Why MONEY INSTEAD OF FOOD???

We're all familiar with the big food collection barrels that stand in every grocery store entrance-in fact, we used to have them distributed throughout County offices, too. But shortly after we started the "Counties Care Holiday Food Fight," the Food Bank persuaded us to direct our efforts toward collecting money instead of food.

Why?

There are plenty of good reasons for this:

Peas and Pod1. MONEY 'S FRESH!!

Money never goes out of date. The Food Bank can use our green bills any time of the year! This is especially important in those lean times of the year when the Food Bank warehouse shelves go bare.

2. IT'S PORTABLE; EASY TO CARRY! Telescope 

A bag of canned goods-whew! That's heavy! But money ---even if you're giving a stack of dollar bills, that's very easy to carry. A check is even easier-you write it (maybe one minute total time), tear it out of your checkbook (nanosecond,) and carry it in to the office. And if you want to make it even easier, go to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano website and donate online!

3. THOSE DOLLARS S-T-R-E-E-E-T-C-H!

Donations

Every dollar you contribute provides the Food Bank with $3 in buying power. Or you can think of it this way: Every dollar given to the Food Bank will provide two full meals. That's SUPER buying power. Compare that to the cost of a jar of peanut butter-which is about to increase by as much as 40%!

4.MoneyMONEY IS OUR MEANS OF MEASURING SUCCESS!!

We are in competition with the employees of Solano County to win the Big Apple Trophy, and the only way we can measure progress is by counting the money that comes in.

5. AND BACK TO THAT FRESHNESS:

Vegatables

Our donated money purchases fresh, nutritious vegetables and fruits (12-plus million pounds distributed per year!!). And that's the kind of good food we definitely cannot donate directly, so we hope you'll donate some green to help the Food Bank green up the meals of those who have less than we do.

SO GO GREEN and help the Food Bank bring green

(and red, and yellow, and orange) produce to the 121,000-plus people in Contra Costa County alone who need the help of people like us. As you can see, even a single dollar means so very much. And when your dollar is matched by your fellow employees, and those dollars are matched by employees in another County department ---well, you can see how it builds. So forgo that Starbucks coffee and help someone--possibly your neighbor--feed his or her family this coming spring!

Specific online donations (PDF)

That's the kind of green we like!