Irvine farm earns honor for local support of food donations
Last year, The Original Manassero Farms donated 250,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables to feed those in need.
State Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, is scheduled to honor the Irvine-based grower for its charity today at the Westminster Family Fitness Day, an annual event launched by the senator to promote exercise and healthy eating.
For the past four years, Dan Manassero, who founded The Original Manassero Farms in 1976, has donated corn, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, green beans and melons to Loaves and Fishesx10, a Santa Ana-based nonprofit. The organization then distributes the produce to food banks, shelters and churches in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
“It’s a shame to throw it away,” said Manassero, a third-generation Orange County farmer. “(Loaves and Fishesx10) is doing all the work. I’m just donating stuff.”
Westminster Family Fitness Day was created to encourage better eating habits among low-income families who might otherwise turn to fast food or similar options. The farm’s contributions aligned nicely with that goal, said Asia Cunningham, Correa’s district director.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Sigler Park, 7200 Plaza St., Westminster. Correa will present the resolution at 11:10 p.m.
A volunteer from the UC Irvine Circle K Club harvests donated produce at the Great Park Farm, operated by Orange County Produce.
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Men’s Soccer Player Josh Popke Wins OEC Character Champion Award
Tags: Athletics, IVCEvents, Soccer-Men
Men’s soccer player Josh Popke has become the latest Irvine Valley student athlete to receive the Orange Empire Conference Character Champion Award.
The honor was announced earlier this week.
The inaugural Character Champion Award was given out following the 2009-10 academic year.
Irvine Valley has had at least one student athlete win the overall honor each year.
In 2009-10, it was volleyball player Caitlin Segert that earned the honor for the Lasers.
Soccer player Chris Popke claimed the award after 2010-11 for Irvine Valley.
And last school year, IVC won both the male and female awards with volleyball player Kevin Ringuette and basketball player Melanie Kashanchi taking home honors.
Josh Popke is another that deserved the award, which is given to the student athlete who displays the following values; sportsmanship, respect, caring, fairness, civility, honesty, integrity and responsibility shown through a specific action, ideally directed toward an opponent during competition.
The criteria also includes the action of putting the team and teammates before oneself while acting as a positive role model.
Popke’s academic achievements are impressive enough. He had already taken 56 units at Irvine Valley by the time of his high school graduation at Calvary Chapel.
He’s had even more success in his life and at IVC since then.
A two-time scholar-athlete, Popke has been part of Irvine Valley’s National Champion Speech and Debate squad.
His accomplishments include winning two gold medals in his first-ever tournament for displaying outstanding communicatory skills individually and conjointly when he and his partner went undefeated in all of the tournament’s debate rounds.
He is also on IVC’s all-Academic Team which requires a minimum GPA of 3.75.
His current cumulative GPA is 3.85.
Popke has also given his time outside of the college.
Beginning in high school, he has made frequent trips to Atria, a senior-citizens home located in Irvine where he spent time conversing with the elderly and entertaining them with his pianistic abilities.
At 15, he co-founded a group that met every week over the summer to feed the homeless population in Santa Ana. During the winter months, he co-established a group that freely delivered and stacked firewood for families that lacked proper indoor heating systems.
In college, despite the workloads of soccer, debate and honors status as a student, Popke continued to volunteer for community service events such as harvesting food through organizations like “Loaves and Fishes x10” to supply low-income families with fruits and vegetables, as well as continuing to use his ability on the piano to play for organizations like the Orange County Rescue Mission.
Orange County Produce, LLC and the Orange County Great Park Partner to Glean Food for Local Food Banks
IRVINE, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Orange County Produce, LLC and the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., continues its “Parks without Borders” program by offering fresh food to Orange County’s local food banks and soup kitchens. Orange County Produce is growing food on the four-acre VALOR Field at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, to support this effort.
On most weekends, a group of volunteers are invited to harvest all they can to prepare and deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to those they serve.
“In the United States, on average 30 to 40 percent of the food grown goes uneaten each year,” said Tom Larson, Manager of Farm, Food & Landscape Division for the Orange County Great Park. “With Orange County’s long history in agriculture, we are taking a leadership role in developing ways to reduce waste.”
