Clown Arounds - Beaumont Foundation
For
2 years Roger Bangs, AKA "Junkmail the Clown" has sponsored a Peanut Butter and
Jelly Drive to benefit the
Wichita
Falls Area Food Bank. This is aimed to
help parents who can't be home to cook lunch for their children during the
summer.
Junkmail says,
"Who
doesn't
like a good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich!"
P B & J is an excellent source of protein and a good balanced meal that does not involve the use of fire or dangerous sharp objects. In exchange for a jar of Peanut Butter or Jelly, "Junkmail" made balloon animals at Market Street on April 27th. His helpers were "Zooths", "Carousal", "Jingle Bob", and "Lucy Lou" and together they collected 110 jars of Peanut butter and Jelly, along with $105.77 in cash donations.
In an effort to spruce things up a little this year, he expanded out to get more of the public involved. He challenged churches and organizations to help with his project. Junkmail stated that he wanted everyone to make it as much fun as possible, by holding contest between churches, troops, clubs, etc... Encouraging them to decorate the boxes for members to drop off the P B & J, or even come up with a cookbook of some P B & J recipes to sell and use the money to buy P B & J. Three local churches took Junkmail the Clown up on his challenge: Allendale Baptist Church collected 33 jars; Park Place Christian Church collected 44 jars; and Christ United Presbyterian Church collected 48 jars.
Many thanks to all who make the Clown Arounds PB &J Drive a huge success.
Expenses for food are usually the first to be cut when family finances are
tight. To stave off hunger, low-income families will often reduce the
quality or variety of food they eat before they cut back on quantity. But
quantity is no substitute for quality. Undernourished children pay the highest
price with poorer ove
rall health, increased behavioral problems and diminished
capacity to learn. The Beaumont Foundation for the second time awarded a $30,000 grant for our Good-Buy Hunger! Food Purchasing Program.
Good-Buy Hunger! ensures that delicious, nutritious food is available to sustain and nourish poor families and individuals who seek food assistance. Recipients of Good-Buy Hunger! food would be low-income clients of our partner agencies that serve as disaster relief organizations, low-income day care centers and youth programs, senior citizens centers, rehab centers, residential programs and multi-service organizations.
Because the majority of the Food Bank's food products are donations, salvaged items, or USDA commodities, our product mix is dictated more by what is surplus than what is needed. Demand by our member agencies for staple items is great, yet nutritionally-rich foods that would truly address their hungry clients’ needs are in short supply. Large quantity orders of staple items – meats, beans, rice, macaroni, and peanut butter – must be purchased to maintain sufficient quantities of food and a nutritionally–balanced inventory. Due to the generosity of The Beaumont Foundation we are able to use Good-Buy Hunger! to correct imbalances in product variety and supplement stock with staple items always in demand.
