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Food drives start Nov. 15

Mail Services (Davis and Sacramento campuses) and Campus Recreation are once again organizing holiday food drives. Both are scheduled to begin Nov. 15.

• Mail Services — This drive, now in its fifth year, features a donation process that could not be much easier. You simply leave canned food and dry goods with your outgoing mail — to be picked up by Mail Services personnel.

This drive runs Monday through Friday, Nov. 15 through 19, with Davis campus donations going to the Food Bank of Yolo County, and Sacramento campus donations going to the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services.

Fliers give examples of the kinds of goods that are welcome:

Canned meat, fish and soups; canned ready-to-eat meals; canned vegetables and tomato products; peanut butter (plastic containers); iron-rich cereal (45 percent or more daily value), 100 percent fruit juice (plastic bottles, 48 ounces or smaller); canned fruit, in juice; dry beans; enriched rice and pasta; powdered milk; ramen; boxed macaroni and cheese; powdered milk formula and Similac baby food.

• Campus Recreation — This food drive, in its second year, is scheduled to run from Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, with three drop-off points: the Activities and Recreation Center, the Craft Center and Outdoor Adventures. At each location, look in the lobby for a donation bin with a red bow.

Acceptable goods include canned foods (stew, chili, soup), tune and canned meat, peanut butter, low-sugar cereals, 100 percent fruit juice, canned fruit in juice, and canned vegetables. Please, no perishable or frozen items, and nothing in glass.

Campus Rec plans to turn over all donations to the Food Bank of Yolo County.

Band-uh! Gal-uh! set for Nov. 19

The California Aggie Marching Band-uh! is presenting its second annual Gal-uh! — a fundraiser for the band. The event is scheduled to at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in The Pavilion at the ARC.

The event, the day before the Causeway Classic, comprises a formal dinner, entertainment and speakers, plus a silent auction.

The speaker are listed as Bob Biggs, head coach of the Aggie football team; Greg Warzecka, director of athletics; and Bob Dunning, columnist for The Davis Enterprise.

Tickets are priced as follows:

• Mav’rik — $50 each
• Full Dress — $100, including a $50 donation
• Pride of the Regents — $150 each, including a $100 donation

RSVPs are requested by Nov. 12, via he form that is available for download on the Aggie Band-uh! Gal-uh! . People who are unable to attend, but wish to make a donation, can use the same form.

Open enrollment deadline: Nov. 23

Open enrollment runs for 30 days this year, and we are just over the halfway point. The deadline for changes, if you are making any, or if you are setting up or renewing a flexible spending account, is 5 p.m. Nov. 23.

If you are a member of the Health Net health maintenance organization, you may want to take a serious look at your premiums for 2011 — they are up 46 percent to 273 percent (almost quadruple), depending on your pay band.

As an alternative, UC now offers the Health Net Blue & Gold HMO, with premiums about 6 percent higher than what people are paying this year for the standard Health Net HMO. But there is a catch: the Health Net Blue & Gold provider network excludes Sutter Health.

Open enrollment options for 2011 also include the chance to sign up for the ARAG Legal Plan.

Pursuant to federal health care reform, UC will begin providing coverage to eligible children up to age 26 (which replaces 23 as the cutoff age). State law extends dental and vision coverage to this same group.

UC is going even further than federal and state law, on behalf of children up to age 26, by extending eligibility for legal, life, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

But, for any of that coverage can take effect for your 23-, 24- and 25-year-olds, you must take action during open enrollment. You also must take action if you want to add any other dependants.

You also must take action if you wish to set up a flexible spending account, or renew such an account — renewal is not automatic.

All through open enrollment, benefits representatives have been making presentations and running help desk hours. Here is the remaining schedule:

General overviews — 1-2:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, Mee Room, Memorial Union; and 10:30 a.m.-noon Monday, Nov. 22, 182 Human Resources Administration Building, Orchard Road just west of La Rue Roa. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Help desk — 1-4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, Ballroom B, Activities and Recreation Center.

More information

UC's open enrollment website includes premiums and summaries for each health plan, and a number of planning tools, including a “medical plan chooser.”

Earlier coverage: (Oct. 29, 2010)