News from 2008

EMPTY BOWLS BREAKS ALL RECORDS

FIRST SOUPER BOWL OF CARING FOOD DRIVE BRINGS 225,000 POUNDS

EMPTY BOWLS GOES GREEN

BACKPACKS FOR KIDS, TCU LADY FROGS ON

FOX 4 "HOMETOWN HEROES"

RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES HELPS COOKE COUNTY KIDS CAFE EXPAND TO FEED MORE CHILDREN

Current Food Bank News               Quarterly Newsletter

REPORT

Empty Bowls 2008 breaks all records

The greatest number of guests and bowls ever to appear at Empty Bowls were at this year's sixth annual Artful Luncheon to Fight Hunger Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at Will Rogers Memorial Center.  The results: The most money ever raised at Empty Bowls.

Statistics 

Tickets sold - 1,205

Number of bowls donated - 1,600-plus

Total funds raised from cash sponsorships, ticket sales, bump table and silent auction - $117,000.

Community Help

Many thanks for this success are owed to guests, volunteers, sponsors, artisans who created and donated bowls, chefs and kitchens that prepared and donated soups, breads and desserts, and community members who purchased tickets and attended Empty Bowls. You helped raise funds equivalent to more than 585,000 meals!

REPORT

Souper Bowl of Caring brings 225,000 pounds

Food

The first Greater Dallas/Fort Worth Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive that culminated on Super Bowl Sunday brought Tarrant Area Food Bank 224,884 pounds of nonperishable food.  This is enough food for 175,690 meals!  Thank you shoppers!

Cash Gifts

Still to be announced are the total cash donations made by Tarrant area shoppers at Albertsons, Central Market, Kroger and Tom Thumb grocery stores. Cash donations made directly to the Food Bank for Souper Bowl of Caring totaled almost $3,800.

Sponsors

Tarrant Area Food Bank thanks the four grocery retailers and Souper Bowl of Caring for organizing this super drive that adds a significant amount to our inventory at a time of the year when holiday donations are running low.

Many thanks are also due to the news media sponsors that publicized the drive: 

Clear Channel Media billboards, CBS 11/TXA 21, NBC 5, Telemundo 39, WFAA Channel 8, Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, KLTY-FM, KTCK-AM The Ticket and 99.5 The Wolf.

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NEWS RELEASE

Empty Bowls 2008 goes green

Food bank fundraising event to use biodegradable cutlery and dishware,

thanks to green sponsor Tarrant Regional Water District

FORT WORTH (January 30, 2008) – At “Empty Bowls—An Artful Luncheon to Fight Hunger” benefiting Tarrant Area Food Bank on Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, the soups and desserts donated by some of Fort Worth’s finest restaurants and caterers have always tasted delicious, but this year they may face some competition from the dishware and cutlery.

           Empty Bowls is joining the GREEN MOVEMENT with the sponsorship of the TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT and the donation of nature-based, heat-resistant products by the California company Excellent Packaging & Supply.

         The thousands of soup bowls, spoons, dessert forks and napkins for more than 1,000 guests sampling luncheon fare from 21 restaurants and caterers will be made from potato or corn starches, rice or sugar cane. Unlike petroleum-derived foam and plastic dishware and cutlery, these earth-friendly products will break down into their natural components when discarded.

          “Tarrant Regional Water District is pleased to be part of this environmental effort and we hope the results will generate awareness among others in the community,” said Linda Christie, the water district’s community and government relations director.

           “This may be Fort Worth’s first fundraising event to go green,” said BETTY ROGERS, chairwoman of the Empty Bowls Event Committee and a member of the Tarrant Area Food Bank Board of Directors.

          “As well as using biodegradable dishware and utensils,” Rogers said, “with the Tarrant Regional Water District sponsorship, the committee will provide environmentally friendly bags for guests’ keepsake bowls. In addition, we will use recyclable bags for the dining table centerpieces featuring children’s food needed for Tarrant Area Food Bank’s BackPacks for Kids program and Kids Cafes,” she said.

           THE 21 RESTAURANTS, CATERERS and CHEFS contributing soups, breads and desserts include, for the first time, Chef Grady Spears, Lili's Bistro on Magnolia, Mira Vista Golf Club, Reata Restaurant and The Covey Restaurant & Brewery.

