Spc. Ezekiel Garcia, 11th ADA Brigade Public Affairs: Soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery, competed in the “CANstruction” contest as part of this year’s Feds Feed Families drive at the Commissary Aug. 30. The can constructing contest was held at the end of the Feds Feed Families canned food drive, which took place throughout the month of August. The canned drive was held to collect nonperishable foods for children and families in need all over Fort Bliss and El Paso. Using donated canned food, the Soldiers of 3rd Bn., 43rd ADA, built a statue of their beloved unit mascot, the “Scorpion.” The winner of the CANstruction contest was awarded $250, and the unit that collected the most cans also received $250 for their unit fund. The Scorpions did their part in supporting the cause through this event, which was created as competition to show each unit’s talent and creativity, with all food collected going to Fort Bliss and the local food bank. Two million pounds of food were collected nationwide; Bliss’ goal was to collect 5,000 pounds. “At the end of the day, more than 2,400 cans were used to build the intimidating arthropod over a six-hour period,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Wad-dingham, battalion commander

Peggy Haggard is a specialist at the National Revenue Center for Treasury's Tax and Trade Bureau in Cincinnati. Peggy has donated over 483lbs of items including water, condiments, cereal, paper products & can goods. She carries in on average, 14lbs of goods everyday on the bus & more on the days she drives in. She is a great motivator as she involved neighbors & family members who dropped off items to her to bring in or contributed money for her to buy things. Thank you Peggy for making a difference for others.

OPM's Merit System Audit and Compliance (MSAC's)office goal for 2011 campaign was 790 pounds. Our organization almost doubled that goal by donating 1438.50 lbs. of food/needed items. A great deal of the donations came from our various MSAC field offices. Our Atlanta office alone donated 600 pounds with San Francisco being second at 413.175 pounds. Some team members ran a virtual donation campaign. They volunteered to shop and bring goods in for those located in other duty stations or whose commuting or travel schedules made bringing donations difficult. We are grateful for the hard work our volunteers provided throughout this campaign to help us surpass our goal. We celebrated by eating pizza together.

CBP Officer and National Recruiter Ximena Davila, who works at the Houston Field Office, Office of Field Operations, donated an amazing 1,261 pounds of food during the month of August 2011. Officer Davila was moved to make this extraordinary donation in memory of my late father, John N. Washburn who passed away in July. Officer Davila’s generous and selfless donation will feed many in the community and her kind gesture was truly appreciated by me and my entire family.

