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Oz was in a coma at the Scripps Hospital Surgical Intensive Care Unit two days. When released six days later, Oz was unable to walk or talk and his parents, Sadat and Alia, brothers and sister cared for him 24 hours a day for two weeks. Countless friends texted messages non-stop hoping they could do anything more in addition to their prayers for his recovery. Oz said, “I thought I was on my death bed. Hundreds of people prayed for me to get better. If it wasn’t for my family and friends I know I wouldn’t be here right now. I had a lot of time to think and reflect on my life in the three weeks that I was bedridden. I come from a very humble and generous family and decided I wanted to do something to help others like my family and friends helped me when I needed them most.”

Stingaree‘s Dave Renzella (former General Manager), Steve Velis (Marketing) and Shane Brennan (VIP Host) gave Oz his party on July 11. They, along with many of Oz’s friends, worked long and hard to honor their friend. Donations were collected at the door to be given as their birthday presents. “My friends and I were able to raise $1,000.00. It was a belated birthday celebration but it was also a celebration of life.”

Oz decided that he would rather donate the money to charity. ”I live a simple and good life and I realized that money would go a much longer way for people who actually needed it. I looked up some homeless charities on the internet and came across San Diego Coalition for the Homeless. After reviewing the pictures and reading the literature, I decided that this was the charity I wanted to donate my money to.”

Oz presented his check for $1,000 to Sandy Maynes on August 19th. We extend sincere thanks to him for this generous gift from the heart.

Never before did we have so much food for the families to take home. The children were dazzled throughout the day by the mascots, clowns, face painters and general great fun. A U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard marched into Golden Hall with the national colors and the audience sang the national anthem to open the show.

Emcee Joe Bauer from Channel 6, joked with the audience and did the introductions. San Diego Padres legendary pitcher Randy Jones, Honorary chair, and Bauer shared their dialog with the audience and it was as good as any comic act around. Former San Diego Charger Pastor Miles McPherson from The Rock Church in Pt. Loma continued with the upbeat enthusiasm and gave an invocation directed toward the children but enjoyed by all present. His message was as endearing as a hug and he reminded the audience how the Christmas season celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Then we got really serious when the Buffalo Soldiers escorted Santa and Mrs. Claus into the hall while “Here Comes Santa Claus” accompanied their entrance. This was what the kids were waiting for and started the party off with a bang.

The entertainment throughout the day was, in a word, spectacular!
Ronald McDonald delighted the crowd with his wonderful magic show, the Swamp Critters gave down-home music and patter and the Valhalla High School Chorus gave beautiful renditions of Christmas music. Dance Magic performed with the cutest routines imaginable and the Rock Church Hula Ministry soothed the audience with their gentle music and dance.

All-Star Clowns, North County Clown Conspiracy, and the famous Al Bahr comics played with the kids, did face painting and made balloon animals. There was some hula-hooping that kept the kids and everyone else in stitches. All in all, they spread their mirth and zany antics thick and everybody loved them!

It seemed it couldn’t get better than that, but it did! The Marines landed in force and were impressive in their dress blues. They interacted with the kids all through the hall. Shamu, the SanDiego Padres’ Friar,. CHP’s “Chipper,” McRuff, Hometown Bees, Miss San Diego 2008, Miss San Diego Outstanding Teen ‘08 and the U.S. Coast Guard mascot mixed with the crowd throughout the day..

After the kids had their fill, they left with their gifts and collected food to take home. Food donations were abundant: $1300.00 worth of 9-pound chickens from Medtronics, a truckload of produce and other non-perishables from Feeding America San Diego, 2500 pieces of fresh fruit and 900 huge apple pies from Henry’s Markets in East Lake and Chula Vista. Henry’s also did a toy collection for the kids. The families left tired but beaming. It was going to be a wonderful Christmas for them after all! Be sure to check out photos of the party on our Christmas party link!

We try to reach every disadvantaged child in San Diego who would like to be part of this annual event. The children are registered by social workers, schools, and persons who certify they are at or below poverty level. The Coalition receives copies of the registrations and the originals are given to the parents or guardians who turn them in at the door for admission to the party. Each year, our Board of Directors hopes we will have enough donated toys, refreshments and wrapping materials for all the kids. And each year it seems like a replication of “the miracle of the loaves and fishes” when toys that are left over are given to the San Diego Police Department to distribute to needy families. Norma Rossi, founder of the Coalition, always responded this way when asked if there would be enough toys and refreshments for the kids. “God knows how many kids we will have, even if I don’t, and there will be enough for everybody and some left over.” And she’s never been wrong.

