Helping Hands

For those of you who know me and have known me for a while, you know that some years ago, I dragged my teenaged daughters into the local food pantry one afternoon where we inquired about volunteering. 

After a few months of showing up weekly to help with food distribution, I was asked to serve on the Board of Directors, and over the following two years, we would continue to be very active at the Pantry, including organizing fundraisers in collaboration with a local restaurant; picking up food donations from local grocery stores and the day-old bread store; and assisting with setting up a satellite pantry at our local library.

The food pantry was a very important part of my life in those days, and it was with a great deal of reluctance and regret that I ultimately had to resign my position when life got too busy and something had to go. 

Food insecurity is still one of those topics that's at the top of my list of egregious characteristics of the modern world.  We have infinite knowledge at our fingertips and an abundance that is unprecedented in human experience.  The world produces enough food to feed the entire world population, and that starvation still exists and there are people in this world who don't know where they will get their next meal has more to do with greed and waste than it has to do with actual scarcity. 

And here in the US, if things don't move forward, like, today, there will be people here in my community who may find themselves hungrier.

But there's this video, and it gives me hope - at least in my local community.

What he says stuck with me:  None of us can help everyone, but all of us can help someone. 

It's the story of the little girl and the 10000 starfish.  She can't save them all, but she can save some of them, and that's worth doing.

I have a membership at a regional wholesale club, and for the next little while, I will be purchasing an extra case of something each time I go to share at my food pantry. 

If you were food insecure, what would you want that something to be? Asking for a friend ... :)