“A Simple Gesture” Hits 50,000 Pounds!!

The Cool, Green Bag Brigade has come through again. For the first time, more than 420 donors filled their cool, green bags with over 10,000 pounds of non-perishable food. All of the food was delivered to Cornerstone’s Reston Pantry and LINK’s Pantry in Herndon.

Over the life of the program we have provided 51,363 pounds. That’s more than 25 tons! Not bad for a project that started in June 2015 with just 20 donors.

On Saturday, there were 34 drivers and 14 pantry volunteer workers.

A Simple Gesture can expand further when you let your friends and neighbors know about us. By having more donors within the same neighborhood, our drivers can be more efficient. Those who are interested can visit our website at www.CoolGreenBag.org and automatically sign-up. When they do, we will deliver a cool, green bag directly to their house.

Have a few hours to help? You can volunteer. We need people to drive, sort food, sign up more donors and help with administrative tasks on a periodic basis. If you are interested, just drop me an email.

Your generosity is truly appreciated. Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Bob Schnapp

The Reston Connection Publishes Article on “A Simple Gesture”

‘A Simple Gesture’ Goes a Long Way To Fight Hunger

By Fallon Forbush

People throughout Northern Virginia are signing up to be a part of the “cool, green bag” movement.

Bob Schnapp was inspired in November 2014 when he read an article that was published in the Wall Street Journal about Jonathan Trivers and his charity in Paradise, Calif. Trivers’ charity, A Simple Gesture, provided 500,000 pounds of free groceries to local food pantries in three years by asking people to fill cool, green bags with nonperishable food items.

“The beauty of this is that it keeps the pantries stocked throughout the year and not just during the holidays.” —Diana Katz, a spokesperson, Giving Circle of HOPE

”I wanted to do something about hunger because the numbers are staggering,” says Schnapp, a 40-year resident of Reston.

After calling Trivers and getting advice, Schnapp created A Simple Gesture, Reston in June 2015, which donates food to the LINK food pantry in Herndon and the Cornerstones food pantry in Reston

He started by recruiting 20 families within his Jewish congregation to participate at the Shoreshim in Reston. The congregation agreed to buy 250 cool, green bags.

It grew from there.

“The idea is to make giving as simple as possible,” Schnapp says. “All they have to do, outside of buying the food, is literally placing the bag outside of their door at 8:30 in the morning the first Saturday of every other month. That’s all the work they have to do.”

THE GROUP has 32 drivers who volunteer to pick up the bags and deliver them to the food pantries.

By word of mouth, more and more people signed up.

Now in December, there are 400 participants who fill their bags. This month alone, they collected 9,380 pounds of nonperishable food items.

Since the last collection day on Dec. 3, more than 30 new people have already signed up to join in.

“There are 35 cities across the country that are doing this,” says Schnapp. None of the groups are affiliated, but they are all using the same logo: “A Simple Gesture.”

Catherine Hudgins, who represents the Hunter Mill District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, is on board.

“That sounds easy,” Hudgins says. “I can put my bag outside the door.”

She was not surprised that the community found a way to help neighbors in need.

“Cornerstones empties quickly,” she says. “It really makes a difference.”

In total, 41,138 pounds of nonperishable food items have been donated through the cool, green bags since the group started.

There has been so much interest that Schnapp asked the Giving Circle of HOPE for help.

A giving circle is a form of participatory philanthropy where groups of individuals donate their own money to a pooled fund and decide together which charities receive grants.

“We found that it was such a simple, no-brainer kind of thing to make people give food,” says Diana Katz, who is a spokesperson of the Giving Circle of HOPE.

Katz also volunteers to drive to pick up bags on collection days to deliver to the Cornerstones food pantry.

Katz’s organization could not provide funding, but she was able to connect Schnapp to another donor who was willing to help.

Now there are more bags and more room to grow.

“The beauty of this is that it keeps the pantries stocked throughout the year and not just during the holidays,” Katz says.

THOSE WHO WANT to get involved by filling bags, driving routes or sorting food can sign up by going to www.coolgreenbag.org. Those who sign up will have a bag delivered to their house and will receive a reminder email when the pick-up date is near. A food list of suggested donations is also printed on a tag of all the bags.

The U.S. Tennis Association, located in Isaac Newton Square, fills 20 bags every two months and delivers them to the Cornerstone’s Reston Pantry. Other businesses can participate by emailing Schnapp at Bob@CoolGreenBag.org.

Published December 14, 2016

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2016/dec/14/simple-gesture-goes-long-way-fight-hunger/

A Simple Gesture Featured in Cornerstones Newsletter

cornerstones

 

A Simple Gesture was recently mentioned in the March 2016 newsletter of Cornerstones. Cornerstones is a nonprofit organization that promotes self-sufficiency by providing support and advocacy for those in need of food, shelter, affordable housing, quality childcare, and other human services.

January 20, 2016

State Delegate Ken Plum mentioned A Simple Gesture in his January 20, 2016  e-newsletter.  Look down a ways on this link and you will see that he recommends “A Simple Gesture” to his constituents.

“A Simple Gesture” Leads to Giving on a Big Scale

This article inspired the start of A Simple Gesture — Reston.

The Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2014

A Charity Started by a Single Family Helps Distribute Free Groceries to Food Pantries

By Kristi Essick

Starting a nonprofit in retirement doesn’t always require huge amounts of time and money. Jonathan Trivers runs a charity called A Simple Gesture, which has provided 500,000 pounds of free groceries to food pantries in 35 towns in the past three years.

And all it took was a good idea, a bit of organizing and the purchase of a few thousand reusable shopping bags. Continue reading "“A Simple Gesture” Leads to Giving on a Big Scale"