The Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project - Tote4Pgh
5,000 tote bags in September - Here's How to Make It Happen
The Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project and the GLCC have teamed up to provide tote bags to
individuals and families relying on food pantries. The bags make it a little
easier to carry the food home, reduces use of disposable bags and frees up
money spent on bags to be used on food.
Our major partner is the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank which serves
120,000 people each month through 300 programs. The Food Bank coordinates
distribution of the bags to the pantries. Our supporters include Construction
Junction, East End Food Co-op, PA Resources Council, Bistro to Go restaurant,
Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, Pittsburgh Public Markets and more.
Just a few facts. The Food Bank distributes more than 2 million pounds of food each
month across 11 counties. Nearly 30% of their clients are children and another
15% or so are senior citizens on fixed incomes. A significant amount of the
families have at least one working adult. Many food pantries are volunteer run and
some aren’t even able to provide disposable bags because of limited resources.
One example of a critical resource is the food pantry at the Pittsburgh AIDS
Task Force which is part of the Food Bank network and able to request tote bags.
Tote bags are making a difference. Anything we can do to make the food pantry
experience better – especially for those who are new to the process. Please
consider passing along your extra tote bags and back packs. We are grateful to
the Fall Fling team for creating this drop-off opportunity. Your totes are
also welcome during normal operations hours at the GLCC. For more information
on the project, please visit us at www.tote4pgh.org
or email us tote4pgh@gmail.com. Join us on Facebook www.facebook.com/tote4pgh
and follow us on Twitter @tote4pgh
Thank you for your support.
Bring your tote bags to Fall Fling.
Thanks to a great rally from Podcamp Pittsburgh, we will cross the 4,000 mark tomorrow
and the quest is on to get to a grand total of 5,000 bags by the end of
September so we can wrap up Hunger Action Month with a bang.
There are multiple opportunities for you to help us do that
5,000 is a
lot of bags and I did not envision being within reach of that number in five
months. It is exciting.
It is also enough bags for 2% of the people
served by the Food Bank. At first glance, that seems small. But I keep
thinking ... we are on the map now. We are making an impact, striking nerves
and drawing all sorts of unique collaborators to our project. Superheroes,
quilters, brownie troops, accountants, podcasters, community development
corporations, and international companies. Plus, lots and lots and lots of
anonymous people that want to help. What a great team. Imagine what we'll
accomplish in the next five months?
The Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project and the GLCC have teamed up to provide tote bags to
individuals and families relying on food pantries. The bags make it a little
easier to carry the food home, reduces use of disposable bags and frees up
money spent on bags to be used on food.
Our major partner is the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank which serves
120,000 people each month through 300 programs. The Food Bank coordinates
distribution of the bags to the pantries. Our supporters include Construction
Junction, East End Food Co-op, PA Resources Council, Bistro to Go restaurant,
Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, Pittsburgh Public Markets and more.
Just a few facts. The Food Bank distributes more than 2 million pounds of food each
month across 11 counties. Nearly 30% of their clients are children and another
15% or so are senior citizens on fixed incomes. A significant amount of the
families have at least one working adult. Many food pantries are volunteer run and
some aren’t even able to provide disposable bags because of limited resources.
One example of a critical resource is the food pantry at the Pittsburgh AIDS
Task Force which is part of the Food Bank network and able to request tote bags.
Tote bags are making a difference. Anything we can do to make the food pantry
experience better – especially for those who are new to the process. Please
consider passing along your extra tote bags and back packs. We are grateful to
the Fall Fling team for creating this drop-off opportunity. Your totes are
also welcome during normal operations hours at the GLCC. For more information
on the project, please visit us at www.tote4pgh.org
or email us tote4pgh@gmail.com. Join us on Facebook www.facebook.com/tote4pgh
and follow us on Twitter @tote4pgh
Thank you for your support.
Bring your tote bags to Fall Fling.
Thanks to a great rally from Podcamp Pittsburgh, we will cross the 4,000 mark tomorrow
and the quest is on to get to a grand total of 5,000 bags by the end of
September so we can wrap up Hunger Action Month with a bang.
There are multiple opportunities for you to help us do that
- Attend the Allegheny County Green Festival or the East End Food Co-op
Harvest Festival with your bag. A $1.00 donation will purchase 1 bag courtesy
of the Co-op. We'll have activity page so you can go home and talk with your
children about the project. Details on both events are in the right hand
column.
- Support our Girl Scout Drive, especially those of you in the South Hills.
Help them reach their goal of 420 bags!
- If you live in the North Hills, consider the Providence tote drive. Two
drop-off spots
- If you work for Alpern Rosenthal, make Tiffanie happy and bring in your
bag.
- If you took the Social Media Superhero challenge at Podcamp Pittsburgh 6, be
sure to get your bag of groceries back to us. Drop-offs not ideal for this, so
please email us to figure it out.
- If you want to take the Social Media Superhero challenge, see next blog
post.
- Live on the Northside? Contribute to the AGH/North Side Leadership
Conference drive. One week to go.
- Visit our drop-off spots with your donation. We'll do a end of the month
round up.
- Not too late to ask your folks to contribute. Email your coworkers and ask
them to drop the bags by your office.
- Talk with your Girl Scout troop about starting a project.
- If you attend an event, ask if we can have the excess tote bags. Call us and
we'll see how fast we can hustle over to pick them up.
5,000 is a
lot of bags and I did not envision being within reach of that number in five
months. It is exciting.
It is also enough bags for 2% of the people
served by the Food Bank. At first glance, that seems small. But I keep
thinking ... we are on the map now. We are making an impact, striking nerves
and drawing all sorts of unique collaborators to our project. Superheroes,
quilters, brownie troops, accountants, podcasters, community development
corporations, and international companies. Plus, lots and lots and lots of
anonymous people that want to help. What a great team. Imagine what we'll
accomplish in the next five months?
