March 17, 2010

Food donations up 40% at Thoughts for Food

Food Bank director Dan Taivalkoski at last year's concert

There's mostly good news from this year's Thoughts for Food, as the final numbers are tallied.

Attendance was up 8 percent over last year, and food donations were up 40 percent. Income was also up, 7 percent -- but so were expenses.

Nonetheless, by all accounts, Dan Taivalkoski, executive director of the Racine County Food Bank, tallies up this year's concert a success.

Here are the final numbers (subject, as always, to minor tweaking):

Net income from the benefit concerts was $15,495, just $207 less than last year. But 3,628 pounds of food were collected, compared to 2,588 last year. Total attendance this year was 1,812, compared to 2009's 1,681.

Some of the money collected came from the friends and family of Lester Eaton, a World War II vet who, before he died on Feb. 24 was a member of the Circle 8 Square Dance Club. Memorials in his name totalled $900.

28 comments:

  1. Great job! Thanks!

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  2. It would be nice if people would donate money or food items for this worthwhile cause w/out having to be coaxed into taverns (with live bands) to drink alcohol, but then again, this is Racine.

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  3. Nothin' wrong with a good time for a good cause.

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  4. Ya, you're right, just ask the store owner on main st. who's business was broken into by the drunk wearing a kilt right after the st. patty's day parade......Nothin' wrong with that I tell ya!

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  5. Good luck finding your perfect world.

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  6. Don't for get that we also had a Thoughts For Food All Ages band show with 8 bands Friday night March 5 at the YMCA that brought in about of that $900. too.

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  7. A great event for a great cause! And yes, it would be nice for people to consider donating food/$ without having to go out and have a great time listening to live music from local musicians. Start your own event instead of whining.

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  8. So many 'anonymous brave people' kicking in their 2 cents worth-- and the constant in-fighting and bickering beats on....LOL. I have run into many Vets who have dropped out of this Vet org just for that reason. I would like to attend meetings sometime but I use a power scooter for bad knees and back, and have to take care of my dying wife. However, I wish you all luck on this worthy enterprise!

    Tom Schuckman
    tschuckman@aol.com
    Disabled Vietnam Veteran: 68-70 and Retired Chrysler worker [30.5 years]
    240th AHC, Door Gunner, BearCat, RVN.

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  9. All I know is that plenty of great people struggled to collect a relatively modest amount of money, a sum which the private sector privateers responsible for the hunger in this sorry city could have donated many times over sans hardship. Had the Waxtrash Corporate Crime Family spent even one percent of the fortune it blew on Fancy-Sleaz-a Mall to help our Food Bank, hunger would have vanished from Racine long ago.

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  10. 12:48 - You don't know anything. How much have you donated to the food bank? How often do you volunteer to help out any organization? How much money do you donate - quit pointing fingers at others and take some responsibility yourself to contribute.

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  11. From those who have the most, much must be expected. Given the sad situation of ordinary citizens in AmeriKKK, they should be exempt from the obligation to contribute to anything other than their own maintenance.

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  12. If our land were a European social democracy instead of a constitutional republic saddled with a capitalist economic system, we wouldn't have a hunger problem.

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  13. 10:40 - all individuals should be willing to at least donate time if fiscally they cannot contribute dollars.

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  14. Capitalism--which makes the rich richer at the expense of the rest--is the source of our hunger crisis. Until we ditch capitalism the way we eradicated slavery, our problems will only grow worse.

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  15. I hope and pray that some day the Waxtrash will need to hold fundraisers to maintain their pricey architectural white elephants. It would do them good to experience one percent of the pain which they and their Bug Spray Bank routinely and callously dish out to their victims.

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  16. We are not talking about capitalism - we are talking about everone at least donating time to the community. You are never on subject.

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  17. I donate time galore to fighting the Waxpigs. As for money, I help the Salvation Army and Doctors Without Borders.

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  18. I live for the day when a people's government shall seize the Waxstash and other privately-held mega-wealth. As for the Waxtrash and their ilk, may they to prison go once they've lost their dough. Locking up every man Jack and woman Jane for the rest of their natural lives sounds fair enough to me. As for Waxbrats, may they be farmed out to other families to rear under new names and a statute forever barring them from claiming any of the assets nationalized by the authorities.

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  19. Coming soon: a managerial people's government which shall make President Obama's regime look like the American Enterprise Institute.

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  20. Old school...lobotomy

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  21. People's government would be that of Republicans. People not federal government. I'm all for it.

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  22. What I'd like is the type of government enjoyed by the French, a regime which protects ordinary people from poverty. A cradle-to-grave social safety net is superior to the so-called liberty touted by our elite. To me, American freedom is just the common man's liberty to strive and starve while the rich misuse their license to degrade, dominate and destroy everything and everyone in their evil path.

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  23. Then move to France and quit whining out here.

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  24. That's easier said than done, Buddy. One reason the French can be so good to their own people is their reluctance to admit immigrants to citizenship and the benefits thereof. (If we were to halt immigration, maybe we could guarantee our citizens a decent standard of living.)

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  25. Another reason why France can take such good care of its citizens is its tendency to keep military spending to an absolute minimum. Having outgrown imperialism, the French know from sad experience that empires and superpower status cost more than they're worth. When nations don't blow their budgets on war-related cr-p, they're able to attend to the needs of the citizenry.

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  26. Needed: an end to the so-called war on terror. Frankly, I don't care what the jihadists are up to---- perhaps, if we'd stay out of the Near East and remain on our own soil where we belong, the Islamic holy warriors would leave us alone.

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  27. Anyway, the REAL enemies of rank-and-file Americans are the corporate oligarchs who exploit and oppress them 24/7. One billionaire big-buck bully can do more harm to ordinary Americans than all the Islamic terrorists in the cosmos. (If you don't believe me, look at what Messy-John-It's-A-Sin and the Waxtrash Corporate Crime Family have done to the residents of Racine.)

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  28. Toadpit scum-poo-ny towns like Racine don't happen by accident. Follow the treasure trail to Lighthouse Loot Lord and Lucre Lady Land if you want to locate the responsible parties.

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