What would be the best day to hold the nationwide Christmas Food Drive?

[Edward]

Various people have tossed around the idea of a nationwide food drive in order to draw attention to Ron Paul's message (i.e. people can take care of people without government intervention) and offset the "fringe" aspect of grassroots supporters. A
Christmas food drive is in the works, but we're wondering whether the date should be set prior to the Tea Party (in order to draw attention to the effort) or after it.

What would be the best day to hold the nationwide Christmas Food Drive?

 

[hillertexas]

Dec. 23rd so they people who get the food can have a nice dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas and we get optimal media coverage.

Anyone else picturing Turkeys to everyone?

"Dinner's on Ron Paul"

 

[hillertexas]

If we are going to do this...WE HAVE TO GO BIG!

 

[Edward]

Dec. 23rd so they people who get the food can have a nice dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas and we get optimal media coverage.

Do you think anyone would be paying attention that close to Christmas?

 

[Mckarnin]

Various people have tossed around the idea of a nationwide food drive in order to draw attention to Ron Paul's message (i.e. people can take care of people without government intervention) and offset the "fringe" aspect of grassroots supporters. A
Christmas food drive is in the works, but we're wondering whether the date should be set prior to the Tea Party (in order to draw attention to the effort) or after it.

What would be the best day to hold the nationwide Christmas Food Drive?

I haven't ever coordinated a food drive but I know that the food will need to be collected a bit in advance of Christmas to repackage and distribute it in time for Christmas. So, my vote is for "before the weekend of liberty" but I would be okay with doing it on the 15th if we can find a way of tying it into "rights rally" and if that will give us enough time to get the food distributed in time for Christmas.

Will we be giving all of the food to local foodbanks? Do you think they'd take the food if we put Ron Paul stickers on all of it?

 

[Edward]

Will we be giving all of the food to local foodbanks?

I think so. The details are being spelled out at http://www.freedomtogive.org.

Do you think they'd take the food if we put Ron Paul stickers on all of it?

I think that might be a bit over the top, however, why not include with each donation a can of SPAM with one Ron Paul sticker on it?

 

[Lici]

I say prior to the Weekend of Liberty. This way we'll be able to focus all our energy on the 15th and 16th, without having to worry about the added burden of conducting the food drives. Plus, we can use the food drives as an opportunity to advertise the Tea Party.

If we held the food drives starting the weekend before and donated all that we raised on Friday the 14th, that would give us only two weeks to notify all the meetup groups so they could prepare. But that would give the food banks time to process all of the donations before Christmas, plus we could tie the mass donation on Friday into the other Weekend of Liberty activities.

--Lici

 

[Edward]

I say prior to the Weekend of Liberty. This way we'll be able to focus all our energy on the 15th and 16th, without having to worry about the added burden of conducting the food drives. Plus, we can use the food drives as an opportunity to advertise the Tea Party.

If we held the food drives starting the weekend before and donated all that we raised on Friday the 14th, that would give us only two weeks to notify all the meetup groups so they could prepare. But that would give the food banks time to process all of the donations before Christmas, plus we could tie the mass donation on Friday into the other Weekend of Liberty activities.

--Lici

So, the actual collection would be done the prior weekend but the donations would be turned over on Friday, December 14th. Just wondering, why do you prefer the 14th and not the 15th?

 

[Mckarnin]

I think so. The details are being spelled out at http://www.freedomtogive.org.

I think that might be a bit over the top, however, why not include with each donation a can of SPAM with one Ron Paul sticker on it?

LOL!


Perhaps it would just be better to hand the foodbank employees a Ron Paul slimjim.

 

[hawkeyenick]

you mean holiday food drive

 

[JordanL]

Various people have tossed around the idea of a nationwide food drive in order to draw attention to Ron Paul's message (i.e. people can take care of people without government intervention) and offset the "fringe" aspect of grassroots supporters. A
Christmas food drive is in the works, but we're wondering whether the date should be set prior to the Tea Party (in order to draw attention to the effort) or after it.

What would be the best day to hold the nationwide Christmas Food Drive?

