prAna Sale will benefit North County's Food Bank!

Looking for some new outdoor gear or yoga clothes? If you are, you do not want to miss the prAna Warehouse Sale this year. Not only will you get amazing deals on high quality prAna goods (we are talking 50-75% savings), but they are donating 1% of the profits from this sale to North County's Food Bank. You can give back and get great goodies for yourself or holiday gifts at the same time! What could be better? So here are the details:

WHEN:

December 9, 2011 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

December 10, 2011 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

WHERE:

prAna Warehouse Sale

3275 Corporate Way

Vista, CA 92081

REMEMBER:

1% of sales go directly to North County's Food Bank!

I hope to see you there!

MiraCosta College Makes a Difference!

Click on the title of this post to see the full album on Facebook!

MiraCosta College Service Learning Department did a complete overhaul of River Road Gardens on Saturday, November 5 for their annual volunteer project, Make a Difference Day. It was possibly our largest volunteer projects in the garden ever, with over 70 MiraCosta students, faculty, and staff volunteering in a single day! We cleared out summer crops and replanted most if it, covering about 600 square feet in new seeds and seedlings. We put in onions, peas, celery, spinach, chard, kale, mustard greens, broccoli, cabbage, cilantro, parsley, garlic, lettuce, and carrots.

It has been two weeks since the project, and now we have lots of baby plants coming up from seeds they planted! Spinach, peas, and salad greens are emerging from the soil, promising a great winter harvest.

This work crew was so positive, energetic, and hardworking. We could use MiraCosta giving back every month! If that is asking too much, I hope to see them next year.

~Abby Weglarz~

~Garden Program & Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

One last Serve-a-thon

Before:

Here at North County Community Services, we are greatly saddened by the news that Volunteer San Diego has shut down. They have helped our organization with projects and volunteer recruitment over the years, and their partnership will be greatly missed. Every year in October, they helped put together projects all across San Diego County, and they called it Serve-a-thon. Even though Volunteer San Diego closed, we went ahead with our planned Serve-a-thon project and it was a great success.

After:

The project was a complete overhaul of the vegetable gardens at one of our preschool sites in Escondido, as well as painting tricycle tracks and playground games. Two organizations came with volunteer support, so thank you to Hewlett-Packard and Teradata! Teradata was also so kind to bring the plants that went into the garden! Our materials for replanting were supplied by a very generous gift card from Home Depot. We planted a full winter garden, including lettuce (my favorite is a green with red-speckled variety called "freckles"), broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chard, beets, cilantro, parsley, onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and peas.

Click on the blog title for the full picture album on our Facebook page!

~Abby Weglarz~

~Garden Program and Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

Garden fun with Girlscouts troop 4296

With summer coming to a close and the fall season rolling in, it is time to get seeds started for winter crops! Here in San Diego, you can grow many vegetables in the winter that don't like our summer heat, like lettuce and other greens, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, and herbs like parsley and cilantro.

The Girlscouts troop 4296 has been helping out in the River Road Gardens on a regular basis since May, and now they have started a take home project: turning tiny seeds into seedlings for our winter garden! When they bring back the seed trays in a few weeks, the little plants will be ready to transplant into the ground.

The vegetables we grow at the River Road Gardens go directly to our 8 preschool kitchens throughout North County San Diego. Starting seeds and fostering the seedlings for North County Community Services is a great way for kids and adults to give back to their community! Even with fancy seed-starting trays, it is still highly cost effective when compared to buying baby plants.

We also have beds for rent to community members to grow their own food. If you are interested in helping in the gardens or renting a bed, contact Abby, garden program and volunteer coordinator at volunteer@sdnccs.org.

And now, some pictures from Girlscout troop 4296 from June 2011.

Above: The girls take a break for snacks

Below: We learn where potatoes come from

Below: starting seeds in the garden

For the full album, click here!

Fitness in the Garden

Recently, employees from 24 Hour Fitness joined us in the garden for a work party. Having a group of gym professionals in the garden made me curious about how many calories are burned gardening. I found this website that calculates exactly that! I put in my stats and learned that I burn 260 calories per hour gardening. Now, I'm not the fitness expert, so I have no idea what this means, but it sounds pretty good to me!