Therapy Horticulture program & Horticulture Mentor program Description: Program Inmates plant and tend gardens using donated seeds from local non-profit organizations. Fresh produce raised from the donated seeds will be donated to Homeless shelters and Food Banks in the community. The mentor program through the Prison volunteer program will help mentor and develop the inmates working the program into better citizens upon release. Benefits: USP Leavenworth enjoys the community?s involvement. This enhances positive public relations. In addition to benefitting the community, these programs are beneficial to the inmates who learn new and affordable marketable and social skills. This is a volunteer community service project sponsored by local non-profit charitable organizations in conjunction with USP Leavenworth and is designed to provide for the public good in keeping with the overall goals of the community, such as community food banks, battered woman and homeless shelters in the local community. This inmate volunteer project provides the inmates with the training and experience that will translate into meaningful work opportunities for the inmates upon release in the agricultural, greenhouse, and landscape industries. This project does not displace regular employees, supplant employment opportunities ordinarily available within the sponsoring organizations, or impair an contracts for services. This inmate volunteer project supplements the community?s resources and provides an opportunity for the inmates to perform community service for non-profit charitable organizations voluntarily. The nonprofit organizations sponsoring this project will provide funding for soil samples, and all organic pesticide and herbicides to be used in the Therapy & Mentor Horticulture Project . Community Volunteers will supervise the planting, maintenance and harvesting of the produce. All organic pesticides and herbicides will be pre-approved by the USP Leavenworth Safety Department and any materials (including, but not limited to seeds and fertilizer) used in the garden will be stored in a separate, locked area as designated by USP Leavenworth Food Service Administrator. Leavenworth Salvation Army, a local non-profit food bank, provides food to hungry persons through local social service shelters in the Leavenworth, Kansas area. Leavenworth Salvation Army and other sponsoring organizations will provide donations for associated garden supplies to include seeds, planting material, and personal protective equipment for inmates. A portion of the food items grown in the institution garden as part of the Therapy & Mentor Horticulture Project will be provided to Leavenworth Salvation Army. Leavenworth Salvation Army has explicitly stated and understands that there is no guarantee of production. Leavenworth Salvation Army is aware that USP Leavenworth will not provide potable water to irrigate the garden due to conservation efforts. Leavenworth Salvation Army staff will determine which items are suitable for consumption and will supervise the selection of these items for delivery to the local food banks and shelters. USP Leavenworth will provide a plot of land for the garden separate from its existing institution garden. USP Leavenworth staff will supervise inmates within existing institution garden, but staff will not participate directly in any of the gardening activities or provide any instruction to inmates regarding planting, care, maintenance or harvesting of the Therapy & Mentor Horticulture Project garden. USP Leavenworth will provide volunteer badges for frequent community volunteers for the Therapy & Mentor Horticulture Project. Any produce resulting from this project will be delivered to the institution food service warehouse for pickup by Leavenworth Salvation Army as scheduled in advance. USP Leavenworth Food Service Horticulture Program. FY 2008 * USP Leavenworth Food Service established the Horticulture Program in FY 2008 with a 9 acre garden. * FPC Education Department established in FY 2008, a 4000 hour Landscape/ Horticulture Apprenticeship through the Department of Labor * Over 151,000 gross lbs. of produce was harvested and used in the USP Leavenworth Food Service Department. FY 2009 * In FY 2009, the Food Service Vermiculture Project was established and is self-containing. The bedding for the worms is produced from the Food Service composting program. * The worms will eat over 20,800 lbs. of food waste a year which is diverted away from the local land fill and saving money for the institution trash removal. The worm castings harvested are then used as fertilizer for the green house project and other projects around the institution grounds. * In FY 2009, the Food Service Composting Project was established and is self-containing. 65,000 lbs of food waste and yard waste was used in the composting project. * In FY 2009, the Food Service Green House Project was established and is self-containing. Since established over 100,000 plants have been started in the green house. * In FY 2009, the Food Service Water harvesting project was established and is self-containing. Since established over 360,000 gallons of rain water have been harvested and been used for irrigation in the Gardens. * In FY 2009, the Food Service Green House Project was established and is self-containing. Since established over 100,000 plants have been started in the green house. * In FY 2009, the Food Service Garden / Farm Equipment Recycling Project. Using the GSA excess site Food Service has been able to acquire over $192,800 of much needed equipment. Recycling this equipment from other Government agencies has proven to be a great asset to the success of the Horticulture Program. In FY 2009, the Food Service Water Shed Project was established; there are 3 water structures (ponds) north of the USP Leavenworth. The three ponds had samples drawn from them in the spring of 2009 and sent to Kansas State University for testing and all ponds tested good for irrigation. If needed there is an estimated 9.5 million gallons of water that could be used for irrigation. * In FY 2009 Garden project increased in size to 32 acres. * In FY 2009 319,000 gross lbs of produce was harvested and used in the USP Leavenworth Food Service Department and at other facilities in the North Central Region. Specifically, the following institutions received produce from the Leavenworth Horticulture Program: FCC Florence 31,009 gross lbs. FCI Greenville 22,334 gross lbs. FPC Yankton 14,460 gross lbs. FMC Springfield 48,156 gross lbs. FY 2010 * In FY 2010, the Food Service Horticulture Program Therapy and Mentoring Community Service Program was established. * Food Service partnered with the following non profit organizations: ? Leavenworth County Salvation Army ? Harbor Lights Salvation Army, Kansas City ? Bellefontaine Salvation Army, Kansas City ? Jefferson County Salvation Army ? Holton County Salvation Army ? City Union Mission, Kansas City ? Council Of Aging Leavenworth County ? Alliance On Violence Leavenworth County ? Youth Achievement Center Leavenworth County * Estimated 1000 - 1400 Families are receiving food through this program every week. * Over 40 volunteers from the community are involved. * In FY 2010, An estimated 300,000 gross lbs of produce will be harvested. It is Estimated we will end the season in November with produce donated to the community service program totaling 100,000 gross lbs . * 85 Inmate Volunteers with over 3500 hrs have participated to date in the program In addition to benefitting the community, these programs are beneficial to the inmates who learn new skills, and enable inmates the opportunity to give back to the community and establish a productive work ethic. FY 2011 Over 300,000 lbs. of produce will be donated to the local community. • 20,000 families will benefit from this program.