Tina Porter her mother, Sadie Rackley, to pick up a box of food from the San Diego Food Bank yesterday. Today she will return for one of her own. For Porter, a 49-year-old widow, receiving the donated rice and vegetables saves her from having to choose between eating and paying down her debts.

“I can remember as a kid growing up being ashamed of these programs,” said Porter, who lives near her mother’s home in the San Diego community of Encanto. “Now I understand them.”

More and more people like Porter, jobless and hit hard by rising gas and food costs, are turning to local churches and neighborhood groups for aid as they struggle to contend with the region’s troubled economy.

In the second quarter this year, the amount of food distributed to the needy doubled in La Mesa and rose by more than two-thirds in Spring Valley, according to Food Bank figures released yesterday.

San Diego, Chula Vista and Oceanside have also logged double-digit increases in handouts.

Food bank distribution by the numbers
Increases in Food Bank demand during the second quarter of this year, compared with the first three months of 2008:
102 percent: La Mesa
69 percent: Spring Valley
34 percent: Chula Vista
26 percent: Oceanside
25 percent: San Diego
SOURCE: San Diego Food Bank

This picture taken by EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union-Tribune shows
People lined up Friday outside the Church of the Nazarene in Mid City for the monthly distribution of food.

Margarita Lopez has spent a decade as a coordinator with the Food Bank. She helped give out 425 boxes of food yesterday in Mountain View, a San Diego neighborhood, and said she has been stunned by the number of people who have sought help since May.

“This is the worst economy that I have been through,” she said. “This time we literally have people coming saying, ‘We don’t have nothing.’ ”

The San Diego Food Bank has been able to meet the need, Lopez said, but there are increasing concerns that food charities are being strained by the demand. “The problem hasn’t been with donations as much,” said Ross Fraser of America’s Second Harvest, the largest hunger-relief group in the United States. “There’s such a huge upsurge in people that there just isn’t enough food.”

Nearly 1,250 families have asked for food this year at New Seasons Church in Spring Valley, one of the 300 local agencies that distribute food donated by the San Diego Food Bank.

Advertisement That’s up from 550 last year, said Angela Kretschmar, who runs the church’s food giveaway. She said she thinks the church will have to spend about $1,600 more this year to keep the pantry fully stocked. J. Scofield Hage, the Food Bank’s executive director, acknowledges that the agency needs “to build our inventory faster,” but he also has ambitious plans. The charity, which distributed 9 million pounds of food last year, may try to nearly triple that output within three to five years.

Cindy Shaw, of Chula Vista’s Life Christian Center, doesn’t plan to wait for the Food Bank to grow. She said she has enough for the needy because of partnerships her church has formed with other suppliers. “We’ve seen people in our Dumpsters,” she said. “We’re telling them, ‘No, come in, get the good stuff.’ ”

Tonya Posk is haunted by history these days.

Standing in a long line for free groceries at City Heights’ Church of the Nazarene yesterday morning, Posk reflected on her grandparents’ stories of bread lines during the Depression.

“I never thought after working 40 years and paying into Social Security that I’d be in a bread line,” said Posk, 62, who started coming to the church for free groceries in March as a way to stretch her $1,376.72 fixed monthly income, which also supports an unemployed son. “It used to be that $150 worth of food would last nearly the whole month – now it lasts just two weeks.”

For Posk and countless other Americans, rising food prices are transforming shopping habits and forcing changes in lifestyle that many would not have contemplated a year ago.

A Gallup/USA Today Poll last week found that food inflation is a significant worry for Americans, with nearly half saying rising food prices have caused hardship for their households.

Consumer food inflation has been running at a 5.3 percent annual rate in the past three months, and that’s on top of a 5 percent increase in all of 2007, the Labor Department said this month.

Big grocery bill
Here’s the average price increase for some common food items over the past 12 months in cities across the United States:
Rice: 9.8 percent
Beef roast: 3.1 percent
Eggs: 29.9 percent
Milk: 13.3 percent
White bread:16.3 percent
Whole chicken: 5.5 percent
Bananas: 14.9 percent
Potatoes: 3.4 percent
Tomatoes: 18.2 percent
Cooking oil:11.7 percent
Peanut butter: 10.9 percent.
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Nationally, the average price for rice is almost 10 percent higher than a year ago, while a loaf of white bread is up 16.3 percent. Eggs are up almost 30 percent, milk 13.3 percent and tomatoes more than 18 percent.