Want to know what is even more exciting than the calories we burned? The calories we harvested, of course! During 24 Hour Fitness' one day volunteer event on July 19th, they harvested 276.5 lbs of food. If anyone can figure out how many calories that is, let me know. (I'm serious- my email is volunteer@sdnccs.org)

And now, the pictures.

Below: 24 Hour Fitness poses after the volunteer project. The wheel-barrow full of weeds is evidence of their hard work.

Below: A volunteer shows off a monster of a zucchini. No wonder we have harvested 262 lbs of zucchini alone this summer.
Below: A load of Armenian Cucumbers (yard-long cucumber). Used like a cucumber, it is actually a kind of muskmelon, so it likes our So-Cal heat more than your regular 'ole cucumbers.
This volunteer project was made possible by 24 Hour Fitness, bringer of volunteers; and by Cedros Gardens in Encinitas, donor of flowers to replant our beds with.

~Abigail Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

Navy Volunteers Visit River Road Gardens!

On July 1 2011, 22 volunteers from a local Navy unit visited North County Community Services child development center and gardens at North River Road in Oceanside. The servicemen and women harvested potatoes with four-year-olds and improved the gardens that raise thousands of pounds of food benefiting hundreds of North County Families. Thank you to all who participated in today's event! Below are pictures highlighting the days events! For a full photo album, click here!

Below: The Navy volunteers gather up for a group shot at the end of the day.

Below: While loading up a wheelbarrow with mulch, one volunteer found a lizard living in the wood chips!
Below: Volunteers weeded, watered, and wrapped two garden beds in plastic in order to solarize them. We will leave the plastic on for about a month, and when we uncover them, all the weeds, including seeds, will (hopefully) be gone!
Below: Volunteers work hard to remove all the weeds from one of the paths in the garden.
Below: After weeding the pathway, Navy volunteers spread out weed-block and wood chips to suppress new weeds.

Below: Four-year-olds from our preschool, show off the fingerling potatoes that they dug up with the help of Navy volunteers!

~Abigail Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

Genentech Gives Back!

June 14th was was the day in 2011 when Genentech gave back. In 2010, volunteers from Genentech helped us build raised beds at the Gardens at River Road, to be planted later with vegetables to support our preschools and Food Bank.

This year, they harvested the fruits of their labor! They picked and cleaned 70 lbs of beets, cucumbers, basil, onions, carrots, beans, and herbs. This brought the total food harvested in 2011 to 500 lbs! Everyone had fun harvesting a row of potatoes with four- and five-year-old preschoolers!

In addition to harvesting produce, Genentech volunteers did an amazing job weeding an area of the garden, then covering that area with weed block and wood chips. Thanks to the 14 volunteers on June 14th, the garden truly looks better then ever.

I can't wait to see Genentech again next year!

~Abby Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

Life Technologies Global Volunteer Day

For Life Technologies' Global Volunteer Day, they graciously donated their time and energy to North County Community Services. On May 11, 2011, over 60 Life Technologies employees volunteered a total of 220 hours at one of NCCS's sites. The work they did enhanced and rejuvenated one of our preschools and our large garden on North River Road in Oceanside. We thank Life Technologies for their generous support and completion of a number of important projects. They came with bright smiles and an eagerness to work hard, finish tasks, solve problems, and have fun. The projects they helped us with include:

• Preparing our garden for the coming season (read: lots of weeding)
• Building adult picnic tables to seat 30
• Providing and filling a white sand beach in our playground sand box
• Building scarecrows
• Harvesting about 140 lbs of lettuce, kale, chard, onions, cilantro, and green beans
• Replanting many garden beds with seeds and seedlings
• Planning and painting a mural on our on-site storage unit
• and more!

Thankfully, we had a gorgeous day for the project. Fun was had by all, and we accomplished a whole lot! You can check out the full album of pictures on our Facebook page! Do you want to get involved? Don't worry, there are still many more projects to complete; you can help once or regularly, as a group or as an individual. Just let us know you are interested in volunteering and we can get you started! Email Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org for more information.

Murrieta Springs into action!

For spring break, ninth grade students from Murrieta Springs Academy spent their week volunteering at projects in San Diego County, and did two great projects with North County Community Services! On Monday, April 11th, they volunteered at North County's Food Bank for over two hours and helped with all of the daily operations, including unloading, sorting, and packing food. They were a great group of enthusiastic, energetic volunteers, eager to accomplish goals and learn as they worked. They even came with their own photographer, who took some great pictures!

