Welcome to Rejuvenate Marketing
I’m excited because I’ve been thinking about blogging for some time now. I have many things to share, from cooking (I love to cook and am happy to share my recipes and menus), to business (of course and marketing is my area of expertise), to things that I am passionate for. Of course in order to do this, I had to get on the bandwagon and get re-ramped up on WordPress. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Actually it was pretty easy. I helped to set up the website for DeviceAlliance (a non-profit medical device organization) and had to learn it. So I just had to tap into my memory bank… and google! Phew! Still have some cleaning up to do and things to figure out. We’ll get there eventually…
Now that I’m set up, I wanted to blog about the last few months and what I’ve been doing since I haven’t been working. I think that the hardest thing about working is that we often don’t have time to do the things that we are passionate for. I’ve been lucky, because the 2 times I’ve been laid off (a total of 3 times in 5 years), I’ve had the amazing opportunity to figure out and learn more about what I’m passionate for. You would think this would be easy… But for me to get my mind around really wanting to contribute and put my time and effort into an event, I really have to know more about what it is I’m doing and why it matters.
Discovering My Passion- An Inspirational Leader
My passion, thanks to working with a surgeon in San Diego during my last lay-off, ended up becoming hunger. I worked to help establish the brand, renaming, messaging, web content and “story” (including a video I produced from my iMac) for Meals4Hunger .
Living in SoCal and being beachside I was completely unaware of the fact that there was hunger literally in my own backyard. I was stunned to learn how many were homeless and didn’t have enough to eat in a place where I watched “The Real Housewives of Orange County” as my guilty pleasure. I threw myself into the research working with Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon, and put together facts and figures during my few months of consulting to help this amazing man, ONE man mind you, build out his passion and dream of ending hunger in San Diego (and expanding from there).
Because it truly only takes ONE to make a difference. One person to get it started, to have a vision, to have that passion and that goal to succeed- no matter what. And today, I’m happy to share the organization is thriving and growing! It’s exciting to watch and see this one man’s vision become a TRUE reality for southern California. Much like you won’t ever see on the “real xxx of xxx”.
San Francisco Hunger Organizations Inspire
I ended up in San Francisco moving from my beach abode and ocean view to come back to the city to charge up my career again. I was relocated and then after 8 months laid off. I didn’t have time to participate in non-profit sort of stuff. Or much time at all to engage and become a part of the city I fell in love with from 1999-2005 when I was relocated during the height of the dot.com. But since I lost my job, I started to dig in and find out what I could do that I’m passionate for. I found a great organization named OneBrick (it’s nationwide and growing) where volunteers sign up for a wide variety of events and then choose what to participate in. It’s linked with a social element. So after you do your event, you go grab pizza (Goat Hill is a favorite) and connect and learn more about one another. I started signing up for the San Francisco FoodBank activities. A phenomenal organization that makes a major impact on San Francisco every single day. They are not only extremely well-organized but passionately grateful for volunteer help. And they let you know it, every time you show up and help them.
This week I also had the chance to volunteer with Glide, headed by the amazing Reverend Cecil Williams, another fantastic organization that makes an impact every day in people’s lives. This particular event was to distribute over 5000 grocery bags with 1200 volunteers in tow. My heart was aching and tears came to my eyes as I watched the line onfold around the streets of the Tenderloin area, folks eager to receive their 20lb bag of groceries to get them through the holidaze (as I like to call it). I wondered, do they have a home to cook the food? What will they do after the holiday? I had the chance to meet and speak with Wayne Freedman, an award winning reporter from ABC 7 Local News about hunger and what I learned working with Meals4Hunger. He was struck that I was there volunteering when I didn’t have a job. I told him, that I know I will be fine. But I wasn’t so sure about many of those people in the lines waiting.
Focus on Hunger in San Francisco: Glide and San Francisco FoodBank
Glide ABC7 Local News Interview
Hunger Isn’t Just a Holiday Problem…
With unemployment still at an unacceptable rate and it taking much longer to find any kind of work, what will happen to these folks in line? I also know from being out of work and networking, that if you are over 50 discrimination is rampant, whether we want to fess up to it or not. What will they do? Don’t worry about me. I will be fine. I’m blessed, I have a wonderful network of family and friends for support and a home with a great landlord. A lot of people care and support me. But what about those that don’t have that? Do they deserve not to have enough to eat just because they situation forced them to be there? It’s heart breaking. It really is. How do we stop this from becoming the norm instead of the exception?
I know hunger isn’t a holiday problem. It’s an every single day problem. And it’s spreading in OUR OWN country. A person should never have to wonder if and how they will have enough to eat.
Watching my mother volunteer as a child, I will never forget how she taught me to give back and share with the community. It shaped me.
So anything I can do to help create more awareness for the hunger problem, I’m in. I want to help make a difference. It’s amazing to me how much you can do in a short amount of time to make an impact.
In the spirit of the season, let’s not forget that the holidaze isn’t the only time people don’t have enough to eat. It’s year round. Come January, the need will be the same. And from the latest reports from publications such as Forbes, it’s not looking to get much better any time soon. People are falling off the unemployment radar. I’m not convinced the unemployment rate is accurate at all. No one tracks you after you are no longer getting unemployment. And the lines don’t seem to be shortening, and the need for volunteers at these places certainly aren’t lessening either.
Take a look around you. I’m willing to bet hunger is closer to you than you think. I sure learned it was. Have a wonderful holiday season. Let’s give thanks for all that we have and all that we can share with others that don’t have enough.
