Pediatric cancer is in the sights of City Dads Group this June as we team with the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) to raise money to help find a cure.

City Dads Group chapters in a dozen cities from coast-to-coast will set up stands between June 2 and 10 to sell lemonade and take donations to go to the national nonprofit’s work funding research to find better treatments and cures for childhood cancer.

Details, including times and locations for each group’s event this year, will be made available on the City Dads Group’s ALSF fundraising page or on the group’s Meetup page (see list below).

City Dads Group previously raised funds with Alex’s Lemonade Stand in 2016, but this year’s model should be even sweeter thanks to our ongoing partnership with Plum Organics. The nation’s leading organic baby food brand is helping our chapters out with supplies for their stands, and will provide snacks and samples for patrons.

• Boston – June 8
• Charlotte – June 4
• Chicago – June 9
• Dallas – June 9
• Fresno, Calif. – June 7
• Kansas City – June 2
• Los Angeles- June 10
• Madison, Wisc. – June 8
• New York City – June 5
• Portland, Ore. – June 9
• San Francisco – June 2
• Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Minn – June 2

Have a baby at home or one on the way? Then you need to come to the 2018 New York Baby Show this weekend at Pier 94 (52nd and West Side Highway) in Manhattan.

The NYC Dads Group will again be there running the “Dads Lounge” and it will be the sleekest one. Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand and a frequent partner of ours, is sponsoring it and providing nutritious and tasty snacks, a tot play area and Plum Organics-inspired “mocktails” each afternoon. As always, we’ll have comfortable couches, glider chairs, lots of changing tables for the little ones, and a crew of our members on hand to share anecdotes and perspective on fatherhood as well as answer your tough questions.

The 2018 New York Baby Show offers a fun, informative and family-friendly weekend of shopping, learning and bonding to help expectant and new parents from tri-state area make their way from pregnancy into parenthood. Hundreds of exhibitors and many guest speakers will be present to help you get the low-down on the latest in baby care.

(Disclosure: City Dads Group is a media partner for the JPMA and Family Media Baby Show series taking place in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles this year.)

The 2018 New York Baby Show  keynote will be delivered by “The BabyGuy,” Jamie Grayson, who will give parents and parents-to-be tips and recommendations on shopping for baby gear like strollers, car seats, breast pumps and more.

Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby On The Block, will also be a featured speaker on both show days. Karp has helped many new parents sooth their babies and help them sleep with his approach.

Tickets cost $20 for individuals, $30 for families (children are free!), and can be purchased online.

Discount tickets to 2018 New York Baby Show!

Members of NYC Dads Group or any of our City Dads Group chapters around the country can enjoy 50 percent off tickets to the New York Baby Show. Purchase tickets on the registration page and use promo code CityDadsGroup50S.

You know you’ve met a super dad who really cares about his community when he shows up on a Tuesday morning, without kids, to volunteer for two hours.

Those were the dads who came out on Giving Tuesday to pack food and clothing to deliver to families struggling with the basic necessities.

Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand, delivered a pallets of food — most weighing over 400 pounds, to various cities around the country with chapters of City Dads Group. Here in Los Angeles, the Plum Organic products were delivered to the GOOD+ Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations throughout the United States to distribute essentials to families in need. GOOD+ Foundation added care packages of children’s clothing to the outgoing food deliveries.

Watch as dads from Los Angeles to New York worked to pack, prep, and load all the donated food and clothes to get to families during the holiday:

Los Angeles County has the largest number of food insecure families in the country – these are families who don’t know where they will get their next meal. Many more struggle to cover rent, with nearly half of all LA County residents paying more than 30% of their income in rent.

The need is tremendous here and the LA Dads Group, with help from Plum Organics and the Good+ Foundation, helped to make it a little bit easier for those families who received the food and clothes.

The group’s first task was to pack donated diaper bags with Plum Organics pouches and other donated supplies for expectant parents. The team of LA dads wrote inspiring notes to these parents, who later received those bags at a baby shower thrown for them because many cannot afford to buy everything a baby would need.

After filling dozens of bags, the team of LA Dads sorted through a massive pile of clothes to create bundles of clothes to be donated. The dads are a hard working group – we finished all this work in less than two hours, helping hundreds of people.

It was incredible doing something for Giving Tuesday 2017, which marked the second consecutive year that LA Dads Group has participated in this day of giving back through service. We are grateful to the dads who came out, Plum Organics for their support, and Good+ Foundation for welcoming us to their warehouse!