Alpine has done it again! For the second month running Alpine Station has out-donated all other Marfa Sector Stations participating in the "Feds Feed Families" Food Drive. The total amount gathered for August by Alpine Station agents was 5,504 pounds. Over the past three months, Alpine employees donated a whopping 6,958 pounds of non-perishable food items. Spearheading the campaign was Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Leigh J. Murphy. Her efforts inspired station personnel to generously donate many cases of canned goods as well as large bags of much needed staple foodstuffs such as rice, beans and flour. The food gathering intensified as individual patrol units competed against each other to see who could gather the most. Patrol Unit Charlie won the competition by gathering an impressive 2,416.81 pounds of food, followed closely by Unit Bravo who gathered 2,191.85 pounds. All donations went to the local Alpine Food Pantry, which distributes the food to needy families throughout the Big Bend area.

Vern Lovett of the San Diego Tele-Service Center collected over 700 lbs of canned goods and non perishables between 08/05/2011 and 08/31/2011 for the Feds Feeds Families Food Drive. The San Diego Rescue Mission were the lucky recipients of the food. Great Job Vern. Keep up the good work.

In the month of August, FEDS FEED FAMILY reached out to the community for their annual food drive. The goal for participants was to reach a net weight of 250 Lbs of food. It is only appropriate that the Social Security Administration participated in this event since the agency has been assisting the public for 75 years. The employees at National City Social Security Administration Office accepted the challenge offered by the FEDS FEED FAMILY and proudly exceeded the goal by providing 270 Lbs of food and donating it to the “San Diego Rescue Mission”. The goal was achieved and made possible only through the compassion National City SSA employees have for assisting those in need.

TSA's CHA and TRI employees demonstrated tremendous support for the Feds Feed Families campaign. CHA collected 1,184 pounds; and TRI collected 1,143 pounds. Both airports came up with unique ideas to reach their goal. TSO Hill at TRI volunteered to go shopping for employees that wanted to donate money instead of goods; and TSM Hoppes at CHA volunteered to match every dollar donated on August 30th.

The month of August was a great month for the TSA Charlotte employees, who truly came together for this great cause. The total for August was 3725!! Yes a total of 3725 pounds of food went to the food bank!! Thanks for this great opportunity that was given to our Officers. (Note: Their goal was 2,000 pounds)

Navy Musicians as the School of Music in Virginia Beach, VA set up a collection point on the quarterdeck of the School. They organized weekly competitions among Army, Navy and Marine Corps staff and students, for which the prize was simply pride in service. Donations totaled 364 lbs of food and paper products, which were then dropped off at the JEB LC-FS base chapel, as part of the base-wide efforts.

Social Security Administration FO 963 Bakersfield committee members Deborah Buchanan, Trecia Doss, Jacque Farr, and Bethany Lopez started the 2011 kickoff by festively decorating the FO break room, displayed informative highlights of the Feds Feeds Families nationwide challenge, and provided a complimentary breakfast. The second week of the food drive awareness was brought to the table with a fabulous gourmet meal of rice, beans, tortillas and salsa catered by committee member Jacque Farr’s mother in exchange for non-perishable items. During the drive office personal received tickets for every pound of food to be entered in a drawing for a Professional Auto Detail Kit donated by the committee. The SSA FO 963 exceeded their goal and generously raised over 600 pounds for their local Kern County Golden Empire Gleaners food bank.

