April 14th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

This is a link to some very good ideas on organic gardening. http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2010/03/organic-gardening-the-key-to-our-future/

April 9th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

You are all invited to a work project on our property in Mayfield. On Saturday April 17th. I hope we get a good turn out. We have fences to be mended and stained, plants to be transplanted, a deck to be stained, and a bunkhouse to be sheetrocked. If we have more time we have other projects. i hope to have David, Fred, Ralph and Myself from Care for the Children here for you to meet and rub shoulders with. Email me here or at leecor27@gmail.com so I can get you directions. Also if any of you would like to donate materials let me know. It is about 112 miles from Riverton so we might want to carpool. Lets all work together and make this a good turnout.

April 8th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

Over a decade ago I was in the backyard of someone that had hired the company that I was working for. We were putting on siding. It was a two-story house if I remember right in Sandy, Utah. It was mid September and the homeowner had a peach tree in the backyard that didn’t look like it had been harvested for years. At lunchtime I walked over to the end of the scaffolding that I had been working on and sat down right above the peach tree and picked me a peach.

Peaches have always been my favorite fruit. More that the taste I love the memories that flood my mind. In 1973 I was ten and we moved into a house that had a peach tree. I remember pruning and tending to that tree. In the spring we would pick half of the green peaches off so that the ones that remained would be as big as softballs in the fall. Every fall the first thing I would do as I arrived home would be to stop by that tree and look for the ripest peach. I would only pick one at a time because they were so big I could only eat one. Sometimes I would eat it in the shade. Other times I would take it into the kitchen and skin it and slice it up and eat it with cream.

What happened next seems innocent even now. I was working with a guy named James. James and I sat on that scaffolding and started talking about all the food that goes to waste in our own backyards. James said “ I think you would control one of the biggest orchards in the world if you could find a way to network all the people that have trees in their backyards”. That conversation has stayed with me for ever since. I have no aspirations to control all the fruit or even just peaches for that matter, but the fact that so much food is never harvested has haunted me since that day.

Shortly after that day James and I were driving down the road and I was telling him about gleaning fields and that I had heard that some farmers would let you harvest what was left after he had harvested it. We just happen to be driving along a farmer’s field and James pulled over and got out before I knew it he has walking though a field up to a farmer that happened to be standing close by. As I rushed up James was asking if we could glean his field. Our timing was unbelievable. He said that we could have the next week to take as much food as we wanted. At the end of the week he was going to till it all under for the winter.

We had every type of pepper you can imagine. We had squash, melons, tomatoes, etc. but over fourteen apple boxes of peppers if I remember correctly.

James is a great friend and he has taught me a lot though our conversations but those two things.

#1 Dream big- I was just looking for a free peach that day. A free lunch.

#2 Do it now!!! There is probably a reason it came to your mind now so do it now.

To be continued…

February 25th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

Here is a good article to help families save food and money.

February 25th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

We’d like to thank all of you that have stopped by this site.

It has been humbling to hear from so many of you that are showing a genuine interest and a willingness to help us. Our goal is to help all of Gods children, not just “children”. In the past Care for the Children has provided 30 million meals to children in third world countries. Now we want to turn our attention to help families right here in our own backyard.

All sorts of “disasters” hit close to home every day. We don’t feel it is our job to judge each ones tragedy. Each one of us deal with calamities differently. Among so much sorrow is so much joy. Our lives are full of blessings if we just have eyes to see. We want to be a blessing to all those around us.

As we have delved into this project the amount of food is staggering. Especially given that it is food that would otherwise have gone to waste. We have been introduced to people with more knowledge in processing mass amounts of food and people with the same passion to help people and stop wasting food.
I have been contacted by a number of folks that have volunteered to help. Believe me when I say as soon as I know to what, when and how I will get the word out.

February 18th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

As you can see, there are changes taking place through our site and over the internet in reference to our projects. The truth is, we have to make these transitions. We hate to move, but unfortunately we found out our name is too close to a trade marked name being used.

So we will have to change the name of our program that we used last year to gather food. We don’t have a definite name as of yet, so I am open to any and all suggestions. What would YOU call a program to gather millions of pounds of food, distributing it to needy families by working together?