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics partnered with City Dads Group for the mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

Dallas Dads Group Teams up with Plum Organics for Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is a global day of outreach on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The premise is to start the holiday season in a meaningful way by inspiring people to collaborate with non-profit organizations and give back in their local communities. For the second year in a row, Plum Organics partnered with Dallas Dads Group to target child hunger in North Texas.  Plum Organics generously donated an entire pallet of baby food to Hope Supply Co.  Members of Dallas Dads Group volunteered to sort and package the food so it could be distributed across the DFW metroplex and end up with children who need it.

Nationally

Dallas Dads Group was honored to be one of the 12 City Dads Group chapters to partner with Plum Organics for this Giving Tuesday initiative. City Dads Groups across the country from New York City to Los Angeles volunteered their time with local organizations to help unpack Plum Organics donations and sort food, clothing, and whatever else was needed. Take a look at this short video that shows City Dads Group members nationwide in action on Giving Tuesday.

Locally

Locally, our group worked with Hope Supply Co. to unpack and stock the pallet of Plum Organics baby food pouches. Hope Supply Co’s mission is to provide critical items including food, diapers, clothing, and school supplies to homeless children across North Texas. They work with a large network of partner organizations to help deliver supplies to families in need. Plum’s large donation of food allowed them to replenish their depleted shelves before the holidays. Baby food is not one of the items that Hope Supply Co. purchases with their limited funds.  Instead, they are entirely reliant on donations. This donation helped to ensure they have baby food to supply to children in need.

Our group helped unpack and get the pouches ready to be delivered. With just the Plum Organics donation we were able to fully stock their shelves, which were full with only about a quarter of the donation. We are incredibly thankful that we were able to help out the local and not quite so local (this donation will be distributed across 5 counties in North Texas) children in Texas. Before we even left for the day, some of the food was already on it’s way to families in need.

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics partnered with City Dads Group for the mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

Now that we are firmly into 2018 we can’t help but want to take a quick look back on one of our favorite meetups of the past year.  Along with  11 other City Dads Group chapters, we participated in Giving Tuesday by helping local charities that help feed hungry children in our communities with the help of our partner, Plum Organics.

Here is a little video the City Dads Group made to showcase how it went:

Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand, donated more than 41,000 pouches of their tasty meals to help children in need.  For our part, the Chicago Dads Group teamed up with the Palatine Township Food Pantry to collect food and deliver the generous donation from Plum Organics.

Giving back is one of our favorite ways to get together here in the Chicagoland area.  There is a lot of need here and we are lucky to make such great connections with brands, like Plum Organics, who help encourage and support our initiatives.

Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, is a global day of outreach dedicated to helping others. It’s meant to kick-off the holiday season by inspiring people to collaborate in improving their local communities. Since its 2012 inception, tens of thousands of organizations worldwide annually participate in the day. This was the fourth year in-a-row that we have joined with other City Dads groups around the country and participated in this day of giving back through service, and we’re looking forward to doing even more!

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics partnered with City Dads Group for the mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

With the holiday giving season still fresh in everyone’s memories, City Dads Group proudly presents this short video recapping the great work our members in a dozen U.S. cities did this past Giving Tuesday with the help of our partner, Plum Organics.

Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand, donated more than 41,000 pouches of their tasty meals to help children in need through organizations 12 chapters selected. Our dads in those chapters pitched in to unpack, sort and resort those pouches for distribution, and performed other service work such as sorting clothes, stocking pantry shelves and spiffing up community facilities.

Our City Dads members shot video of their actions and San Francisco Dads Group organizer Mike Heenan compiled and edited together their work into the video.

Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, is a global day of outreach dedicated to helping others. It’s meant to kick-off the holiday season by inspiring people to collaborate in improving their local communities. Since its 2012 inception, tens of thousands of organizations worldwide annually participate in the day.

Giving Tuesday 2017 marked the fourth consecutive year City Dads groups around the country have participated in this day of giving back through service. Plum Organics also served as our national sponsor in 2016.

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics partnered with City Dads Group for the mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

What do you get when you add together the NYC Dads Group, the GOOD+ Foundation, and Plum Organics?

Food and clothing delivered to the underprivileged for the holidays, starting on Giving Tuesday.

Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand, delivered pallets of food — most weighing over 400 pounds, to various cities around the country with chapters of City Dads Group. Here in New York, the Plum Organic products were delivered to the GOOD+ Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations throughout the United States to distribute essentials to families in need. GOOD+ Foundation added care packages of children’s clothing to the outgoing food deliveries.

