CONTACTS:
Tarrant Area Food Bank
Andrea Helms
Communications Director
Tarrant Area Food Bank
office 817-332-9177
cell 817-657-9175
andrea.helms@tafb.org
www.tafb.org

Local regional food bank to honor local beer distributor, individuals and
Canstruction® participants as outstanding volunteers
Special treats will come from Mrs Baird’s 55-foot Ultimate Smoker and Grill parked on site

    FORT WORTH, TEXAS (April 16, 2008) – Tarrant Area Food Bank this month will honor its 3,000 volunteers and present awards for exceptional volunteerism to LARRY ANFIN of COORS DISTRIBUTING COMPANY OF FORT WORTH, to the FORT WORTH CHAPTERS of THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS and the SOCIETY OF DESIGN ADMINISTRATION and to FORT WORTH COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS Barbara Williford and Corinne and Robert Dillon.

    A reception honoring all food bank volunteers and recognizing the award recipients will be held TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2008, between 3 and 5 p.m. at 2600 CULLEN STREET, FORT WORTH 76107. Awards will be presented at 3:45 p.m. As a special treat for the volunteers, Mrs Baird’s 55-foot Ultimate Smoker and Grill will be on site with staff cooking hotdogs and hamburgers.

    LARRY ANFIN, president of COORS DISTRIBUTING COMPANY OF FORT WORTH, will be presented the PAT MOHLER AWARD for his company’s exceptional service during annual food drives benefiting Tarrant Area Food Bank. The company is a major contributor of personnel and trucks that pick up food drive donations from major corporate and school drives, according to Susan Frye, the food bank’s community events director. “Coors has provided transportation during all of our annual food drives, including the mail carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Drive in May,” she said.

    “Larry has been an enthusiastic member of the food bank’s board of directors for almost five years. We can’t thank him enough for his very generous support,” said Bo Soderbergh, Tarrant Area Food Bank executive director. The Pat Mohler Award is named in honor of the food bank’s founding executive director.

    The FORT WORTH CHAPTERS of THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS (AIA) and the SOCIETY OF DESIGN ADMINISTRATION (SDA) are the volunteer forces behind the annual Canstruction® Competition and Show that benefits Tarrant Area Food Bank. The exhibit features imaginative, colossal structures designed by professional architects and engineers and built entirely of cans and boxes of food. The AIA and SDA Canstruction® volunteers and participants will be presented the PATTIE VERKAMP VOLUNTEER FUNDRAISING/FOOD-RAISING AWARD for their management and promotion of this event.

    “Since the first competition in 1999, Canstruction® has brought to Tarrant Area Food Bank almost 500,000 pounds of food and thousands of dollars,” said Frye. “The members of AIA and SDA who have coordinated this event and the architectural and engineering firms that have entered the competition have been incredibly generous with their time, talents and financial resources. This Volunteer Fundraising/Food-raising Award is a small token of our appreciation,” she said. The award will be received on behalf of all Canstruction® volunteers and participants by Julie Meeks, president of the SDA Fort Worth Chapter, and Suzie Adams, executive director of the AIA Fort Worth Chapter.

    CORINNE and ROBERT DILLON’S volunteer work the past three years behind the scenes of the Tarrant Area Food Bank benefit Empty Bowls “has more than earned them the DEBBY BROWN VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD,” said Frye. “Corinne is chairwoman of the silent auction, and Bob, or ‘the dock guy’ as we call him,” Frye explained, “coordinates logistics and supervises the loading dock the day of the event as the pottery bowls, silent auction items and restaurant food come in.” Corinne also works in the Tarrant Area Food Bank office once a week and volunteers at one of the food bank’s partner agencies, Community Link Mission in Saginaw.

    Mrs. Dillon’s volunteer work is inspired, in part, by her experience as a kidney transplant recipient five years ago. “A lot of people helped along the way,” she says. “I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for the help of other people.”

    BARBARA WILLIFORD, a Texas Christian University graduate and Alcon retiree who now enjoys time with seven grandchildren, will be presented the IMA STRAIN VOLUNTEER AWARD for her long-term, dedicated volunteer work for Tarrant Area Food Bank. Mrs. Williford, who once worked in the hospitality industry, has volunteered at Tarrant Area Food Bank since 1998 when she helped with guest registration for the food bank’s first ¡Adiós, Hunger! party. She has volunteered for this event every year since. In addition, Mrs. Williford is the food bank’s “on-call volunteer,” according to JoAnn Biggers, Tarrant Area Food Bank volunteer coordinator.

    “Barbara is the first person we call whenever we need a substitute receptionist for part of a day or an emergency volunteer to step in and take up where another volunteer has had to stop. She is an exemplary model of the long-term, dedicated volunteer deserving of the Ima Strain Volunteer Award,” Biggers said.

    Last year, 3,000 VOLUNTEERS DONATED 66,000 HOURS OF SERVICE TO TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK in its efforts to eliminate local hunger.

    TARRANT AREA FOOD BANK and its network of 300 hunger-relief programs, each month, distribute emergency food to more than 30,000 families and serve more than 500,000 meals and snacks on agency sites. This network of food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters and other social services agencies serves low-wage workers and their families, economically disadvantaged children in childcare and after-school programs, elderly and chronically ill or disabled individuals on fixed incomes, family violence victims, homeless families, laid-off workers and others in need.