“The wonderful partnership with the Great Park VALOR Program, Orange County Produce, LLC and our food security friends at Second Harvest Food Bank, Community Action Partnership of Orange County and Loaves & Fishes allows us to deliver freshly harvested fruits and vegetables to those in need. We appreciate the hard working volunteers who gathered over 10,000 lbs of vine ripe watermelons last Saturday,” said A.G. Kawamura.
Robert Flournoy, president of Loaves And Fishes x10, has been gleaning regularly at the Great Park for more than three years. He began his journey fighting hunger when he made a commitment to help support seven homeless people in Tustin, Calif. Today, his organization has gleaned thousands of pounds of food and delivered it to help those in need in low-income communities.
Orange County Produce and Orange County Great Park of Irvine Share Crops with Local Food Banks
Orange County Produce, LLC and the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., continues its ‘Parks without Borders’ program by offering fresh food to Orange County’s local food banks and soup kitchens. Orange County Produce is growing food on the four-acre VALOR Field at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, to support this effort.
IRVINE, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ — NEWS: Orange County Produce, LLC and the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., continues its “Parks without Borders” program by offering fresh food to Orange County’s local food banks and soup kitchens. Orange County Produce is growing food on the four-acre VALOR Field at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, to support this effort.
On most weekends, a group of volunteers are invited to harvest all they can to prepare and deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to those they serve.
“In the United States, on average 30 to 40 percent of the food grown goes uneaten each year,” said Tom Larson, Manager of Farm, Food & Landscape Division for the Orange County Great Park. “With Orange County’s long history in agriculture, we are taking a leadership role in developing ways to reduce waste.”
“The wonderful partnership with the Great Park VALOR Program, Orange County Produce, LLC and our food security friends at Second Harvest Food Bank, Community Action Partnership of Orange County and Loaves & Fishes allows us to deliver freshly harvested fruits and vegetables to those in need. We appreciate the hard working volunteers who gathered over 10,000 lbs of vine ripe watermelons last Saturday,” said A.G. Kawamura.
Robert Flournoy, president of Loaves And Fishes x10, has been gleaning regularly at the Great Park for more than three years. He began his journey fighting hunger when he made a commitment to help support seven homeless people in Tustin, Calif. Today, his organization has gleaned thousands of pounds of food and delivered it to help those in need in low-income communities.
Orange County Great Park and Orange County Produce, LLC Partner to Donate Food to Local Food Banks and Kitchens
Gleaners harvest fresh food for the hungry
“In the United States, on average 30 to 40 percent of the food grown goes uneaten each year,” said Tom Larson, Manager of Farm, Food & Landscape Division for the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. “With Orange County’s long history in agriculture, we are taking a leadership role in developing ways to reduce waste.”
“The wonderful partnership with the Great Park VALOR Program, Orange County Produce, LLC and our food security friends at Second Harvest Food Bank, Community Action Partnership of Orange County and Loaves & Fishes allows us to deliver freshly harvested fruits and vegetables to those in need. We appreciate the hard working volunteers who gathered over 10,000 lbs of vine ripe watermelons last Saturday,” said A.G. Kawamura.
Robert Flournoy, president of Loaves And Fishes x10, has been gleaning regularly at the Great Park for more than three years. He began his journey fighting hunger when he made a commitment to help support seven homeless people in Tustin, CA. Today, his organization has gleaned thousands of pounds of food and delivered it to help those in need in low-income communities.
Taylor Shweiki a Freshman Student-Athlete from Fresno, California who attends Irvine
Valley College wrote a publication in the Irvine World News about hunger in Orange County.
We are very excited to see her publication finally come out in the paper.
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 30, 2013 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Orange County Produce and the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California, continues its “Parks without Borders” program by offering fresh food to Orange County’s local food banks and soup kitchens. On most weekends, a group of volunteers are invited to harvest all they can to prepare and deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to those they serve. Orange County Produce is growing food on the four-acre VALOR Field at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, to support this effort.“In the United States, on average 30 to 40 percent of the food grown goes uneaten each year,” said Tom Larson, Manager of Farm, Food & Landscape Division for the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. “With Orange County’s long history in agriculture, we are taking a leadership role in developing ways to reduce waste.”
