Maltby Food Bank Archives

Season of Giving Day 6 Host a Diaper Drive

November 6, 2011 by Momstart 7 Comments

You might have noticed that yesterday I used the wrong phrase for this series. I called it the Season of sharing, but whatever you call it, Season of Giving, Season of Sharing Spirit of giving, we here at MomStart hope to encourage you to find a way to give this year.

By Summer,

Calling all parents! Quick, look in your bag, stroller, child’s closet, bathroom, car – chances are you’ve got some “leftover” diapers from a stage your child is no longer in just lying around. You know the stragglers you can count on one hand. You may know they’re there and just haven’t known what to do with them, or they might be sitting there waiting to be discovers, but I have a solution for you. Check with your local food bank to see if they accept “open package” diaper donations. My local food bank, Maltby Food Bank, happily accept diaper stragglers to help their patrons as diapers are so expensive! There is also a local support for single moms-to-be in my neighborhood called Special Delivery and they will take your open diaper packages too. Mom Start worked with Pampers and Johnson’s earlier this year to help support Special Delivery.

My local organizations also accepts other diapering and baby supplies such as open packages of wipes, diaper cream, pacifiers, bottles, and cans of formula (including samples received in the mail). Check with your local organization when you’re looking to get rid of these items. Remember, product donations to your local non-profit 501(c) are tax deductible.

If you want to make a bigger impact, ask your friends to search their homes to find their straggler diapers too. If you’re donating to the food bank add some non-perishable food items. Organizations in need of diapers will also gladly accept cash donations and gift cards to purchases items needed by their cliental.

Feeding America is a group of food banks and Feeding America can help you find a local food bank in your area if you don’t know where one is located. Feeding America can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.

Our Community Charity Project Matched By Nature’s Path: Box Out Hunger

July 2, 2011 by Momstart 4 Comments

My local MOMS Club chapter held our third annual Box Out Hunger cereal box drive to benefit our community food bank in Maltby, the Maltby Food Bank. From the MOMS, the club collected 44 boxes of cereal. Nature’s Path Organics (a smaller family run, but international, company from B.C. Canada) matched us box-for-box … in fact, they actually sent 48 boxes as each shipping box contained 12 boxes. The idea for the Box Out Hunger cereal drive was formed from the knowledge that free and reduced breakfasts and lunches are no longer offered to local children during the summertime as meals are a school district program, and cereal and other foods categorized as breakfast items are expensive to purchase and not highly donated to food banks in general.

A big THANK YOU to Nature’s Path for their generosity! In addition to finding Nature’s Path Organic on their website, you can find Nature’s Path on Facebook] and Twitter @NaturesPath. You can read more about Nature’s Path on Mom Start in our posts: Every Day is Earth Day, Hemp Plus Granola, SmartBran Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes Recipe, Manna Organics Bread, Love Crunch Cereal, and Ancient Grains Cereal.

About Summer:

Summer is the President of our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.

Summer put this thank you piece together, but I wanted to take a moment to say thank you as well. It’s an amazing opportunity for us to provide high quality organic food to our food bank. Something I’m sure they don’t see very often. Thank you Nature’s Path!!!

Life Behind the Blog: Why We Do The Things We Do

April 27, 2011 by Momstart 10 Comments

I’ve been keeping extremely busy behind the blog. My husband and I are taking a class at church called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey and well we’re learning all kinds of things, and mainly we’ve come to the decision to live our lives differently. We’re working very hard selling stuff we don’t use or no longer need, and I’ve sold a few things that I really loved to make a little extra money to put some of Dave’s practices into place. You may have even noticed that I’ve been doing more sponsored posts and have been trying out a few advertising techniques in order to earn a little money. Every little bit helps.

I’ve also been working on a few different charity projects. I don’t’ blog about all the charity work that I do, or mention it as much as I used to but I haven’t changed, most of the products received are still donated. I’m still making an impact in my community with all the work I do here on MomStart. I know that other bloggers look at my site and see it as a waste of on-line space but I’ve decided I don’t care what they think anymore. Everything I do and all the hard work and commitments I sign up for help this site be the success that it is and open up the opportunities that allow me to do things to help others. I love what I do, and I love the people I’ve met and the PR reps that I get to work with. So I hold my head up high knowing that I do have integrity in all that I do. And just to say thank you to all the companies involved in the larger projects we’re working on, I wanted to mention a few of them. Here are four of our current projects that we’re working on right now as a MomStart team behind the blog!

Box Out Hunger – The Box Out Hunger cereal drive is something that my local MOMS Club chapter does to benefit the Maltby Food Bank. This year MomStart has been working with the Nature’s Path Organics Food company. So we asked them if they would match our collection box for box and they said yes. So a big thank you to Nature’s Path Organics from MOMS Club of Woodinville WA and MomStart. Maltby Food Bank uses these boxes of cereal and snacks to feed kids that would normally get a free meal at school, and during the summer would otherwise go hungry.

Eastside Domestic Violence Program Fundraiser – Remember that sandwich competition that I was part of? Hillshire Farms donated 1000.00 to the Eastside Domestic Violence Program on behalf of my participation in the contest. I’ve also gathered up quite a few products (over $1800.00 worth) and things that were hardly used or were given to me from companies to donate directly. The Eastside Domestic Violence Program is having their yearly auction and fundraiser World of Hope Dinner & Auction on May 14th 2011 and I’m quite proud to be apart of it.

