Photo courtesy of the Pioneer Press

Minnesota’s first annual Holiday Lights in the Park kicked off last night with a very special guest. Tammie Schommer, a victim of a terrible attack in Phalen Park last August, joined Mayor Coleman in flipping the switch to light up the park. Joined also by Police Chief John Harrington, Council Member Dan Bostrom and Santa, Tammie’s presence at the event was an inspiring and heartwarming addition to the kickoff speakers.

Holiday Lights in the Park is a .6-mile long trail of animated displays and holiday lights along Lake Phalen in Saint Paul. Proceeds from the event will benefit local charities, including Second Harvest Heartland. Famillies in the community are encouraged to visit the park, nightly from November 25 through December 31. For more information, visit www.lightsinthepark.org or our events page.

Watch the video below to see Bernard Berrian’s personal challenge to you. Will you join him in his plight to feed hungry children and their families this holiday season? Check out the video below to learn more – and don’t forget to read his personal challenge letter.

Email this to a friend.

Donate now to make sure your gift is matched.

(You can also view pictures of Bernard handing out turkeys at NorthPoint Food Shelf this afternoon!)

Concert tickets, turkeys, comedy shows, coffee sipping, Disney on Ice….

Wondering what these things have in common?

The answer is two family-friendly, community events going on this Saturday that give you the chance to have fun, get involved and help feed our hungry neighbors.

Calhoun Coffee Fest

Are you a coffee lover? For only $9, you’ll receive a specially designed 19th annual Coffee Festival mug and access to vendors. Samples include a large variety of coffee and teas, breads and sweet desserts, and a number of other tasty surprises. Admission will also give you access to various educational seminars as well as some fun entertainment options. In addition to the unique entertainment and the tasty treats and drinks, there will be prize drawings and special offers from participating vendors. All proceeds from this event will benefit Second Harvest Heartland, with a one day goal of feeding 20,000 people. Check out the Calhoun Coffee Fest website for more info.

K102′s Tickets for Turkeys

If concert tickets, tickets to the IMAX or Disney on Ice are more your style, come down to the Cub Foods in Shakopee this Saturday between 7:00 am and 10:00 am with a turkey to donate. Each person who donates a turkey to feed a hungry family this Thanksgiving will be given an envelope with a pair of tickets. You won’t know what you’ve won til you open it!
Click here for directions to the Cub Foods in Shakopee.

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and his mother, Bonita Jackson, took part in an event with Campbell’s Chunky Soup on Tuesday to help generate awareness about hunger in our community. Peterson and Jackson positioned themselves on one end of a giant spoon, while cases of Chunky Soup were placed on the other end. It took 384 cans in all to get it to balance out – all of which was donated to Second Harvest Heartland.

After the victory against the Packers on Sunday, Peterson was already a hero to sports fans in Minnesota. But now he and his mother have made an impact on many more people than just Vikings fans. Their charitable effort is very much appreciated – and will help feed our hungry neighbors this holiday season!

A few years ago, one of our volunteers, Michael, decided he wanted to start celebrating his birthdays in a more meaningful way. Instead of getting gifts and cards from his family and friends, he asked them to give him 2-3 hours of volunteer time instead.

For the past three years, Second Harvest Heartland has been chosen as the beneficiary of these volunteer hours. Two years ago, Michael and his group of 10 friends and family members helped pack food boxes. Last year, they helped us write hand written thank you notes to first time donors. And last Sunday, Michael and his group helped us collect food and monetary donations at the Vikings game.

As if his generosity wasn’t inspiring enough, Michael always makes sure to take his family members and friends to dinner after every volunteer event, as a “thank you” for their time and support.

Last year, volunteers of Second Harvest Heartland gave enough of their time to equal that of 25 full-time employees. Volunteers like Michael make a tremendous impact on hundreds of thousands of lives, and we sincerely thank them for their ongoing support.

Over the last month or so, we’ve had some great response to a couple last-minute volunteer opportunities. More than 120 volunteers, staff, truck drivers and others stepped up to help us harvest apples from nearby orchards. With their help, we’ve been able to glean over 61,000 pounds of fresh apples to be distributed to those in need.

We are so inspired by everyone who has volunteered their time and energy, and we wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the feedback we’ve received from volunteers.

“I wanted to let you know that the recent apple picking effort for 2nd Harvest at Apple Jacks was a great idea. I brought my whole family to help out. It was a great cause and we all had a great time picking the apples as well. I think this is a great way to get younger people like my two boys involved. It is a great idea to get some of this fresh produce to people that are going hungry. Otherwise the apples would have gone wasted. I happened to run into the owner of the apple farm, Jack. He was so pleased that we were out there and making good use out of his apple harvest. I believe there has to be other businesses that would also like to donate fresh produce like this to the hungry families in MN. Keep up the great work and let me know when there are other opportunities to help.” – Tom and Nancy Lego

“We had a great time picking apples for Second Harvest today. It was a great idea. How generous of the orchard. We felt it was a terrific family activity. Our kids really enjoyed it even though they were working hard and it was a great learning experience. Our kids are only 7 and 9 years old yet they were able to pick a substantial amount of apples.
I explained to them how we always donate to the food shelf but the value of the apples we picked was so much more than we could ever afford to give monetarily. Thanks for the opportunity.” – Beth Breiter

“Just wanted to say what a great morning we had at Dassel Hillside Farm. It is good to know there are caring people like Carl and his wife to donate apples from their crop to Second Harvest. I will admit that we are a little sore, need to teach the left hand to pick next time!  I can guarantee we are 100% glad we went!” -Ann and Mark Hall

“I didn’t know what to expect when we got there. There were a ton of apples to be picked. We had eight apple trees as kids, but picking apples at Hillside was more fun than I remembered. We talked and laughed and enjoyed the sunshine all while doing something that will help feed others.” – Kathy Michaelson

“My sister Ann and I had a fabulous time picking apples yesterday – and knowing they are going to good use. As farmer’s daughters, we were taught to never waste. Part of our values. Thank you for arranging for us – and others – to participate in service – and to walk my path to peace.” – Julie Rogers Bascom

“I want to thank you for providing the opportunity to further help Second Harvest Heartland. Money is the easy gift. The harder gift is volunteering your time. The time spent that Saturday was extremely fullfilling. And it was fun. I was more than happy to carpool with other volunteers for a very rewarding day.
If you have a need for further volunteers to help out, please contact me via your email list.
Thank you again for the opportunity to help others.” – Richard Sollberger

This is just some of the wonderful feedback we’ve received from volunteers. We want to personally thank everyone who has spent their Saturday mornings and afternoons helping us to achieve this terrific feat. These 61,000 pounds of apples will be provide much-needed healthy, free food to those in need in our community, and we couldn’t do this important work without your support.

Thanks so much!

Dennie – Volunteer Manager
Tim – Volunteer Coordinator
Jerry – Food Resource

(Update 11/11/08 – View pictures here!)

Mackall, Crounse & Moore, PLC and Eide Bailly LLP are challenging local accounting and law firms to help step up and join in the fight to end hunger in the heartland. As of today, 17 firms have already risen to the challenge to help raise food and funds to be donated to Second Harvest Heartland, and to help feed our hungry neighbors.

All food and fund collection will take place in a two-week span, between November 10 and 21. The individual firms are coming up with fun ways to raise awareness about the competition, from karaoke contests to bake sales, dunk-the-boss contests to auctions.

Competitions like Food Mania are great ways to get the message of hunger out in our community and around your workplace. Check out our Food and Fund Drives page for some more ideas and information about how you can get involved and help take action to end hunger.