Sun and Aidmatrix previewed the first Internet-based Virtual Food Drive at the SunNetworkSM Conference in San Francisco, CA. Conference attendees are encouraged to make monetary donations through the Virtual Food Drive to the San Francisco Food Bank from a list of the Food Bank's top ten needed items, with an overall conference goal of collecting $10,000 of donations.

"While traditional food drives collect non-perishable grocery items to put on our shelves, the Food Bank still has to maintain a budget to purchase supplemental items such as fresh meat and produce that are most needed by agencies serving the more than 150,000 people who live with the threat of hunger in San Francisco," said Paul Ash, executive director of the San Francisco Food Bank. The San Francisco Food Bank is the largest distributor of food to low-income families and individuals in San Francisco.

Using the Virtual Food Drive, donors can see the impact that their contributions have made, from the percentage savings they have helped the food bank realize through pledging donations online, to the automatic calculation of how many meals their donation will serve. Food drive campaigns using the Virtual Food Drive solution run more efficiently, with fewer resources required by both donor and food bank, while increasing the impact of each donor dollar and the number of meals served to people in need.

"Non-profit organizations are embracing Internet technology to increase the efficiency and impact of their programs, with fewer resources," said Stuart Wells, vice president, Market Development Organization at Sun. "By working with Aidmatrix to create humanitarian aid delivery solutions based on SunTM Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) technology, together we can help these organizations leverage the power of the Internet to reach more people in need."

The Virtual Food Drive is the latest solution available through the new Aidmatrix Portal, powered by software from Sun and i2 Technologies, a provider of dynamic value chain management solutions. The SunTM ONE Portal Server (formerly iPlanetTM Portal Server) and SunTM ONE Directory Server (formerly iPlanetTM Directory Server) form the backbone of the Aidmatrix portal, providing a single point of access to customized services and aggregated content. Aidmatrix was launched by the i2Foundation and is a not-for-profit online network that helps streamline the delivery of humanitarian aid.

"In our first year we've helped meet the basic needs of nearly four million people by supporting the delivery of 29 million meals and 36 million pounds of food. We're extremely grateful to Sun, i2 and all our other technology donors for their willingness to help and for making products that unite so well to do the job," said Sumeet Rawla, vice president of Strategic Alliances for Aidmatrix.

http://www.i2.com

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