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Dahn Foundation and Dahn Yoga & Health Centers successfully conducted their 1st Annual National Food Drive in 15 regions in the United States, obtaining more than 5,000 lbs. of food during the Christmas-New Year holiday season, as of December 30, 2007.

These Dahn Yoga regions provided information on their food-drive recipients and the pounds of food delivered:
- Phoenix: St. Mary's Food Bank, 1,800 lbs.
- Houston: Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 1,500 lbs.
- Las Vegas: Help of Southern Nevada, 575 lbs.
- North Chicago: Northern Illinois Food Bank, 1,010 lbs.
- Portland, Oregon: Oregon Food Bank, 282 lbs.
- Washington, DC: Capital Area Food Bank, 1,574 lbs.
- New York: Ronald Mc Donald House, New Hyde Park, 400 lbs.
- San Francisco: Second Harvest Food Bank, 1,000 lbs.
- New Jersey: Food Action in New Jersey, 400 lbs.

Food Drive donations in Houston fill the car
Food Drive donations in Houston fill the car

Here is how the Drive evolved in the Houston area: Dahn Foundation and Dahn Yoga & Health Centers concluded our food drive with the delivery of more than 1,500 lbs. of food. Volunteer met at the Voss Dahn Yoga Center, and with the help of the managers loaded up the truck belonging to Peggy, a member of River Oaks Dahn Yoga Center. Volunteers from the Kingwood Center also loaded up their van. They set out for the Houston Food Bank but found that it was closed today.

The destination then became the close-by Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. According to the Executive Administrator Janis D. Harland, this church serves 5,600 families in a poor section of Houston. It has been serving this low-income neighborhood for 136 years. Its volunteers and staff indicated how happy they were to receive such a generous gift this time of year. They planned to sort it in the gymnasium and wished the volunteers a bountiful Christmas. In all, it was an adventure; giving and taking from people who would probably not otherwise meet or come to Dahn Centers.

Northern New Jersey Food Drive results arrive at Wyckoff Center
Northern New Jersey Food Drive results arrive at Wyckoff Center

This is how the Drive occurred in the Northern New Jersey area: The Wyckoff Dahn Center collected food from 10 Dahn Yoga centers, with more than 100 members participating, collecting 400 pounds of food. The food was delivered to the Center for Food Action.

Founded in 1976, the Center for Food Action in New Jersey (CFA) has this mission, "Preventing hunger and homelessness and improving the lives of individuals and families living in poverty." To this end, CFA provides emergency food packages, rental and utility assistance, counseling, advocacy and other essential services to poor people living in Northern New Jersey.

Started by the late singer Harry Chapin and Bill Ayers as World Hunger Year New Jersey, the agency originally focused on the global causes of world hunger. But within months of its start, it became evident that some people in the own community needed help in order to put food on the tables. Volunteers immediately began responding to this need. Soon the name was changed to Center for Food Action in New Jersey and the emphasis became providing direct services to local residents.

CFA In the first year, CFA served 507 people. Ten years later, 5,107 people got food. Ten years after that, the number of recipients grew to 23,230. Over the years, CFA opened three more sites in Bergen County and one in Passaic County and the number of people getting food continued to climb; in 2005 CFA distributed nearly 39,000 food packages valued at more than $1.4 million.

In 1980, CFA established the Statewide Emergency Food and Anti-Hunger Network (SEFAN), and began working to end hunger in New Jersey. SEFAN was created to provide training and technical assistance to pantries and soup kitchens across the state, to serve as a voice for hungry people and for the front-line providers of emergency food. The number of pantries and soup kitchens in the network has grown from 30 to more than 900 organizations.

In 2005, CFA began delivering monthly supplemental food packages to medically frail, low-income seniors and making food packages available that fit the dietary needs of diabetics. CFA intensified its focus on nutrition education and improved the nutritional quality of its seven-day emergency food packages. In 2007, CFA provided more than 40,000 food packages to individuals and families in crisis.

Food Drive donations delivered by cart in New York City area
Food Drive donations delivered by cart in New York City area

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MaryHerman
January 07, 2008
Votes: +0

It was fun delivering the food...a good positive thing to do!

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