Bird Rock residents Rich and Lisa Tear are asking for the community’s help to feed the hungry. Their charitable pitch for aid came during Bird Rock Community Council’s (BRCC’s) monthly meeting June 5. “One in six Americans is hungry, including many children,” Lisa Tear told BRCC, adding that for the last four months, she’s distributed 500 little white collection bags on people’s doorsteps, asking for donations of canned goods and other non-perishables. “Every little bit helps,” Tear said in a follow-up phone conversation about how her quest to feed the rest got started. She was inspired by a recent newspaper article she read about a woman who did a similar charity food drive in a gated community in Escondido, a program she called the Second Saturday Club. “I contacted the woman and she told me how she delivered these bags to her neighborhood and how volunteers just came out of the woodwork and she picked them up and donated them to Interfaith [nonprofit],” Tear said. “I thought, why not Bird Rock?” After that, Tear contacted the local branch of another nonprofit serving the hungry, Feeding America. “They said they needed it,” she said. “They supported me, helping me get the food to the distribution point and with ordering [donation] bags, of which I’ve probably purchased 8,000 during these four months.” Tear said she is amazed at how quickly the hunger-relief effort is growing. “The first time we did it I got 448 pounds,” she said. “The second time I got 838.” Tear needs volunteers to help with picking up food donations for the hungry around the neighborhood, which is a big job. “I can only handle so many streets,” she said, noting the benefits of helping needy people far outweigh the effort. Tear said she’s also using the food charity project to teach her children an important life lesson. “I’m actually taking a group of kids from the middle school to a distribution point to see people lined up to get a meal out of the food I collect,” she said. “When you see all that food — it’s pretty amazing.” Those interested in helping Tear can contact her at [email protected]. In other action: • BRCC president Joe Parker said planning for two summer events, the annual BRCC-sponsored community picnic and the “reinventing” of the Taste of Bird Rock community fundraising event benefiting Bird Rock Elementary School, are both progressing. “Birdstock: Taking It To The Street will be held Saturday, Aug. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m., allowing people to stay on the boulevard after and have dinner or visit merchants,” he said, adding the summer picnic, normally held the following Saturday in August, will be rescheduled so as not to “double up” on event happenings.?• One local resident, noting identifying community signage is lacking, suggested creation of a “Welcome to Bird Rock” banner might be in order. “That’s just one way to do it,” said Michelle Fulks of the BRCC who heads up the Neighborhood Watch program. “It would be available to us to choose what we want.” “We’re talking about it with the community so that people have input,” said Parker. • Parker said installation of new median light standards will be finished soon, adding the improvement project will be dedicated in the name of the late George Sutton, who died last year in an accident and was deeply involved in the project. “We will be fixing a plaque [honoring him] to the light standard across the street from Bird Rock Coffee Roasters,” he said. BRCC board member Barbara Dawson said the lighting project will provide a much-needed public benefit.   “It’s creating more lighting at night so it’s improving the safety of the area,” she said.