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| (From the left) Lorena Marquez, Kristen Gill, Leila Brewster, Jessica Koffler, actress Teri Hatcher, Jessica Winkler and Fallon Blattner. In front: Allison Woody. |
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| Broncos volunteer at the Los Angeles Foodbank. |
Providing service within our community is one of the ways Cal Poly Pomona's student-athletes interact and give back to others. On Wednesday, members of the Bronco cheer, soccer and tennis teams stepped up to serve those less fortunate during this holiday season.
Cal Poly Pomona, along with student-athletes from Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Dominguez Hills, volunteered their efforts for part of the day at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. They helped to package and sort holiday food boxes to distribute to needy families in downtown Los Angeles.
“The Bronco Athletic Association wanted to pitch in, in terms of giving back to our community,” said Lorena Marquez, Cal Poly Pomona's Marketing, Promotions and Game Management coordinator. “Plus, we were able to learn that there are a multitude of agencies that help the homeless and those who are in need. It was good for us to play a small part in something that is a growing concern, not only in Los Angeles, but in our country as well.”
Those Broncos who attended were cheer team members Kristen Gill and Jessica Koffler, Leila Brewster (soccer), Jessica Winkler and Fallon Blattner (tennis) and Allison Woody (track and field). They were later joined by actress Teri Hatcher, star of the ABC series Desperate Housewives.
Approximately 30 volunteers from the three schools were joined by Netflix employees and L.A. Foodbank workers. They worked a three-hour shift with backpacks, crates and boxes donated by Netflix as part of their outreach campaign involving stars such as Hatcher, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Bacon.
Ranked as the 5th most efficient charity among large charities in the Los Angeles County by the Los Angeles Business Journal, the L.A. Foodbank's mission is to mobilize resources to fight hunger in our community by acquiring food and other products and distribute to needy people through charitable agencies or directly through programs, energize the community to get involved and support hunger relief, and conduct hunger education and awareness campaigns and advocate for public policies that alleviate hunger, all with the goal of no one going hungry in Los Angeles County.
The L.A. Regional Foodbank is a private, nonprofit, charitable organization that has been serving the disadvantaged for33 years, and is a charitable food distribution network guided by a voluntary board of directors.
Nearly 1,000 member agency sites including abused and abandoned children homes, battered women shelters, senior centers, local food pantries, soup kitchens, AIDS hospices and more, depend upon the foodbank. In 2006, its volunteers, financial supporters, product donors and agency network made it possible for the organization to distribute nearly 40 million pounds of food for the hungry in Los Angeles County.