Hello Friends, Food Waste Awareness Week, Greensboro Food Loss and Waste Solutions Symposium, Earth Day, High Point Furniture Market—spring brings a host of food- and Earth-oriented events. And our RePurpose food recovery program is at the center of all of it!  When people learn that 30% to 40% of food is wasted, that can seem overwhelming. Yes, that number is shocking, but we can all help: All actions are significant. Choose what you can do and stick with it. Just six days of food recovery from the High Point Furniture Market resulted in 1,200 meals served by four nonprofits. YAY! Start with what makes sense—it doesn’t need to be complicated. Whether you think you can be a food recovery driver for RePurpose once or twice a month, focus on reducing food waste in your own kitchen, or focus on shopping for local food, find something you can do that makes sense for you.  Bring someone with you. If you attended the Food Loss and Waste Solutions Symposium, my phrase “bring someone with you” became one of the themes. I think of this daily. We all need mentors, friends, colleagues, and connections to lift us up when the going gets rough.  When these three actions occur, we can all be unstoppable. I encourage everyone to “bring someone with you.” Oh the things we will do….

Ready to Round Up? A Simple Gesture Partners With Walmart Spark Good Shopping at Walmart.com? When you're ready to check out, select A Simple Gesture as your charity partner. Then consider rounding up to the next dollar to send your change to ASG! A Simple Gesture also has a new Walmart Wish List. If you'd rather fill your green bag virtually and ship it to our office, you can do that! Click here!:

Talking Tags: Our Bag Helpers Are THE BEST! Did you ever wonder how the tags get on all of those green bags? Here's your answer! ASG is lucky to have a team of dedicated volunteers who spend an hour or two every week sorting and folding bags, updating tags, checking dates, boxing up bags, and doing whatever else needs to be done. This picture doesn't show the whole crew, but they know who they are. A huge thank you to these beloved volunteers!

Tennis, Anyone? Local Tournament Benefits A Simple Gesture Check out the Love All Tennis Tournament at The Cardinal Swim & Tennis Club on Saturday, May 20. The entry fee is a green bag full of food! A huge thank-you to Isley Ortmann and her dad, Fred, for organizing this amazing event! Want to play? Click here to sign up.

Friday Night Tunes: See You at the Arts Splash Concerts in High Point Plan ahead for some Friday night fun! Free Arts Splash concerts will be held on six summertime Fridays, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., at locations throughout High Point and Jamestown. The concerts are sponsored by the High Point Arts Council, which is generously allowing A Simple Gesture to have a table to sign up food donors at the events! In return, ASG is helping with concert setup and cleanup. If you're available for a few hours one of these Friday nights, please sign up here or visit https://bit.ly/artsplashhp. The High Point Arts Council has lots of exciting events coming up, from songwriters' circles to open mic nights. Check them out here!

Major Milestone: Thanks to YOU!

New Blog Post: Practical Tips to Stop Food Waste Triad Moms on Main recently featured an information-packed blog post from guest blogger Laura Oxner on reducing food waste and saving money. Check it out here! A Simple Gesture will have another guest blog post by our President & COO Leslie Loyd coming up with TMOM that features a hunger awareness quiz, to be posted during Hunger Awareness Month in June. Watch for it!

Sending a few extra-special thank-yous to: Erie Insurance for hosting a PB&J drive and raising funds for ASG. Hartley Drive YMCA Leader's Club for learning about food insecurity and collecting food for the Burns Hill Community Pantry. Southwest Middle School and Southwest High School National Honor Society for hosting food drives. Proctor and Gamble for collecting food for local pantries. Revolution Academy and Phoenix Academy for getting their students involved in highly successful food drives. Comet Greensboro Apartments for hosting a special food drive. High Point Parks & Rec for welcoming A Simple Gesture at the annual community egg hunt and GO FAR for inviting us to their spring race. Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School's soccer team for their recent food drive to benefit ASG! High Point Farmer's Market for allowing A Simple Gesture to have a table twice a month at the market. (Haven't checked out the High Point Farmer's Market? The market runs every Saturday from 8:30 am to 1 pm, now through October. Learn more.) YOU, for filling a green bag, volunteering to drive, sorting food as it's delivered, making a financial gift, and telling your neighbors about A Simple Gesture. Thank you for being part of the ASG community!

New App: Discover the Greater Guilford Food Finder App When you encounter someone who is food insecure, it can be hard to know how to help on the spot. Here's one option: Share the new Greater Guilford Food Finder app. It's available free in your app store and includes regularly updated information on community meals, food pantry hours, farmer's markets, and community gardens. A big shoutout to the Greater High Point Food Alliance for leading this important community project!

From Our Sustainers: Be a Hero for Hunger  "I filled my green bag for years, but getting to the grocery store got a little harder than it used to be. So I switched to making a monthly financial gift. This is another easy way to support the work of A Simple Gesture."—anonymous financial donor Thank you to this donor and to all of our monthly sustainers. A gift of $5, $10, $20, or $50 each month is a huge help to us. Learn more about monthly giving at asimplegesturegso.org/donate.

Before We Go: Take Our One-Question Quiz

We love our food donors! How long have you been filling a green bag? I'm new! Less than 6 months Select I've been around a little while--6 months to 2 years Select I'm an ASG veteran--3 years to 5 years Select I don't remember NOT doing a green bag--6 years or more Select

Spread the Word: Food Pantries Need Help Hunger Awareness Month is the perfect time to recruit a friend, neighbor, or family member to be a green bag food donor, sign up to be a volunteer driver for ASG or RePurpose, talk to your favorite restaurant about food recovery, or make a gift to A Simple Gesture.

Share this newsletter with your friends and family to increase awareness about local hunger. Plus follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

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