Campaign Finance

Oregon: “The City’s Public Campaign Financing Program Allowed Candidates with Little Support to Snag Taxpayer Dollars” by Sophie Peel for Willamette Week

Ethics

California: “Assessor Reports $1M Behested Payment, Biggest Charitable Donation Made at a Local Elected Official’s Request” by Jeff McDonald (San Diego Union-Tribune) for MSN

National: “Trump Transition Team Ethics Pledge Appears to Exclude President-Elect” by Betsy Klein, Steve Contorno, and Arlette Saenz (CNN) for MSN

Florida: “Tickets to Master’s Tournament Trigger Feud in Hillsborough County Politics” by Jack Evans and Justin Garcia (Tampa Bay Times) for MSN

Indiana: “Nonprofit Braun Transition Group Follows Former Governors’ Model” by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz (Indiana Capital Chronicle) for Yahoo News

Legislative Issues

National: “Supreme Court to Examine Power of Congress to Delegate Authority” by Justin Jouvenal (Washington Post) for MSN

Lobbying

National: “As His Power Grows, D.C. Wonders: How do you lobby a man like Elon Musk?” by Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, and Pranshu Verma (Washington Post) for MSN

New York: “N.Y. Ethics Commission Faces New Constitutional Challenge” by Brendan Lyons for Albany Times Union

This would have been our 11th Donut and Cider Sale where we have raised money for the United Way and have fun with the community. With the pandemic the sale was impossible, but we still love donuts! For all the wonderful staff and National Guard at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, State and Federal Communications brought the great donut drop for a morning treat on Wednesday, November 4, 2020.

State & Federal Communications was a proud platinum sponsor of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s annual Harvest for Hunger Campaign Kick-off Breakfast at the John S. Knight Center on February 26.

Harvest for Hunger, the Foodbank’s largest fundraising campaign, helps support food distribution across 21 counties in Northeast Ohio.

President & CEO Dan Flowers of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank said the organization’s 2019 goal is to provide more than 5.3 million meals to neighbors in need.

State and Federal Communications held a Brown Bag Lunch Day on March 15 to raise money for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s 2016 Harvest for Hunger campaign. Employees offered donations to the cause, shared their lunch time, and the company matched those donations. “We were thrilled to help this vital program. Let’s eliminate hunger in our community!” said President and CEO Elizabeth Bartz.

The Foodbank’s President and CEO Dan Flowers dropped by to visit the office and to say thanks.

State and Federal Communications is proud to be a sponsor of the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank’s Harvest for Hunger Kick-off Breakfast on February 26th!

This week our Highlighted Site of the Week is the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s Harvest for Hunger Campaign. The Foodbank is a distribution center that supplies food to 430 community outreach organizations, which in turn help nearly 180,000 people in need in eight counties of Northeast Ohio. It is a Herculean effort.

I have seen the operation first-hand: The place is huge (85,000 square feet), super-organized, and amazingly clean. The people who work there are my heroes. They work hard, they are friendly to the many guests who arrive in need, and they love to share with the community about the work of the Foodbank.

Each year the Foodbank has a drive called Harvest for Hunger. As their website says, Harvest for Hunger is “one of the largest food and funds drive campaigns” in the nation and is a model for other communities. But with the pressures of a very difficult economy, the Foodbank has found that the level of need has greatly increased. They need our help.

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When you think of macaroni, what comes to mind? Macaroni and cheese, comfort food, good times in the kitchen, childhood memories …

After serving at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, a team of State and Federal Communications employees will never look at macaroni – or hunger – in quite the same way.

Our team was privileged to serve at the Foodbank as a part of the United Way Day of Action on June 18, 2010. Day of Action serves as a catalyst to advance the common good by joining thousands of corporate volunteers with area non-profit organizations to improve opportunities for education, income, and health in their communities.

Our assignment was to assist the Foodbank by repacking bulk food items into smaller quantities for distribution to clients. We understood the concept, but after a quick tour of the Foodbank’s amazing facility, we were surprised to see 3 huge tubs (imagine the size of a small above ground pool) each filled with 800 pounds of macaroni. Forget the club store’s definition of bulk – when the Foodbank says bulk – they mean BULK.

Throughout the day, fourteen of us worked to repack almost 6,000 pounds of macaroni into smaller containers for distribution to non-profit organizations, and from them, to the people in our community needing food. By the end of the day, we worked through over 7 tubs, packed over 2,400 individual containers of pasta, and had a blast working with each other to serve our community.

All around it was a win-win situation. The Foodbank benefited from our service to move the macaroni along, and with the help of many other volunteers, set a new record for the amount of food repacked in a week – 76,825 pounds! Our company benefited from the team building fostered by volunteering together and the understanding gained about what can be – and what is being – done to feed people and fight hunger in our community.

As we finished our work, I thought of all those little pieces of macaroni, each one individually so small, and almost, insignificant. However, there is nothing insignificant or small about thousands of pounds of macaroni able to nourish individuals and families in need. And how do you get thousands of pieces of pasta – one by one. When you think your contribution is too small to make a difference, think again. If you contribute, and I contribute, and we all contribute, our impact grows exponentially and our communities, our nation, and our world are nourished.

Now, where’s that blue box? I think I need some mac and cheese, please.