February 11th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

It has been a while since I have given an update.

Things are really beginning to ramp up. I have been introduced to a gentleman from the board of Care for the Children by the name of Fred Bohman. Fred has already started making calls on my behalf to get us a building, equipment, funding and more. He believes in what we are doing and is adding to our mission as we speak.

We met this week with another Non-Profit to come up with a solution to process over flow of fresh produce they have to turn away. They don’t process any of the food that they receive. They don’t have the equipment or process to do it.

At the end of the meeting Fred turned to Jim, the gentleman we had been meeting with and asked “So how much food should we expect to receive?” Jim answered “We have no idea because of the daily calls we get, but last year we turned away six million pounds of fresh produce“.

Needless to say my jaw almost hit the floor. I have always said this program is as big as we are willing to take on. I have to admit though, I felt like the chief of police in JAWS in that scene were he’s throwing the chum out of the back of the boat and he sees Jaws for the first time.

“I think we are going to need a bigger boat”!

It looks like our “Headquarters” is going to be in the Provo area. Nothing concrete yet, but that is the direction we are leaning. 2010 is looking like a great year to bless many, many hungry families with fresh fruits and vegetables.

God Bless
Lee J. Bradshaw
Now, Go do some thing good!
Thank you for all the support and kind words that have been sent to me privately. They mean a lot to me and I apologize for not getting back to each of you in a timely manner.

February 8th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.

This is a very good talk. We all need to think about where our food is coming from and what nutrients are really in them. We also need to think about how hard it is to get REAL nutritious food even if money isn’t an issue, and how we are going to help our fellow human beings get the good stuff. I do not believe it is the governments job to provide another program. I do believe that we are supposed to be our brothers keeper.

If you’ve ever seen a bucket of live crabs it is a very interesting sight. Just as one has almost made his escape all the other crabs pull him back in. As I see things our only choice in this life is to work together. We need to help each other out of this puzzle and cheer for our fellow man, as if he has caught the last second touch down pass,  when he is making his escape from the status qoe. Now I know I am going to take some flack from my friends in the corporate world for this. I was as competitive as they come, but this is my passion now. I have seen the errors of my selfish thinking. I hope that it isn’t to late. We all need to learn to work together!  Now if you watch this video and read the coments you might see some who discredit this talk because Mr. Bittman isn’t VEGAN enough. I’m not a vegan either but Mark’s points are very good ones. I also believe in an individuals agency to make up his or her own mind.  We all need to stop acting like a bunch of crabs in a bucket.

January 25th, 2010 by Lee Bradshaw

‘My major problem with the world is a problem of scarcity in the midst of plenty … of people starving while there are unused  resources … people having skills which are not being used.’ Milton Friedman

canning, dehydrating, distributing, food, plenty, refrigerator, scarcity, starving, volunteers

January 25th, 2010 by Jaime Buckley

I am visiting with Lee Bradshaw weekly and watching this incredible project grow by leaps and bounds, but not because of financial donations. No. This project thus far has grown by people being creative and donating their resources, their connections and in some cases, themselves as manpower (or ‘womanpower’).

As a husband and father of 10 (+1), the challenges today’s society throws at us are not always ones we can control. People who are in need are not usually people who refuse to work. In fact, most are hard working, loyal, tax paying, kind individuals and families who have not been able to make enough, or by circumstances, have found themselves in a dire situation. Many times it’s a choice between paying a bill or food on the table and many feel obliged to pay their debts! Think about that!!

I stopped down town Salt Lake City and watched good men, lined up in the early morning frost with bitter winds, just in the hopes of getting a bus pass so they can get to work that day.

We have resources. All of us. From money to food in our back yards, to people we know who are unaware that Care for the Children and it’s harvest projects even exists. I would implore you to tell them about this site. To tell them of the work that has been done, what is being done and what we HOPE to do this year!

Take a moment to tell someone about us. Help us grow our connections with the people of the communities, while Lee Bradshaw and his volunteers make connections with companies and government entities.

The goal is to fill every belly. Please help us do it.
Contact us and give us your ideas and support.

God Bless.
Jaime Buckley

ByHP, challenges, food, From our Friends, help, hope, lee bradshaw, resources, tbyhp