Experts attribute food inflation, the highest in two decades, to a perfect storm of ugly circumstances: A sluggish economy. Record crude oil and gas prices. A robust demand for biofuels and a subsequent decline in corn inventories. Drought-reduced harvests. Commodities speculators. And the rising demand for food supplies in developing countries such as China and India.

In San Diego County, food price worries are exacerbated by some of the highest prices for gas and diesel in the nation, and a meltdown in the housing market that has ratcheted up rental rates and tipped some mortgage-burdened homeowners into foreclosure.

From the bottom up, everyone is feeling the pain. San Diego food banks and their clients – the hundreds of churches, pantries and other relief programs that work directly with poor families across the county – report a sharp rise since January in those seeking food assistance.

Sandy Maynes, executive director of the San Diego Coalition for the Homeless, which co-sponsors the three-times-weekly Church of the Nazarene grocery distribution, called the recent demand “amazing.”

For all of 2007, the church distributed free groceries to 7,582 people; so far this year, 5,771 people have received food. Last April, 1,219 people sought groceries; in just the first two weeks of this month, 1,398 people received food.

Maynes said the chronic homeless constitute only a tiny percentage of those in line.

“A lot of these people have two or three jobs, or recently lost a job, and we are hearing from more and more people who have been foreclosed on and, while they have savings, they are not far from being on the street,” Maynes said. “And it is simply because everything, from gas to food, costs so much.”

The San Diego Food Bank, which distributes millions of pounds of food it collects from donors and corporations each year, said its food relief program to help seniors who qualify under federal low-income guidelines is up 5.2 percent since January.

And the amount of food distributed through the larger, emergency food assistance program, which supplies groceries to soup kitchens and food pantries that in turn dole them out to people regardless of income, is up 50.4 percent since January.

“If only one of our programs went up, I'd say its seasonal variation, or maybe one segment of the population is being affected,” said Jim Jackson, executive director of the San Diego Food Bank. “But when all the program trends are going in the same direction, you begin to wonder what is going on.”

Some area grocery stores report stark changes in shopping patterns and rising frustration. Janet Little, a spokeswoman for Henry's Farmers Market, which has 28 stores in Southern California, said people are buying sale items and passing up “indulgence” products like cake and wine.

Shoppers are also purchasing cheaper meats, more vegetables and buying bulk grains and beans instead of prepackaged, flavored rice or bean mixes.

“Now they are buying beans out of the bulk bin at 39 cents a pound, but so many people don't know how to cook them, so we are trying to give people recipes,” Little said.

Little predicts that shopper frustration will mount as grocery store contracts with food suppliers come up for renewal and more cost is handed down the supply chain to the consumer.

“This is sort of the tip; the whole chain of supply hasn't really gotten down to the consumer yet,” Little said. “Once these year or two-year contracts run out and have to be renewed, we'll start seeing the prices increase even more.

“People are mad now,” Little said. “Who knows where it is going to go in the fall.”
In traditional grocery stores and discount food shops, consumers from all walks of life expressed anger this week with the rising price of food.

At the Albertsons in Mission Hills, shopper Greg Allen, 43, fumed at a $150 grocery bill that he estimates would have cost him closer to $100 last year.

“I used to just pick up the brand I wanted. Now I look for the 2-for-1 stuff and whatever is the cheapest bread,” said Allen, who supports four children on his $70,000-a-year income. “And last month I started shopping for gas online at cheapgas.com, and I'll drive 10 miles to get cheaper gas.

“I went online the other day to see when my economic stimulus money is coming,” Allen said. “I thought it would go to my Etrade account, but forget it. It's going to groceries and gas.”

Normal Heights resident Emilia Alvardo said she knows that all parents look forward to the time when their toddlers get potty trained, but she feels guilty about wanting to hasten the event.

With a weekly income of $300 – and gas to commute to her job as a teacher's aide gobbling up one-third of that – a $10 package of disposable diapers for 2½-year-old Itzel gives potty training unexpected poignancy.

“Things have become very hard – the milk, it's almost $5 a gallon, and I have four children,” said Alvardo, 40, who shopped this week with Itzel at Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree store off Aero Drive to try to stretch the family budget. “I used to buy Huggies, but they cost $20. Now I buy the off-brand diapers for $10. I'm really trying to potty train her now, but she needs these.

“I used to buy nice little things for the kids,” Alvardo added with a sigh. “But we have cut out all that isn't really necessary.”

