We have a slam dunk shot at a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records this month.
This Fabulous Opportunity is brought to us by the veterans at Stadium High School who won the record for school reunion attendance at their their centennial reunion in 2006.
Not that they’re consumed by the quest for fame or anything, but they want another record to celebrate Stadium Bowl’s 100th anniversary Sept. 17 and 18.
They already have a parade, a Stadium vs. Bellarmine football game, a commemorative program and an outdoor movie lined up. World class as all that might be, it is not the stuff of world records.
So they asked Helen McGovern, director of the Emergency Food Network, if Pierce County food banks could use a million pounds of food. More to the point, could EFN, working with Northwest Harvest and Teamsters Union volunteers, handle such a massive donation?
You bet, McGovern said.
EFN is sending out nearly a million pounds of food every month to 67 meal sites and food banks
“In Pierce County alone the increase is 43 percent in the last 18 months,” McGovern said of food bank use.
So EFN will muster the resources to pull off the biggest food drive anywhere, ever.
We donors know we can rustle up the food, or the money to buy the food. We do it every month.
The only trick to the challenge is getting that million pounds of food across the scale at Stadium Bowl between 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17 and 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18.
Technically, all we have to bring is 509,148 pounds to break the previous record, set in Canada. But 1,000,000 is a nicer, rounder number.
We’re giving you the heads-up now so you’ll have time to organize a food drive on your block, at your club or in your exercise group.
To do that best, you’ll need the rules and the wish list.
Though food banks always need toilet paper, soap and toiletries, and though your neighborhood food bank can always use your garden produce, Guinness rules call for nonperishable food only. That food cannot have passed its expiration date.
EFN’s list of favorites includes peanut butter, canned meat and fish, canned fruits and vegetables, chili, soup, stew, baby food and formula, pasta, rice, cereal, dried fruit and shelf-stable milk.
The network has 200,000 collection bags for the event. You can pick them up at EFN headquarters, 3318 92nd St. S. in Lakewood, or at Stadium Thriftway, 618 First St. N., Tacoma.
The dividend of a tangible food drive is that it inspires copycats.
And thanks to collaboration, purchasing power, volunteers, a cannery program, a farm and a frozen food packing system, EFN can turn every donated dollar into $12 worth of food. You send $10, and it distributes at least $120 in food.
Checks, hard and soft cash are welcome.
But that crafty McGovern has a new angle and a challenge. She’s going virtual. She was impressed by the numbers of young people and nontraditional donors who texted donations to the relief efforts after the Haiti earthquake.
EFN now has a text donation account to get those people helping at home. To that, McGovern has added a challenge to TNT readers to text-donate the $12,000 to fill a semitrailer with food.
“You text ‘hunger tnt’ to 85944,” she said. “You need to leave the space after ‘hunger.’ Your $10 donation to Fill the Bowl will appear on your next phone bill.”
If we pull this off, your TNT readers’ banner will appear on the semi as it rolls across the scales, McGovern said. She’ll track our donations, and we’ll update the totals on the Word on the Street blog.
If you will pardon me now, I have to find a teenager to teach me how send a text message. We have a world record for caring and responsibility to set.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/street
Article corrected: Stadium High School's centennial was celebrated in 2006.
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