Preparing for Shortages and High Prices in 2010 (Important - Read This)
Dear Friends,
As many of you know the Philippines was hit by some severe typhoons in September that did a lot of damage to the rice crops. Brother Rodrigo Valbuena (assistant director) took a trip up to the northern part of Luzon (main island) last week and was able to see the devastation.
In his email to me he wrote these words:
"Almost all of the farmer's crops have been destroyed. We saw the farmland devastated by the two typhoons that passed. We need to be ready for price increases and a shortage of rice supplies."
"20 Ton Virtual Rice Drive"
We want to plan ahead to beat the price increases and shortages so we are having a "20 Ton Virtual Rice Drive." What is a "20 Ton Virtual Rice Drive"?
What we do is set up an online store on the subicbaykids.org site so anyone can go online and purchase rice. The buyer can choose to purchase anything from a 50 kilo bag of rice to a ton of rice. Once we get enough funds to purchase the 20 tons (400 bags) at a discounted rate we will send the funds over and they will make the purchase there rather than collecting food here and trying to ship it over. (The children's home consumes about 18 tons of rice a year and serves over 50,000 meals per year)
There will be a thermometer graph showing how many tons have been purchased on the subicbakids.org site. The weight is measured in metric tons and the prices will look like this:
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Half Bag $22
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Bag 43
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1/8 Ton 108
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1/4 Ton 215
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1/2 Ton 430
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1 Ton 860
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2 Tons 1720
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3 Tons 2580
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4 Tons 3440
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5 Tons 4300
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6 Tons 5160
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7 Tons 6020
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8 Tons 6880
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9 Tons 7740
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10 Tons 8600
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15 Tons 12900
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20 Tons 17200
NOTE: All funds raised over the amount needed to purchase 20 tons of rice will be used to buy milk, meat, and fruit.
The problem with the last food drive we had was that only people close to my area could participate. It wasn't feasible to ship small quantities of food over long distances. In a "Virtual Rice Drive" anyone can participate or host their own drive.
What We Need (And what I long for)
1. We need people who will lead in their area. I will help you:
2. Also we need some of your ideas for promoting this food drive. Here are a few ideas of my own and some I gleaned from Google:
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Viral Video - A 30 second video that goes on YouTube and other like sites and it spreads around the internet to many different sites in a short period of time. It has info at the end that leads to the subicbaykids.org site. This has worked well for the subicbaykids.org site and is very inexpensive if I do it myself.
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Downloadable Flyers and Posters - Generic flyers I will make myself and save in PDF format so anyone can download copy, and handout. Some Office Max Stores can make a color 2 feet by 3 feet poster for about $29. Just email them the publisher file that you download.
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Military Magazines Ads - This is something I haven't tried yet. We do get calls and emails from military and ex-military wanting information about the children's home.
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Direct Mail - I haven't done this one either. Mailing business owners and people I know to ask for donations.
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Rice Bag Money Receptacles - Empty rice bags used to promote the drive and collect funds.
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"In Memory of" - Collect in memory of some important individual in your life that you think would be honored for their name to be used to buy food for orphans.
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Competitions - Create competitions between classrooms, departments, groups or floors to see who will collect the most donations. Make sure the winners get a special prize for their winning donation!
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Company Matches - Encourage your company to match your cash donation. Speak to your company management or Human Resource Department about a financial match program.
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House Party - Does someone at your business, school or church have a spectacular home on the lake or great view of the city skyline? Consider hosting a party with admission donations benefiting Subic Bay Children's Home "20 Ton Virtual Rice Drive."
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Donation Envelopes - Distribute envelopes to employees, students or congregation members with instructions on making a cash donation.
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Web Site Links - Link the rice drive page to your personal or business web site.
Some Ideas Where You Can Advertise
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Company newsletters and e-mail memos, notices on break room bulletin boards.
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Community and church bulletins and bulletin boards.
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Posters and flyers in local grocery stores, school folders or paychecks.
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Community calendars on TV or radio stations or in local newspapers.
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Drives are a great way to educate people about hunger, nutrition and volunteerism for the Subic Bay Children's Home.
I'm Waiting on Your Ideas
If you are thinking I may want to help but I'm not sure email me and I will talk it over with you so you can decide if this is for you or not.
Anyone desiring to help in their own way can go online to subicbaykids.org and hit the "20 Ton Virtual Rice Drive" link at the top then fill out the "20 Ton Rice Drive Online Contact Form." (Just email me from the link below right now. I haven't got the web site link ready yet)
I'm waiting to receive feedback from our supporters before I implement this project.
An old time preacher spoke a very true statement by simply saying, "Everything depends on God's blessing." All of us together with God's blessing can make this happen.
P.S. I just found out my home church, Gateway Baptist, has agreed to purchase the first ton of rice at $860 to start of the drive!
