The San Francisco Food Bank volunteers know no day off. Over 100 individuals took the time during their Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, to fill the need of those who are hungry. Parents and children came out together today, and filled over 2 1/2 tons of pasta noodles into family-size bags.
Eleazao who came by himself today, volunteered at the morning and afternoon sessions. He wanted to give back to his community; he doesn’t like to see anyone go hungry. Three women from Team Pink also joined in, helping to address the array of needs of others.
Rich, one of the SFFB workers told me of his family’s Thanksgiving day tradition. They made 50 extra meals at their house. They then travel to some of the areas that are too far of a walk from the soup kitchens for some of the homeless. They had no problem at all finding 50 people in need.
After the double session today, I headed to the crowded downtown streets of San Francisco, once again the parking gods saw to it that my needs were met; I parked right in front of the Ferry Building.

I love talking with people from every corner of the globe. The word kindness resonates with nearly everyone, in exactly the same way, no matter in what country they live. Everyone feels the world could be a much kinder place and every one of those people wants to be shown kindness more often.
Mauricio from Italy was one of those people. He is visiting the United States and travels extensively. He feels how most everyone else feels.  After a long discussion I told him I would be honored if he wrote on The Kindness Bus. He wrote in his native language, “Ferma la violenza e condividi l’amore” which translates to, “Stop violence and share love.” What a perfect addition to The Kindness Bus.
Today was a full day of interacting with hundreds of the tens of thousands of people in the downtown area of San Francisco. I found a very prime parking space on the Embarcadero near the Ferry Building. Having the opportunity to have The Kindness Bus viewed by this many people was made possible by a parking officer who said the area I parked was an area they weren’t enforcing on this busy shopping day. Thank you San Francisco.

Two words which need to be acted upon much more frequently in our society are the subject of today’s writing points.
Having gratitude and thanking those who have helped to make our everyday life a little easier is a common courtesy.
Giving to those in need is crucial to the well being of all of us. Giving of our time, giving of our help and giving of our resources is needed now more than ever.
Today, on this Thanksgiving day, the San Francisco Food Bank was filled with over 80 volunteers who gave of their time to play a part in feeding the hungry. Thank you to every one of them.
Today’s photo hangs inside the SFFB. It is of a local boy who lives in an area of town where no fresh produce is sold. The SFFB is changing all of that by providing fresh produce to his school.
May each and every one of you have a  Happy Thanksgiving day.

This day before Thanksgiving, volunteers came out in full force to the San Francisco Food Bank. The surprising fact was that it was primarily younger adults and school age kids. With school being out for the extended Thanksgiving weekend, that meant that these students are here of their own accord. I love this fact!! Lowell High School from the San Francisco area had two groups this morning. Interact, part of International Rotary and BuildOn volunteer clubs from Lowell boxed 32,000 pounds of oranges into manageable sized boxes, helping to reach over 400 food kitchens throughout the region.
This afternoon, nearly 800 assortment boxes for seniors were packed by the all girls Mercy School and the all boys Riordan School. I videoed the assembly line style of packing these boxes and posted it on YouTube on the new, not to be missed, TheBogartChannel.
During the course of the year, over forty-five million pounds of food is shipped from this facility, much of it is repackaged by volunteers such as these students.

“Ask not, what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Fifty years have passed since newly inaugurated, President John F. Kennedy spoke those words, calling every one of us to do our share of helping one another through service. These words are needed now, more than ever, in our own country, let alone the world. All of us, in our lifetimes, should give more than we take.
Today at the San Francisco Food Bank,  thousands of pounds of rice and pasta needed to be portioned to individual family size. The morning group was primarily Pacific Gas and Electric Customer Care employees and a regular Tuesday morning group, who has been volunteering for a few years. This group has forged lifelong friendships from first meeting at the SFFB and working together for these years. The afternoon group was made up of a couple dozen of individual volunteers and a small contingency from the local Asian community.
On this the 48th anniversary of President Kennedy’s death, make it a point to adopt his words into your everyday life.

“Farm to Family,” a program used by the SFFB is one of the most efficient and inexpensive method of feeding those in need. Andy Breunig, the Volunteer Coordinator at the SFFB arranged for me to do my annual week-long Thanksgiving week volunteer help at this state-of-the-art Food Bank.  Tons of bulk quantities of produce was broken down into managable quantities by over 100 volunteers and staff. The Center for Student Missions has nearly a dozen students from the San Diego area helping on various projects in central California this week. Brooke, the student advisor of this fun group, enjoyed getting her group involved in today’s program, they even helped make Bogart’s first YouTube video become a reality. Susan, visiting from Derbyshire, England, felt that volunteering while on holiday, would be a helping hand for others.
Vladimir and Virgil who work directly with the volunteers at the SFFB were a joy to talk with while keeping us informed of the importance of our work. The Metropolitan Arts and Tech school had 20 students help out this afternoon. It’s good to see our youth wanting to help others. Bechtel, the construction giant, sent over a very friendly group who were very interested in The Kindness Bus Tour. At day’s end, 21,000 pounds of pears, 9,000 pounds of carrots and 700 pounds of pasta were packaged and readied for shipment to needy organizations in the San Francisco region.

This is going to be so much fun!!
Bogart has his own channel on YouTube called, The Bogart Channel. This week we begin creating videos with content that will be entertaining yet impactful. I am going to try to post at least 3 videos per week with Bogart front and center in the thick of the action.
With YouTube featuring one of the One Million Acts Of Kindness videos for one day last weekend and the video now having over 570,000 views, I have finally been inspired to grow this mission with a focus on incorporating more and more social media and networking as time goes by.
By weeks end, you will be able to view some videos on The Bogart Channel on YouTube. You can play a huge part by subscribing to this free channel. I am hoping you will and that you will share this with all of your friends and family.
Thank you,
Bob Votruba and Bogart too!!!