Staff writer Jeff McDonald contributed to this report.
Penni Crabtree: (619) 293-1237; penni.crabtree@uniontrib.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080425/news_1n25food.html

By Jeff McDonald
STAFF WRITER (Union Tribune)

March 2, 2008

The rules are changing for thousands of tiny nonprofits that do not have to file a tax return, and leaders of at least some charitable groups are not quite prepared to comply with the new requirements.

A little-noticed provision of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 calls for even the smallest charities – those with annual budgets of less than $25,000 – to begin filing reports with the Internal Revenue Service as soon as May 15.

The idea is to help government officials better track the hundreds of thousands of nonprofits that have never been required to file a Form 990, the federal tax document filed by most tax-exempt organizations.

But the rule is being greeted among the 6,000 or so smaller nonprofits across San Diego County with some surprise and skepticism.

Several nonprofits that rely predominantly on volunteers said they were only vaguely aware of the new requirement, which also aims to give donors a better sense of who’s running organizations to which they contribute.

“Little nonprofits like us, with less than $25,000, are barely able to keep alive,” said Sandra Maynes of the San Diego Coalition for the Homeless, which is based in a church in City Heights. “We are not even a drop in the drop in a bucket.”

Maynes, whose organization hands out food and clothes to needy families, called the provision “counterproductive” because it will place added demands on groups that already struggle to stay afloat.

“If they want to do it, that’s fine, but there are bigger fish to fry,” she said. “They should concentrate on the big guys.”

The new filing requirement is much simpler than the tax rules governing agencies that raise and spend more than $25,000 a year.

Under the new law, small-budget organizations must file what the IRS is calling a Form 990-N, or “an e-postcard.” The document, which will be made available for public inspection, calls for federal identification numbers, principal officers, a mailing address and a statement that agency income did not exceed $25,000.

Nonprofits are required to file the electronic documentation by the 15th day of the fifth month following the close of their fiscal year, which is May 15 for the tax year that ended Dec. 31, 2007.

The change “will help ensure that potential donors have the basic information they need about the organization,” said Lois Lerner, who runs the IRS division that regulates nonprofits.

So far, federal officials have done little to publicize the new IRS rules. In a news release last week, the IRS urged nonprofit leaders to “spread the word” about the change.

“People do a lot to help their communities by volunteering their time and money to local charities,” Lerner said. “We’re asking them to offer a helping hand by making sure that charities know about the law change.”

Organizations affected by the law will be allowed something of a grace period. Nonprofits are only in danger of losing their tax-exempt status if they fail to file reports for three consecutive years.

Sara Roscoe Wilson of Nonprofit Management Solutions, a Kearny Mesa group that provides resources and training to other nonprofits, said she has not received many questions about the new reporting law.

But she expects that to change as the filing deadline approaches.

“There are thousands of these small organizations (in San Diego County) that have never been asked to do this kind of reporting,” Wilson said. “So it will be interesting.”

Nonprofit Management Solutions will soon post announcements about the rule change on its Web site and plans to offer training for anyone who needs help complying with the requirement, she said.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Wilson said. Federal tax forms are “the primary source that everybody goes to to find out about nonprofit organizations.”

Roosevelt Brown, who has spent more than 25 years handing out free books to San Diego children through his modest nonprofit, Reading Literacy Learning, said he had not heard about the new IRS rule.

But he was quick to say he would meet whatever requirements the government adopts.

“I’m going to be giving out books until I die; it’s as simple as that,” said Brown, whose major giveaway this year will be April 26 at Balboa Park. “I have to go by their rules. If they come up with new rules, I’ll do what they ask.”

The children are registered by MediCal number or certified to be at poverty level by authorized signors at schools, social workers and agencies that help the needy. Those who lost their homes to the fires can register to attend at their schools. They should ask the schools to email sandy.sdch@yahoo.com for registration forms.

We need nonperishable food for the families’ holiday dinners, candy canes, stocking stuffers and new toys. Cash donations are always welcome to cover party expenses and to buy last-minute items.

Our annual fundraiser is coming up on Saturday, December 8, 7:00PM at Riley’s Music Lounge, 2901 Nimitz Blvd., Point Loma, CA 92106. Loads of music, fun and Christmas cheer to gear up for the holidays. This year, there will not be a silent auction. We would appreciate cash donations to help cover the “Holiday Magic for Kids” party expenses. If you can help us, it will also help us continue the work we do year-round for the needy in our community.

Best wishes for happy holidays to you and your loved ones!

Sincerely,

SAN DIEGO COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS

Sandra A. Maynes
Executive Director
619-401-4043
www.sdhomeless.org