Enter the NYC Dads Group. Gotham’s fathers sorted the clothing by gender and size so it would be ready to go out to needy children in the community.

If you’re going to have enough clothes to make a difference, then you are going to need a lot of clothes, and a veritable mountain awaited our dad.

The dads weren’t daunted in the least. They immediately set to work, determined to have everything ready to go for Giving Tuesday.

As all parents know, getting time away from your family isn’t the easiest thing to do, but the opportunity to help Plum Organics and the GOOD+ Foundation assist children and families in need got a huge turnout.

When asked why they were doing this, our volunteers gave enthusiastic answers. “I’m here to help the community,” said NYC Dads Group member Jeff Chew.

“I look forward to this every year,” said Larry Interrante, a longtime group member from Queens. “How can you not want to help out children living in your community?”

The dads ended up having quite a lot of fun that night. When you’re doing good, and doing it along side some good friends, well – surprise – you get into a good mood.

“We’re proud to be working with Plum Organics, and helping the GOOD+ Foundation get some much needed clothing and food to the underprivileged in our community,” said NYC and City Dads Group co-founder Lance Somerfeld. “Hanging with a bunch of great guys just adds to all of it!”

It was amazing how quickly our dads tore through their work. It seemed to be all done in mere moments. Inspired dads are efficient dads.

It turned out to be an entertaining and fulfilling evening. You’d be surprised how much fun you can have sorting children’s clothes.

Few experiences are as rewarding as helping children who need it. In many ways, that’s exactly what being a fathers should be about.

You don’t inspire people with your words, you inspire them with your actions. If you’re a father, you’re a role model, whether you like it or not. Your job is to set a good example. Full stop.

Thank you, Plum Organics, for helping us be good examples.

(All photos by Chad R. MacDonald)

NYC Dads Group needs a dozen good fathers from its membership to help with its Giving Tuesday 2017 outreach work.

Volunteers will be needed Monday night, Nov. 27, to help sort and bundle more than 400 pounds of food donated by Plum Organics®, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand. The next day the food will be distributed by GOOD+ Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations across the country to distribute essentials to families in need.

* Sign up to help us with Giving Tuesday 2017 *

NYC Dads is one of 12 City Dads Group chapters across the United States that Plum Organics is working with this year to help nourish children and assist families in need on Nov. 28, Giving Tuesday, an international day of helping others that follows Thanksgiving. Last year for Giving Tuesday Plum Organics donated more than 24,000 meals to charitable organizations chosen by seven City Dads Group chapters.

“We are proud to expand our Giving Tuesday partnership with Plum Organics to support nonprofits that support families in need across the United States,” said Matt Schneider, co-founder of City Dads Group. “Our dads are very proud to be able to provide time and much needed food to our communities.”

This will be fourth consecutive year NYC Dads Group has participated in Giving Tuesday activities. In years past, it has collected, sorted and bundled clothes or food for the GOOD+ and its predecessor, Baby Buggy.

Giving Tuesday started in 2012, in part as a response to the commercialism of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events. The event started as a collaboration between New York’s 92nd Street Y, a longtime NYC Dads Group partner, and the United Nations Foundation. Tens of thousands of organizations worldwide now participate in the annual day.

NYC Dads Group members and others who are not able to participate can follow our work on Twitter and Instagram. By using hashtags #PlumParents and #GivingTuesday, you can see pictures of our dads across the country supporting families in need.

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics is partnering with City Dads Group for the Giving Tuesday work mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

City Dads Group and Plum Organics® will again work together to help nourish children and assist families in need on Giving Tuesday, an international day of helping others that follows Thanksgiving.

On Nov. 28, City Dads in 12 U.S. metropolitan areas will help pack and distribute food donated by Plum Organics, the nation’s leading organic baby food brand. Plum Organics last year for Giving Tuesday donated more than 24,000 meals to charitable organizations chosen by our chapters in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and the Minneapolis/St. Paul.

** Watch video of our 2016 Giving Tuesday work **

“We are proud to expand our Giving Tuesday partnership with Plum Organics to support nonprofits that support families in need across the United States,” said Matt Schneider, co-founder of City Dads Group. “Our dads are very proud to be able to provide time and much needed food to our communities.”