On Thursday, April 14th they spent the afternoon at the Gardens at River Road. There, they helped weed, and harvest ripe veggies. In all, they harvested about 30 lbs of kale, lettuce, chard, and peas that we

nt to North County's Food Bank to be distributed to those in need.

Thank you Murrieta Springs Academy! I hope to see you again next spring break!

~Abby Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

Macys bags hunger in March!

Every year for the past 14 years, Macy's stores nationwide rally around the cause to "Bag Hunger". Across the country, each store finds a local nonprofit organization working on eradicating hunger to support. As in the past, North County Community Services was chosen in 2011 by several Macy's stores in the area as the nonprofit they would like to support. The Macy's at North County Fair in Escondido, and the Macy's at Plaza Camino Real in Carlsbad helped "Bag Hunger" in March by supporting North County's Food Bank.

Macy's employees helped eradicate hunger this past month in more ways than one. Both locations hosted food drives, and together collected 240 pounds of food to be distributed to the needy through North County's Food Bank. Additionally, both locations allowed employees to sign up for volunteer shifts at North County's Food Bank, for a total of 24 volunteer hours served.

The Macy's at North County Fair also committed one Saturday morning to replanting the edible garden at one of our low-income preschool sites in Escondido. Volunteers helped weed and clear beds, amend the soil, and replant a variety of edible plants including bush beans, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes, basil, and strawberry. Yum! This garden is used as a living classroom for preschoolers to learn about where food comes from, and get extra access to healthy, fresh produce for their lunches.

Thank you North County Fair, Plaza Camino Real, and all Macy's locations for helping bag hunger in March!

If you are interested in helping to end hunger in North County San Diego as an individual or corporate partner, you can do so by hosting a food drive, volunteering, or better yet both! To set up a volunteer opportunity, contact Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org or 760-471-5483. To start a food drive, email Mai at fooddrive@sdnccs.org. We appreciate your support!

~Abby Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

Food donations, made easy!

The Holiday Food and Funds Drive is over, but that doesn't mean it's time to stop giving! We are making it easier than ever to donate nonperishable goods to North County's Food Bank. Use the map below to find a drop location near you.

Keep in mind our most needed items:

• Canned protein (tuna, chicken, salmon, etc)
• Canned soups, chili, beef stew (preferably low sodium)
• Peanut butter, nut butter
• Pasta & pasta sauce
• Canned or dried beans
• Rice
• Cereal or rolled oats
• Boxed macaroni and cheese
• Canned fruit (preferably in its own juice)
• Canned vegetables

Sorry, but we do not accept the following:

• Nonfood items
• Glass jars
• Damaged containers

Don't see a spot on the map near you? Be the change you wish to see and start a food drive! Email fooddrive@sdnccs.org to get started.

View Food Drive Locator Map in a larger map

~Abigail Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~

3-Meals Campaign Against Hunger

Learn how you can support North County's Food Bank and their 3-Meal Campaign Against Hunger by visiting us at www.sdnccs.org.

2011 Carlsbad Marathon!

The 2011 Tri-City Medical Center Carlsbad Marathon & Half has come and gone. I thank the one-hundred-and-some volunteers that assisted with the water station and course support operated by North County's Food Bank.

Volunteers started trickling in around 5:30 am on Sunday, January 23rd. By 6, most of them had arrived, and by 6:30, there was a buzz of activity to prepare our station for the 10,000 or so runners that were expected to start passing through in about an hour.

Having never worked at a marathon before (and honestly, having never even seen one) I didn't quite know what to expect, other than excitement. I sure was right about that part! Our station served both the marathon and half-marathon runners at mile 20 and mile 7, respectively. With only a few exceptions on either end, the majority of both marathon and half-marathon runners passed by our station in a steady stream that lasted about an hour or two. While the runners were running, our station was running like a well-oiled volunteer machine, pouring and handing out water and "Ultima", cheering, and being generally awesome. It was great to see so many volunteers putting so much effort into this event, and the result was so fun! If you didn't get a chance to volunteer this year, I strongly suggest getting involved next year. It is an event you shouldn't miss!

If you were there and have any picture from the day, you can post them on our Facebook page!

Again, thank you so much to all the volunteers for all the hard work!

~Abby Weglarz~

~Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~