Saturday, January 31, 2009

HVC Helps Set Record at LA Regional Food Bank!

Our first service project was great fun and a huge success. Along with a spirited group of UCLA student volunteers, we helped pack a record 1,257 food boxes for seniors and others in need. 

The LA Regional Food Bank serves nearly 800,000 people throughout LA County. Most of these people are the working poor who simply don't have enough money left at the end of the month to buy food after paying rent, utilities and other unavoidable monthly expenses -- many of them single moms with kids. The volunteer coordinator stressed that in these hard economic times there is huge demand for the food banks and significantly less supply coming in. It's an impressive operation with huge warehouses full of food, located just south of downtown LA, about 15 minutes from our east-side neighborhoods. They need help every day of the year, not just at the holidays when food drives are popular.

Arrival time was 8:45am. The first hour or so is spent waiting and getting organized and oriented. But once they put you to work, you WORK. Some of our HVC crew was on the front of the assembly line putting bags and 2 boxes of cornflakes into plastic crates. The others were on the line putting cans of grape juice and beef stew in the bags. A total of 11 HVC'ers came, and Jacob recruited a new member who happened to be there and be from our neighborhood, so we were 12 strong! We sweated and smiled together, all for an extremely worthy cause. 

Note to selves for next time: eat a hearty breakfast before hand, bring a bottle of water, dress in peel-able layers and bring work gloves if you don't want your hands to get really dirty.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Join Us at LA Regional Food Bank this Saturday Jan 31st

This Saturday, January 31st, from 8:45a until noon the Hyperion Volunteer Corps will participate in our first service project, packing meals at the LA Regional Food Bank. Minimum Age: 14. No open-toe or open-heel shoes. 1734 East 41st, Los Angeles, CA 90058.

Hope to see you there.

Welcome to the Hyperion Volunteer Corps

In mid-December of 2008, President-Elect Obama called for those who had been involved in his campaign to have house meetings and help determine the future of the grassroots movement. Four thousand meetings were held around the Country. Inspired by the campaign and victory, I had one of those meetings at my home in Atwater Village (on the east side of Los Angeles), and was delighted to meet 11 fellow kindred spirits from surrounding neighborhoods. 

Most of us admitted we had never been politically active before and we all happily confessed a newly discovered feeling of patriotism. At our first two meetings we committed ourselves to create an expansive, flexible group of engaged citizens who will participate in service projects around our community at least once a month. We will also organize for legislative action on the issues we care deeply about: universal healthcare, the environment and a green economy, education. 

Check on this blog regularly for updates about our monthly meetings on the second Sunday of each month at 5-6:30pm at different locations around our neighborhoods. And then join us for our monthly service projects: working with a different non-profit or school in the community during the last week of each month.