My vote goes to December 20th. It's a Thursday, allowing the story to circulate a bit over the weekend instead of getting glosses over by holiday madness and such.

It also provides enough time for the food to get to the proper places.

I also think small RP stickers on food, (you know, like "Care of Ron Paul"), wouldn't be a terribly thing, though not entirely necessary.

We need to all donate to the same organization if possible, to mazimize the effect.

This is a great idea guys. I can get a lot of the wishy-washy friends of mine to get behind this one, even if I can't get them to campaign with me.

 

[Lici]

We need to all donate to the same organization if possible, to mazimize the effect.

All donations will be going to the Second Harvest food bank closest to you.

http://www.secondharvest.org/zip_code.jsp

Second Harvest is the largest American network of food banks and soup kitchens; people are always more willing to donate when they know that it will be going to a reputable charity.

--Lici

 

[NoxTwilight]

It is my experience that most cities have city or state run food banks for their local communities. Ours does and I know my meetup group (as well as our donors) will not like our food donations going 50 or 60 miles away and not having any benefit to our local population who are just as needy.

As long as the food bank is legit, which is very easy to determine, that should be more important. I think doing this all on one day will have plenty of the effect we are looking for.

 

[Edward]

As long as the food bank is legit, which is very easy to determine, that should be more important. I think doing this all on one day will have plenty of the effect we are looking for.

I agree. I think you want to keep it in your community.

 

[jmhelms]

The CHRISTMAS food drive sounds like a good idea. It also sounds like a logistics nightmare. Foodbanks and local not for profit orgs would have the facilities to store and distribute to people in need. Any thing less would be inefficient with very little time left before the 24th or 25th. Is there wide adoption of making this happen? This is the first I have heard of it.

 

[Edward]

The CHRISTMAS food drive sounds like a good idea. It also sounds like a logistics nightmare. Foodbanks and local not for profit orgs would have the facilities to store and distribute to people in need. Any thing less would be inefficient with very little time left before the 24th or 25th. Is there wide adoption of making this happen? This is the first I have heard of it.

If you search "food drive", you'll see that there are quite a few threads about it. It seems as though a handful of people are excited about having a food drive, however, I'm a bit disappointed that there isn't widespread support for the idea.

 

[NoxTwilight]

If you search "food drive", you'll see that there are quite a few threads about it. It seems as though a handful of people are excited about having a food drive, however, I'm a bit disappointed that there isn't widespread support for the idea.

Yes - At my meet up meeting last night I spoke briefly about is as not only a good thing to do as far as helping people but a terrific opportunity to get his name out there. With Ron's name on a banner along with our meet up group, we stand a good chance of getting new members, answer questions for those that have her only a little of the MSM bull and introducing those who have heard nothing to him. It is my belief that this is much better than door to door, at least here in Ca. We find that many people will not even open the door to you let alone let you ask them questions or give them literature.

Coordination with local Food Banks should not be an issue, they are happy to arrange pick up of whatever is collected at the end of the day. I think it is very important to respect their request lists and only collect those food items that they are prepared to handle but other than that, as long as we communicate with them well enough in advance, they will assist us as much as they can.

Perhaps we need to request a subforum so that all charity type events, regardless of how or when they are organized so that those of us that are interested and motivated can coordinate better.

 

[Lici]

Now that we've done the Thanksgiving food drive, we need to go ahead and choose a day for the next one. That way we can really start planning and getting the word out.

So we're tied at "before" and "after." I still think it would be good to raise the food the week beforehand and drop it all off as part of the Weekend of Liberty festivities, but at this point I'll just be happy if we decide on something.

--Lici

 

[literatim]

This should really be a meetup group effort. So those in meetup groups need to discuss it with their peers and see about working out a day for it.

 

[NoxTwilight]

This should really be a meetup group effort. So those in meetup groups need to discuss it with their peers and see about working out a day for it.

Absolutely and our meet up will be doing this at least once regardless of what the rest do however we thought it would be great to have one day nationwide where all the meet ups collected food. Would get some good media attention at least in some areas.

My group will participate on whichever date is chosen but we do need to decide soon or coordinating it nationwide will be too difficult.

So come on people - Let's pick a date!