           Longtime participants returning this year include BK's Creative Catering, Bonnell's, Cafe Aspen, La Familia, Feastivities Gourmet-To-Go, Harpers Blue Bonnet Bakery,Judy Byrd's Culinary School, Paris Coffee Shop, Riscky's Catering,Tarrant County College Southeast Culinary Arts Institute and Ultimate Cuisine by Chef Tom.

            The menu is rounded out by Lonesome Dove, City Kitchen Catering, Panera Bread, Tarrant Area Food Bank Community Kitchen and Tom Thumb Signature Soups.

             EMPTY BOWLS 2008, presented by Tom Thumb, is set for Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Round Up Inn at Will Rogers Memorial Center , 3401 W. Lancaster, Fort Worth. Guests savor some of the yummiest soups and desserts in Fort Worth, select hand-crafted bowls for their own, and bid on one-of-a-kind pottery pieces. Their attendance helps Tarrant Area Food Bank fill the bowls of hungry neighbors at the rate of five meals for every dollar spent on admission and the silent auction.

             ADMISSION TICKETS are SOLD IN ADVANCE ONLY at $35 per person, or $100 per Individual Sponsor, and may be purchased online at www.tafb.org, or by calling 817-332-9177, ext. 110. The INDIVIDUAL SPONSOR TICKETS offer individuals the opportunity to enter Empty Bowls 30 minutes early along with corporate sponsors and select their keepsake bowls ahead of other guests.

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TV NEWS FEATURE

BACKPACKS FOR KIDS, TCU LADY FROGS ON

FOX 4 "HOMETOWN HEROES"

Tarrant Area Food Bank's BackPacks for Kids program and TCU Lady Frogs who volunteer to pack food for the program are featured by Clarice Tinsley on her "Hometown Heroes" show the week of Jan. 28, 2008. Air times are Monday, Jan. 28, on the 5:30 p.m. news and Tuesday, Jan. 29, on the noon news.  The written story are on the station's website, www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox.  If the link fails to go directly to the story, search for "Hometown Heroes" on www.myfoxdfw.com/my fox.

NEWS RELEASE

Cooke County Kids Cafe feeding more kids,

thanks to Ronald McDonald House Charities

Boys & Girls Clubs of Cooke County and

Tarrant Area Food Bank use $5,000 grant to expand Kids Cafe

FORT WORTH (January 28, 2008) – Last year, the Kids Cafe at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cooke County was under-equipped, and the cook was struggling to prepare after-school meals on two home stoves for 100 to 125 children. Now, the kitchen at the Gainesville Boys & Girls Clubs boasts commercial-grade equipment, and the Kids Cafe kitchen coordinator is turning out meals each day for 145 to 160 school children.

          “The grant that Tarrant Area Food Bank applied for on our behalf is making it possible for us to store and prepare enough food to feed up to 75 more children than we did last year,” said Tricia West, chief professional officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cooke County. “Before, we could only feed the younger children through sixth grade. Now we are feeding the Teen Club members and more of the children from the club in Valley View,” she said.

          The $5,000 grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities purchased a convection oven, a chest freezer, commercial stockpots and folding tables and chairs for 75.

         “Our Kids Cafe cook, Vickie Turnham, is thrilled with the new convection oven. She used to have to cook all those meals on two home-style stoves,” West said. “And what a difference the chest freezer makes. Now we can pick up enough frozen food from Tarrant Area Food Bank so that we don’t have to go to the supermarket all the time.”

         Ronald McDonald House Charities offered grant funds through ‘America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network’ to expand the capacity of Kids Cafes sponsored by the network’s regional food banks such as Tarrant Area Food Bank.

          As a member of America ’s Second Harvest, Tarrant Area Food Bank collaborates with charities to operate Kids Cafes in neighborhoods where a high percentage of children qualify for free and reduced-cost school meals. In the Gainesville Independent School District last year, 60 percent of all students qualified for the meals, according to the Texas Education Agency.

          BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF COOKE COUNTY, founded in 1947, offer a safe place for young people to learn and grow while having fun. The Clubs joined the Tarrant Area Food Bank network of partner charities in October 2006 to host a Kids Cafe. The Kids Cafe kitchen, which is housed in the Boys & Girls Clubs on West Hird Street in Gainesville, provides meals for children in kindergarten through high school.

           TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK distributes food to 300 hunger-relief charities in 13 counties, including Cooke. Each month, this network of partner charities provides emergency groceries to 35,000 households and serves 500,000 snacks and prepared meals, including those prepared at 18 Kids Cafes. More than one-third (35 percent) of those receiving food aid from the Food Bank’s network are children.

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