One in eight Americans will face hunger this year. 40 million people.
On this Valentines’ Day weekend, please join us as we do what we can to help. For the next thirty-six hours, a team of diarists will be asking for contributions to Feeding America.
GO TO THE NEXT DIARY: Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse.
Feeding America is the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity.
Each year, the Feeding America network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.
(Its) network of more than 200 food banks serves all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Feeding America network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.
Feeding America.
Last December, this community provided tens of thousands of dollars to this wonderful organization (and to local food banks) in honor of the holidays.
Since that fundraiser, more than a million more people have become unemployed. In America today, a job is lost every eight minutes. More and more Americans are depending on food banks to supplement what they are able to pay for, or to provide basic supplies when they are unable to pay anything at all.
And the shelves of our nation's foodbanks are growing empty.
Earlier this week, at his first evening press conference, President Obama described the dire circumstances of Elkhart, Indiana.
Good evening. Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly about the state of our economy and why I believe we need to put this recovery plan in motion as soon as possible.I took a trip to Elkhart, Indiana today. Elkhart is a place that has lost jobs faster than anywhere else in America. In one year, the unemployment rate went from 4.7% to 15.3%. Companies that have sustained this community for years are shedding jobs at an alarming speed, and the people who’ve lost them have no idea what to do or who to turn to. They can’t pay their bills and they’ve stopped spending money. And because they’ve stopped spending money, more businesses have been forced to lay off more workers. Local TV stations have started running public service announcements that tell people where to find food banks, even as the food banks don’t have enough to meet the demand.
President Barack Obama, February 9, 2009.
It is not just the food banks in depressed areas of Indiana that are hurting; across America, shelves are empty.
As the economic crisis deepens, many Americans may soon discover what it means to be too thin, an insight that until now has been largely reserved for denizens of the developing world. This is changing. In January, U.S. food banks saw a 30% increase in the number of people who couldn't afford to buy enough food on their own, but 70% of food banks reported that they lacked the resources to feed those extra mouths.
Los Angeles Times
The shelves are empty in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Empty shelves are the worst that can happen to a food pantry, and it has happened twice in recent months at the Harvest Center of Charlotte.
"I'm the one who had to go out and tell people standing in line that we had nothing left," said Blease Turner, executive director of the pantry on Charlotte's west side. "They didn't complain. We just stood there and I prayed with them."
Charlotte Observer
They are empty in Wittman, Arizona.
"Every month is a challenge," said Saguaro Janes President Sherry Lamb, referring to the task of feeding those that come to her food bank, located in the tiny town of Wittmann, Ariz.
"They’re going to get something, but it’s not going to be much. The economy is affecting us - big time."
(snip)
A member of the Sun Valley Gleaners, Lamb visits grocery stores that will permit (many give to St. Mary’s or the larger food shelves), distribution centers and anywhere else she can obtain damaged cans, carefully sifting through mountains of inedible items to find products that can be salvaged.
"It’s like the story of Ruth in the Bible, where she went out into the fields and gleaned," said Lamb. "I clean cans, tape boxes; whatever it takes to salvage that food. Nobody regularly donates to us - we’re it here."
(snip)
"It’s a shame," said (Lamb). "People are losing jobs and homes - these are families - people who have always worked. Now it’s killing them to have to do this, and there are a lot out there who just can’t bring themselves to ask. They’re hurting out there."
The Wickenburg Sun
They are empty in Englewood, Florida.
The Englewood East Church of Christ will open its own food pantry this month.
Dubbed "Handfulls on Purpose," the organizers of the food pantry are now accepting food and monetary donations at Quality Self Storage, 3041 McCall Road in Englewood next to Scheckler's Produce.
Handfulls on Purpose was founded to work with the Harry Chapin Food Pantry in Fort Myers. That pantry provides food for all food distribution programs in Charlotte, Lee, Collier, and Hendry counties.
With so many people out of work and in need in Southwest Florida, regular food donations to the Harry Chapin pantry are not enough to fill the shelves and they are frequently empty, Church of Christ members said.
Port Charlotte Sun
They are empty in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
Samuel Johnson, 58, might not be able to afford his medications if it weren't for the Chicago Miracle Temple Church Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Pantry.
"Sometimes I'm caught between buying medicine and food," Johnson, a Ford Heights resident, said recently while picking up a bag of groceries.
Johnson is not alone.
With tough times, as many as 1,600 to 2,000 families a month are now coming to the food pantry, up about 70 percent compared to last year, according to Rev. Cheryl Anderson.
For the Chicago Heights-based food pantry, keeping up with the growing need is of greater concern. Already, the pantry has run out of food three times in the last six months.
The Times
They are empty in Covington, Louisiana.
The situation is the same in the freezer, and on the many storage shelves inside the warehouse at the Covington Food Bank.
Supplies are dwindling quickly.
"Each shelf had two or three and the tops of them were just overflowing," said Jackie Catalanotto, who works at the food bank.
Now, she says, in just a month’s time the supply has been drastically reduced.
For Catalanotto and her husband Sam, who helps her run the food bank, it's a frightening scenario.
"You can see how empty we are," Jackie Catalanotto said. "On a given day, when we do 80 families, and we do more than that some days -- we give out 70 items to a family. That's 5600 items of food go out that door."
But the amount of donations has plummeted, while the number of Northshore families in need keeps growing at an alarming rate.
WWL-TV
Note: Every one of these reports (and there are others) came from the past week.
Every dollar makes a difference.
For every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 10 pounds of food and grocery products to men, women and children facing hunger in our country.
Donate with a credit card here.
Donate other ways here.
Participating Diarists this weekend (all times Eastern):
Go here ---> 3 p.m.: Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
6 p.m.: Hardhat Democrat
9 p.m.: boatsie
Overnight: JellybearDemMom
Sunday, February 15, 2009
9 a.m.: blue jersey mom
12 noon: rb137
3 p.m.: Timroff
6 p.m.: Meteor Blades
9 p.m.: srkp23
(Please visit each of them. Thank you so much to our wonderful diarists.)
Give a Valentine to a hungry neighbor by filling an empty bowl. As Vincent Van Gogh once observed, "There is nothing more artistic than to love others."
Thank you all, so very much.