Pampers Miracles – As a Pampers Baby Board Ambassador, I’ve been given the opportunity to host a charity event of my making. They are providing me with the means to do some very large random acts of kindness that I can use to throw an event or just donate to a charity that helps little miracles. I’m so excited to be apart of the Pampers little miracles program and can’t wait to start helping little miracles. I’ve pulled in some of my friends to help me come up with ideas and this ones going to be BIG, so it will take much of our time and you’ll see even fewer personal posts while we’re working on this one.

Seattle Mom Prom – Summer has been quite an asset to MomStart this year and she’s been working on supporting the Seattle Mom Prom. On May 21, 2011 at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center from 8pm until Midnight Seattle Mom Prom will be raising money for Postpartum Support International of Washington. We’ve been collecting products for them to use as door prizes or possibly auction items and we can’t wait to be part of the fun. If you live in the Seattle area you can find out more by checking out the Seattle Mom Prom website, Liking their Seattle Mom Prom Facebook page, and following them on Twitter @SeattleMomProm. If you’re a company and want to help by giving a donation you can contact Myla Rugge through her Mom Prom email address [seattlemomprom@live.com].

All of these things are because of this blog, the support from our readers, and the companies that we work with. So the personal posts may have slowed down for the time being, but that’s because we’re working very hard behind the scenes. Thank you everyone that makes all of this possible.

Zoe and Miles and Hasbro helped me with Toys For Tots

December 24, 2010 by Momstart 4 Comments

I always miss the deadline for donating toys for the Maltby Food Bank, and toys keep coming even when I do remember to make the deadline. So we had more toys I wanted to give away before Christmas. Some of the toys came from Hasbro and you can see a list and description of those toys listed below.

Other toys came from My Share the Joy Experience with Zoe.

And then of course I had some toys left over from BlogHer 2010. I was planning on giving them to Zoe and Miles but after all the presents from Grandma and Papa, and Grandma Mimi and Pawpaw, and from Gran, well the kids had more than enough presents under the tree so Andrew and I decided to even give some of the toys we purchased to charity along with what I received at Blogher 10.

I feel very blessed to have been chosen for so many different giving campaigns and was happy to work in others of my own choice. I worked the Seattle Tweet Drive, Random Acts of Zhu, Land’s End Share the Joy, Operation Christmas Child and gave to Toys for Tots, I’ll also be making a large donation to the Maltby Food Bank when they re-open in January (I messed up on that one, I never thought about the fact they would be closed over the Christmas Break…OOPS) !

Check out Miles and Zoe giving the toys to Charity!

We dropped off the toys at Toys R Us a drop off for Toys for Tots.

These are the toys that Hasbro sent us: They sent us the Play-Doh Mega Fun Factory (which was hard for me to give away), and Adventure Heroes Hero On The Go Playset, and an Explore ‘n Grow Musical Gear Center. Thank you Hasbro for helping us help others have a Merry Christmas.

PLAY-DOH MEGA FUN FACTORY

Fifty years after the launch of the original FUN FACTORY toy, the brand new MEGA FUN FACTORY set takes classic extruding play to a whole new level! A motorized conveyor belt provides nonstop action as kids crank out favorite toys and "treats" in this lively FUN FACTORY world. To start, children push down the purple handle to extrude the colored PLAY-DOH compound of their choice. As the conveyor belt moves the PLAY-DOH compound along, kids select and stamp out a “candy” or toy mold and then push down the "chopper" at the end of the belt to cut their creation loose. To complete the fantastical FUN FACTORY experience, kids can display and "sell" their creations on a colorful playmat featuring a toy shop theme on one side and a candy store theme on the other side. Set includes six 2-ounce cans of PLAY-DOH compound. Requires two "AA" batteries, not included. Available at most major toy retailers nationwide and on HasbroToyShop.com.

ADVENTURE HEROES HERO ON THE GO PLAYSETS

Grab your pack and let’s go! With the PLAYSKOOL Hero on the Go playsets little ones can play the adventure or become the hero with two ways to play. In role play mode, kids strap on the backpack complete with flashing lights and realistic sounds to become an exciting police officer or a brave fire fighter with a role play fire hose! With the simple press of a button, the pack opens to reveal a themed playset inside, complete with an action figure and vehicle ready for adventure. Choose between a fire or police HERO ON THE GO playset, each sold separately. Requires three "AA" batteries, included. Available at most major toy retailers nationwide and on HasbroToyShop.com.

EXPLORE ‘N GROW MUSICAL GEAR CENTER

Spinning colorful gears and merry music make the MUSICAL GEAR CENTER toy perfect for lively babies! Press the cheerful critter to start the action of the swirling gears, balls, and music! Drop the ball through the shoot for put ‘n take fun or spin the side gears to send the happy face turning round and round. As baby’s fine motor skills begin to develop, the MUSICAL GEAR CENTER toy offers exciting new ways to play – baby can now stack and reconfigure the interchangeable gears for even more silly, spinning fun. The MUSICAL GEAR CENTER toy includes five interchangeable gears and two EXPLORE ‘N GROW balls, compatible with most other gear and ball products in the line. Requires two "AA" batteries, not included. Available at most major toy retailers nationwide and on HasbroToyShop.com.