“The wonderful partnership with the Great Park VALOR Program, Orange County Produce, LLC and our food security friends at Second Harvest Food Bank, Community Action Partnership of Orange County and Loaves & Fishes allows us to deliver freshly harvested fruits and vegetables to those in need. We appreciate the hard working volunteers who gathered over 10,000 lbs of vine ripe watermelons last Saturday,” said A.G. Kawamura.
Robert Flournoy, president of Loaves And Fishes x10, has been gleaning regularly at the Great Park for more than three years. He began his journey fighting hunger when he made a commitment to help support seven homeless people in Tustin, Calif. Today, his organization has gleaned thousands of pounds of food and delivered it to help those in need in low-income communities.
Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/market-overview/#Oh9Ov57OojQDM2Br.99
Taylor’s Actual Publication…
The Great Recession created a long list of economic hardships for Orange County residents, including, sadly, hunger.
Many people simply don’t understand the significant impact hunger has on our community. Hunger doesn’t just exist in small pockets of society, in certain areas of the country, or certain neighborhoods — it’s everywhere.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 500,000 U.S. households suffer from hunger each day. According to the Orange County Food Bank, there are nearly 456,000 people at risk for hunger every month in Orange County.
Fortunately, a national movement called “gleaning” has sprung up in our neighborhoods. Growers with excess harvest allow volunteers to “glean” produce that can then be donated to the needy.
Local gleaning projects have given hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to local people in need.
If you are looking for a way to give back or help out, volunteering for a local gleaning group can be a great way to do that.
Consider taking a step onto a path of service to others. The direction you choose in 2013 is entirely your decision; but choosing to DO, by helping those in need, will leave our community in a much better place.
To volunteer with the local gleaning organization Loaves and Fishes X10, email gleaningfarmland@gmail.co
Taylor Shweiki is a Freshman Student-Athlete from Fresno, California attending Irvine Valley College. She’s majoring in Biological Sciences. Shweiki plays on the colligent Women’s Golf Team for IVC, that won the State Championship title in November of 2012.
“Thank you Taylor for bringing to our attention the condition of our Country and our Community.
We are always looking for more volunteers to help in our gleaning projects. Feel free to bring
out your company,family and friends and together we can help stump out hunger in
Orange County.
/ FOR THE REGISTER
Food distributed to veterans, needy students
On Friday, April 20, several Southern California groups came together to distribute food to Irvine Valley College veterans and needy students.
These groups included the Orange County Food Bank, Compassion Ministry of Vineyard Anaheim, The Original Manassero Farms, LoavesandFishesx10 and IVC classified staff.
The groups were able to provide food to about 20 students (eight vets and 12 EOPS students). With children and families, another 49 individuals were assisted. At the event, 1,200 pounds of food was distributed, with about 40 pounds per family distributed.
Juric: Appreciation comes through volunteering
/ GUEST COLUMNIST
As parents, my husband and I are always reminding our children how appreciative they should be for having a roof over their head, food on the table and a stable and loving family to support them.
There are so many people out there who are not as fortunate.
That is why when a friend invited my two boys and me to go “gleaning” with her and her boys at the Great Park in Irvine, I jumped at the opportunity to help our children learn a valuable lesson about being appreciative for what they have.
Operated by a well-known, Orange County-based charity whose mission is to eliminate waste and hunger, these gleaning events are held in partnership with local farmers that allow the charity to pick the crops that remain after the initial crops are picked and sent to market. Rather than destroy the plants that appear too small or blemished, the charity works with farmers – with the help of volunteers from OC-based food banks, kitchens and pantries – to harvest the remaining crops that are donated to feed families in need.
When we first arrived at the gleaning event early one Saturday morning, we weren’t sure what to expect, other than that we would be getting dirty while helping others. As we waited, the parking lot quickly filled with people of all ages and from all walks of life.
We were told we would be harvesting cabbage, to which I heard my boys say, “who would want to eat that?” Rather than answer them, I decided to ignore their comment, knowing that once we got to the field and got started, the boys would quickly understand.