What a wonderful opportunity for our agency(U.S. Forest Service) to participate in helping families during their time of need. The Glenwood/Pedlar RD of the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest rallied to help accomplish the Department's (USDA) goal of 500,000 pounds of non-perishables, by donating 500 pounds of non-perishables to the Glasgow/Natural Bridge Food pantry. I am proud to say that our District gave out of the abundance of their hearts. I would like to thank the USDA and all who are responsible for helping to feed families and children during times of need. This shows that working together we can truly make a diffence. Thank you Glenwood/Pedlar RD for showing that America's need is our need!

Special Thanks to the San Diego Tele-Service Center of the Social Security Administration. They doubled their goal of 500 lbs of canned goods and non-perishables and actually collected 1186 lbs between 08/05/2011 and 08/31/2011. WOW!!! Because of the “Big Heart” of the San Diego TSC, families of the San Diego Rescue Mission will benefit. Vern Lovett and Jose Castro served as Coordinators during the food drive for the month of August 2011. This was the first time we all got to participate in the Feds Feed Families program but most certainly will not be the last. Next time we will challenge our local field offices and have even more participation. Congratulations!

Throughout the months of July and August the Nevada Division has been collecting food for local food banks for the Feds Feed Families Food Drive. The 15 staff members were very proud of their first delivery of 106 pounds to the food bank on August 10. But that was nothing compared to the friendly CANpetition between the Eastside and Westside of the office. Each team was required to design something out of their collected food which they felt represented FHWA the best. The Westside won most patriotic with their very large American Flag built out of Campbell’s and Progressive soup cans, but the overall winner was the Eastside with their bridge CANstruction and using cute kids with traffic signs. After everything was weighed in the Nevada Division had collected an additional 614 pounds of food on August 17 for a total of 720 pounds donated to the Dayton Food Bank and Friends in Service Helping (FISH). During the final week of August, the Nevada Division collected food for a local school program, Food for Thought, which provides homeless students with food for the weekend. Once again the Nevada Division stepped up and donated another 327 pounds, for a grand total of 1047 pounds of food donated locally. The Nevada Division is looking forward to next year with plans of expanding their CANpetition by challenging the other agencies within the Carson City Federal Building to build their CANstruction.

The incredible staff at the FEMA's Texas National Processing Service Center (TxNPS) supported the Feds Feed Families Food Drive by holding a can sculpture contest which netted a total of 4515 pounds of donated food and supplies, which exceed last year’s total of 3097 lbs. The donations were presented to the Denton Texas food bank, Denton Community Center.

My husband and I have always believed in charitable giving, and follow two basic principles: that charity begins in our home community; and that feeding people is one of the first things we can do to make a difference. There are many people in need right here in the Montgomery area of Alabama. I want to help them first. It is always hard to define the overall good of mankind when people are cold and hungry. So, we try to help feed those in need, and then work on education and other issues. All I can do is help out the best I can, and I am very blessed and grateful that I am able to help out in some small way.

USAID congratulates Valerie Dickson-Horton for her generous contribution of 250 lbs. of goods for the Feds Feed Families campaign. Thank you, Valerie, and congratulations on joining the Feds Feed Families Hall of Fame!

Amy Butler, Senior Program Analyst at U. S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Policy and Planning (OPP) had a great idea for collecting food for Feds Feed Family. She sent an email to her friends and colleagues asking them to donate their extra pennies. Below is an excerpt of the message she sent – Several of you may have been hearing the jingle jangle of coins being dropped in a jar recently. During one of my recent hunts for enough coins to feed my Diet Pepsi habit, I realized I had nothing but pennies in my coin cup. As I made my way to the Diet Pepsi machine, it occurred to me that if all of us put our random pennies together we could probably buy a good number of canned items for the Feds Feed Families program. Here are my thoughts about how this could work: 1. Everyone gather all the pennies in your desk drawers. 2. Everyone bring your pennies to the big jar on my desk. 3. I take the pennies to a machine and get a Shopper’s gift card (so we don’t have to pay any transaction fee). 4. I buy a bunch of good food. 5. OPP astounds the entire federal government with their generosity. 6. The President weeps at our caring. 7. CNN picks up the story and we’re all famous. Okay…maybe 6 and 7 are a stretch. In any case, if you have any extra pennies (or other random non-foreign coins), I’d love to have them for the cause. Thanks so much! Amy

This thank you letter was received form Metropolitan Ministries. USSOCOM contributed 2500 lbs. MacDill AFB total was 5,000 lbs.

