In a recent post about our Plate It Forward helping feed hungry people,
Robert asked, "Who actually gets the food?"
Good question.
Feeding America supports food shelves and distribution centers throughout the USA. In my town, they support the
Marion-Polk Foodshare, which is our county's food shelf. So the food provided through this program goes to people being helped by these kinds of local food programs.
I bet if you asked your local food shelf if they are affiliated with
FeedingAmerica.org, the answer would most likely be "yes."
When I initially set this up, I wanted to find a charity that did two things: I wanted one that didn't waste a lot of contributed funds for administrative costs, and it had to help people across the entire USA, not just in my community. Feeding America fit the bill.
Next, I toured our Marion-Polk Foodshare and saw a huge warehouse of food provided by various places.
Quoted from the Marion-Polk website,Marion Polk Food Share is part of a statewide food banking system of 20 regional affiliates of Oregon Food Bank, a member of Feeding America national food bank network (formerly Second Harvest).
Through this network, Marion-Polk Food Share receives portions of large, national corporate donations and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) surplus commodities. These foods supplement what Food Share collects locally from individuals, corporations and community groups who donate food and support food drives.
I hope that helps to explain where the money goes and where the food ends up.
This year the need is greater than ever before, so if you have a Pass It On Plate --
Pass It On!
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I have been posting these on our Plate Diary page, but decided you may be missing some of these updates. I'm so excited about how this has been going that I just have to share our good news about Plate Diary Dollars. Here is May's report. For the previous months, you can check them out in our Plate Diaries page.
In May 2009, where there were 6 Plate Diary comments. Pass It On Plates donated $1 per comment to FeedingAmerica.org
This $6 donation was matched by Kraft Foods and provided 192 bowls of food to hungry people in the US. That's amazing!
Let's keep those plates moving and see how much more we can donate for June.
Remember, there's no charge for you give a Pass It On Plate to anyone, and you will not be asked to pay anything or donate any money.
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Many times, when chatting with my friends about Pass It On Plates, they ask, "Why don't you just have people take the plate to a birthday party, have all the guests use the ceramic paint pen to sign the plate, and then guest of honor keeps the plate? Like an autograph platter?"

First Love Wedding Signature Platter Signed - Solange and Carlos, originally uploaded by SerendipityCrafts.
That's a great idea, and anyone could do that with a Pass It On Plate if they wanted to, although with the tracking number on the back of our plates it's fun to pass them along and see where they end up.
If you like the guest book on a plate concept, where people sign their names on a plate or platter , then give it to someone as a gift that they can keep, you might be happy to know there are other plates available that are designed specifically for this purpose. An example is
Serendipity Crafts.
Serendipity makes over 75 different plates for various occasions. Want a plate for a birthday, graduation, anniversary, baby shower, wedding, bridal shower, vacation, hostess gift, soccer coach, favorite teacher, etc? They've got it.
You can even send them a photo and they'll paint the image onto a plate.
Click
here to see the reference photo for this platter, and click
here to see a closeup of the portrait.

Can you see the iced apple fritters under the cover? For some reason, I always think of apple-based treats when coming up with baking ideas as a think you gift. Maybe because we had wild apple trees on the back 40 on the farm where I grew up and Mom would make the most amazing apple spice cake from them, then give the cake away as a thank you gift.
Anyway, I'm carrying on the tradition this year. Today's the last day of school (how odd that it's on a Monday, but with all the snow days they have to make up, that's how it worked out.)
I'll be putting apple-based treats under this gingham cover with the T-H-A-N-K-S tiles, and giving it away to one of the teachers at my daughter's school.
...As an end of the year Thank You gift to one of her teachers.
(I'll post a link to the plate diary here when I add my comment.)
Apples... school... thank you gift...
I guess apples are doubly appropriate here, aren't they?
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Isn't this a pretty color combination?
When setting up for the art show in Lincoln City, my hubby was helping to set up plates with treats. He asked what plates go with which PlateWraps and I said,
"You can just pick and choose. Whatever you think looks good is fine with me."
This was one of his color selections.
Not too long afterwards, a lady stopped by and wanted to buy this. The whole thing, muffins and all. She didn't care that it was a display, she wanted it.
The muffins are long gone, but this plate is now circulating back and forth between two cafe owners on the Oregon coast. Their Plate Diary comments are here: 200705300001
...They never mention what cafes they own or what town(s) they're in. If they'd just give a little hint, I'd make the road trip over there in a heartbeat just to stop in and say hi.
(And have lunch, of course!)
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I will bring my camera next time though. :)
Yes Michael Hedges is dead. Found dead near a car accident a few years back now. Thats how they phrase it in the press releases. Strange if you ask me. To bad, I will miss his new works.
I noticed you added music. I probably should turn on the music player on this site. hmm.
Have fun tomorrow, lots of neat shops to explore.
I started doing the Port Orchard, Saturday Farmers Market. It worked out really good for me on my first ever time this last weekend. I will have to blog about it.
Joining the Zune community has been incredible for me. I pay $16.00 a month to have unlimited access. I have been able to explore tons and tons of artists now. It is really something. I find that i really have been enjoying ancient roman music of late lol. Simple, easy to listen to while in the shop.
If you have access to the Zune site friend me over there. :)
You having an ongoing venture and getting a degree at the same time will be a huge boon to you. Good luck with it :)
Welcome to considerations. :)
Are you selling food? or plates or both? We are a small group of very talented folks. I hope you like it here.
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