While most of the volunteers were from specific church or community organizations, the six people in our group had no affiliation, so it was decided we would pick for the charity’s own food pantry.
For the next two hours, we worked our way down the neatly planted rows of cabbage, piling them up for the boys to carry back to the provided milk crates. The boys then went to work peeling away the leaves, stalk and blemished outer layers, placing the cabbage carefully in the crates. We made quick work and by the time we were finished, we had packed up 14 large milk crates filled to the brim.
While the boys marveled at how much cabbage we had picked, the real reward came when the charity informed us that the cabbage the six of us gleaned would feed 500 to 1,000 people. It was then that the message hit home and my own boys realized how many people in our own community go hungry each day – people just like them.
As we said our goodbyes and took a few pictures to document our hard work, the organizers gave each of the boys a small head of cabbage to take home.
Later that night we made chicken tacos using the cabbage from our gleaning trip, and when we finished eating, the boys both told me how great the cabbage tasted and how wrong they were to have not wanted it.
They also said how thankful they were to have been able to provide food for so many others – and asked when we could go gleaning again.
–Patti Juric is a 38-year member of the community, a wife, mother, professional copywriter, health care advocate and a 14-year cervical cancer survivor. She currently lives in Mission Viejo with her husband of 10 years and their three young children.
UPDATES: ‘LOAVES AND FISHES X10’
We can’t help but love what we do.
2014
Sometimes we can’t help but love what we do at GCHope.
Two weeks ago we received a call from a local school in Santa Ana asking if GCHope had a children’s bike in stock because there was a student in need. The school noticed that one of their fifth grade students had missed an entire week of school. Wondering if she was ill, they called her mother. The mother explained that they just moved about twenty minutes further from the school, but she didn’t have money that week to pay for little Veronica to take the public bus to school so she stayed home. Veronica normally takes a bus alone at 6:30 am that drops her off at least 4 miles away from school and she walks the rest of the way herself.
GCHope didn’t have a bike at the time but we were sure that we would know someone who did. We posted a Facebook request on March 5 asking if anyone had a children’s bike no longer being used that they would be willing to donate. We were overwhelmed with the response. Within twenty minutes we got call from Robert Flournoy, a great friend of GCHope’s from Loaves and Fishes x10, saying that he and his wife would like to personally purchase and donate a bike for this young girl. As if one person’s immediate response wasn’t enough to be grateful for, thirty minutes later, three other individuals – Jeff Jetton, Ramiro Lopez, and Marie Gilbert Adams – all volunteered to donate a bike. Our staff was overwhelmed by the generosity of these individuals as well as everyone else who shared the status or liked it. It was so beautiful to witness the urgency with which these people reacted in order to help a child in need.
Last week GCHope and Robert and Joy Flournoy were able to deliver the bike to a very appreciative little girl. Veronica couldn’t contain her excitement with a smile from ear to ear when she saw the bike. She was so grateful that she would have a safe way to get to school on her adorable pink bike.
Veronica is one of six kids living in a trailer with a total of twelve people. Her parents are hard-working gardeners doing their best to provide for the family. In addition to the bike another donor gave Veronica a helmet and a gift card to buy anything else she might need. Veronica’s mother said the gift card came at just the right time because she has been worried about buying school uniforms that Veronica will need for junior high school next year.
GCHope is so grateful to Robert and Joy Flournoy, Fishes and Loaves x10, and to all who volunteered to help this family in need. It’s moments and stories like this that remind us how blessed we are and that we are meant to share our blessings with others.
Photo on the right: Joy and Robert Flournoy, Veronica, her mother, little sister, and Elia Perez from GCHope.
Recently we were up to our ears in bananas, here at GCHope. Northgate Market blessed us with 12 pallets of bananas for our ministry. Many of the bananas went to We’ve Got Your Back families but we had more than enough to pass some along to our partners at Roca De Salvacion Church, St. Mary’s By the Sea, Grace Evangelical Free Church food pantry, Food Finders, and Loaves and Fishes x10. We were also thrilled to be able to give some bananas to our new partners at Long Beach Rescue Mission. The bananas were so delicious that all 12 pallets were gone in just three days. We are so thankful to Northgate Market for their generous donation!
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