halloween Party in Baltimore.  Our youth ambassador, Lily, spoke about her experiences conducting a food drive for her bat mitzvah.  We are so lucky to have Lily and her mom, Sara, as part of our team.  They developed the Youth Fighting Hunger- Allergy Friendly Food Drive how-to guide and customizable flyer.  Tiffany was also there to talk about the organization and food drive opportunities. 
 
We would love to have you join our team as a food drive volunteer.  There are many different opportunities:

• Youth Fighting Hunger–Allergy Friendly Food Drive – geared toward our middle and high schoolers as an opportunity to collect food from neighbors, friends and the community while earning service hours
• Community – lead a community food drive on behalf of S.A.F.E. Food Pantry as a project manager
• Workplace – oversee a gluten free and allergy friendly food drive at your place of business

If you are interested in any of these opportunities or would like to create a food drive opportunity for your group, please visit http://www.safefoodpantry.org/food-drive.html for more information or to sign up.