Where we are helping on Giving Tuesday

Our members will help pack, stock and distribute the Plum Organics donation and perform other volunteer work to the following organizations:

• Boston/Providence Dads Group have chosen to assist the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which will distribute the food through its 160 agency partners that reach 57,000 individuals monthly.
• The Charlotte Dads Group plans to work with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, which distributed more than 50 million pounds of food and household items throughout its 19 county service region during its most recent fiscal year.
• Chicago Dads Group will assist clients of Palatine Township Food Pantry, an organization that serves an average of 345 families each month.
• Dallas Dads Group has chosen to work with Hope Supply Co. which assists 1,100 homeless children in North Texas every day.
• The Fresno Dads Group will work with Community Food Bank, which serves more than 280,000 people each month through a variety of programs.
• Kansas City Dads Group has chosen to help Harvesters Community Food Network, a regional food bank serving northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas that assists more than 620 not-for-profit agencies.
• The Los Angeles and NYC Dads Groups will again help GOOD+ Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations across the country to distribute essentials to families in need.
• Madison Dads Group in Wisconsin will assist the Goodman Community Center, which helps income-limited families through a food pantry, before- and after-school programs and other services.
• Our Portland Dads Group will work with the Oregon Food Bank, a central hub for supplying food pantries across the entire Pacific Northwest state.
• San Francisco Dads Group has selected the SF-Marin Food Bank to be its partner. The nonprofit provides more than 100,000 meals a day through 250 area food pantries.
• Twin Cities Dads Group in Minnesota will volunteer with Second Harvest Heartland, one of the nation’s largest food banks.

“At Plum, our mission is to nourish little ones with the very best food from the very first bite. Back in 2013, we founded The Full Effect® program to extend our mission to little ones in need. In America, 1 in 5 children is food insecure. That’s approximately 13 million kids,” Mandy Geisler, senior marketing manager at Plum Organics, said in a written statement. “The global giving movement Giving Tuesday is a great platform to raise awareness about this issue. By partnering with City Dads Group again this year, we’re able to bring organic baby food donations to organizations in twelve of their locations nationwide.”

City Dads Group members and others who are not able to participate in any of these events in person can follow our work on Twitter and Instagram. By using hashtags #PlumParents and #GivingTuesday, you can see pictures of our dads across the country supporting families in need.

Giving Tuesday is a global day of outreach dedicated to helping others. It’s meant to kick-off the holiday season and inspire people to collaborate in improving their local communities. Since its 2012 inception, tens of thousands of organizations worldwide annually participate in the day.

This will be the fourth consecutive year City Dads outposts around the country have participated in Giving Tuesday activities, and the second that Plum Organics has served as our national sponsor.

DISCLOSURE: Plum Organics is partnering with City Dads Group for the Giving Tuesday work mentioned above through a donation of goods and financial compensation.

Every Summer one of the Chicago Dads Group’s favorite events is our family picnic.  We love the opportunity to get together with our friends from all over Chicagoland and celebrate the summer together.  This year our good friends at Plum Organics sponsored the event ensuring all we had to do was show up and enjoy fostering the connections that have made our group a great resource to Chicagoland dads.

Every year we have rented out an indoor facility (’cause you never want a picnic in the rain) and brought together between 100-300 people to eat, play, and swap the war stories of fatherhood.  This year was no exception,  Upon entering L’l Kickers Indoor Soccer facility you were greeted by a children’s snack table filled treats from Plum Organics.  Even the parents were sneaking a treat or two from the table (Mighty Dinos are for Dads too, right?) If that wasn’t enough there were some seriously yummy smells coming from the food tables where the guys from Big Bob Fritzy’s were cookin’ up a storm.  Italian beef, Burgers, and a Chicago Hot Dog bar, let’s put it this way there were big grins and filled bellies!

When we weren’t eating there were soccer games, soccer skill drills, and more bouncy fun sets than the kids knew what to do with.  One of the best things about this family picnic is hearing kids run up to their parents and encourage them to get in on the adventure play.  Kids and dads were bounding up and down the inflatable slides, scoring goals and filling the space with the happy sounds of childhood memories being made.

The cherry on top of this exciting event was a visit by Moana and Spider-man courtesy of Royal Princess Parties. They spent a whole hour engaging with kids taking pictures and even jumping in on some of their games.

This event is definitely one that everyone who attended is going to remember for quite some time.  It was also a great reminder of the friendships and connections that we have striven to make here in our Dad’s group.  If you missed this one, we sure hope to see you at the next one, or any of the other activities we have going on check out our calendar here:

Chicago Dads Group

Sponsors (Thanks for making our picnic possible):

• Plum Organics (Title Sponsor)
• Lil Kickers Chicago
• Royal Princess Parties
• Big Bob & Fritzys