The OPM USA Staffing Program Office employees kicked off Feds Feed Families (FFF) 2011 under the theme of “Great Giving Starts Here: Filling the Virtual Shopping Cart.” The USA Staffing employees, of whom many telework from various cities across the United States, eagerly stepped up to the challenge. In addition to in-person donations of non-perishable items in OPM headquarters in Washington, DC, USA Staffing employees nationwide made “virtual” contributions to the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) via purchases on Amazon.com shipped to OPM headquarters as a way of centralizing contributions to FFF.
These teleworkers took full advantage of the Amazon.com free shipping offerings as well as the online retailer’s diverse product selections that met the needs of CAFB’s “Wish List”. The USA Staffing Program Office contributions ranged from baby food to 50 pound bags of rice. This motivated employees to give since making a difference was “just a click away.” As a result, the USA Staffing Program Office has so far exceeded its FFF 2011 goal by over 60%!

The OPM’s AVS Feds Feed Families “Can”struction was a great success! The offices within OPM that participated were ASTA, PASP, WLW, HRS, and Veterans. And the winner was… PASP!!!

USAID’s Feds Feed Families Champion, Noreen O’Meara, donated 250 lbs. of goods for the food drive on Monday, 8/22/11. The USAID team is proud of Noreen for her dedication to making the food drive a success, and for her exemplary service. Noreen has been a tenacious leader in rallying the USAID team and her 250 lb. donation secures her spot as a Feds Feed Families “Hall of Famer”! Noreen loves helping others and has been an outstanding champion for the Feds Feed Families campaign. Thank you, Noreen!

USAID’s Feds Feed Families team is thrilled to congratulate Ken Davis for his generous donation of 250 lbs. of goods on Wednesday, 8/17/11, for the 2011 Feds Feed Families food drive. Every day, Ken demonstrates his commitment to supporting families all over the world as a program specialist in USAID’s Food for Peace program. His donation is further evidence of that commitment, and of his spirit of generosity. It will help bring USAID closer to achieving its goal of raising 2,200 lbs. of goods during the food drive – more importantly, it will support dozens of local families in need. Thank you, Ken!

On August 11th, our Deputy Secretary, Dan Poneman, travelled to Germantown, and his band, "Yellow Cake" entertained staff after he delivered a very inspiring message. Mike Kane, our Department's Chief Human Capital Officer participated too as well as our Principal Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, Phil Calbos. The band "Brent and Company" entertained the crowd after "Yellow Cake's" concert. We had a cook-out, games, and fun for all. At the event, we collected 411 pounds of food and received 38 pledges for a total of 886 pounds pledged! The items collected from this event will go towards our August collection totals.

On August 4th, we held the Annual DOE Feeds Families Festival at the West Plaza in Forrestal. We received 525 of food and non-perishable items directly at the Festival and an additional 8888 pounds leading up to the Festival at the Forrestal location, for a total of 9413 pounds donated from July 28th-August 4th! We also received 36 pledges at the DOE Feeds Families Festival at Forrestal for 2,206 lbs. The items collected went towards our July total in which over 81,000 pounds were donated DOE-wide!

Our Deputy Secretary and his band "Yellow Cake" played at this event as well, followed by "Brent and Company". Both bands were outstanding! After inspiring messages from our leaders, some of our most brave, entered the dunk tank: Tom D'Agostino, Neile Miller, Dr. Cook, Anne Harrington, Mike Kane, and Rita Franklin. Those that either donated or pledged to donate 10 items got to take a shot at dunking our leaders! Leaders from other agencies, NASA and OPM, bravely entered "the tank" as well. We also kicked off the DOE/NNSA versus NASA challenge, in which the winning agency will receive artwork from the losing agency; based on Feds Feed Families collection totals (DOE leads 88,064 to 52,042).