Middletown's Cross St. Fire House served as one of fifteen locations for today's CT Day of Caring and Compassion, a state-wide effort to collect non-perishable food items for local food pantries, Foodshare, and Connecticut Food Bank.
Fire Fighters Chris Augeri and Keith Clark were on duty when my family dropped off our food items this morning around 11:15 am, and there had been about 20 donations since the food drive started at 10:00am. The drive was scheduled to last until 2pm.
As a special bonus, my three children got an impromptu tour of a firetruck. I feel like I really rocked parenthood today...we did some family community service AND I got the cool mommy points for letting them sit in the firetruck (thanks for the assist Chris and Keith)!
Even if you didn't make today's food drive, the need is still present and there is always time to make a difference. The number of people seeking help from food banks in CT is up 30% from last year. Middletown's food pantry, Amazing Grace, is run by St. Vincent DePaul Place and offers several opportunities to help out: click here for more information. Most basically, you can always drop off food donations at Amazing Grace, and items like peanut butter, tuna, canned fruit, spaghetti sauce and pasta are highly sought after food items. Or, challenge your family or business to become participants in the Families Feeding Families Initiative. This program allows you to contract with Amazing Grace to provide a specific amount of a specific food item throughout the year (for example, you might be responsible for bring in 25 cans of tuna a month for the year).
Monetary donations support St. Vincent DePaul Place's Soup Kitchen and they are used to buy food items from the Connecticut Food Bank for $.16 per lb. In fact, 35% of the food distributed through Amazing Grace is bought from the Connecticut Food Bank.
Every little bit helps, so if you see a great sale at the grocery store or if you're looking for a family community service project, please consider what you can do to help relieve hunger in our community.
4 comments:
" ...food items for local food panties..."? Let's check our spelling on this one.
South Fire is also doing "Fill a Fire Truck" at Stop and Shop till 8p.m. tonight!
"The number of people seeking help from food banks in CT is up 30% from last year"...
Food banks and food pantries are not the answer. For the person who is seeking food for themselves or their families, a day at a food bank is an ordeal. You have to get up early, stand in line for hrs, food is irregular, first customers get bags with all 6 products, next set of customers get 5. Everyone is confused. It is controlled chaos. People are given food they don’t select, might not need, exchanging occurs outside the food bank. These people who they trade with, outside, the food bank take advantage of the needy. It is underground commerce. The System doesn’t work, its humiliating, not cost efficient and in no ways dignifying.
Food banks are still in business because they employ people and have a business interest to stay in business and thus maintain the cycle.
Food is a basic human right. It is beyond charity. Food needs to be sustainable.
In June we launched a call to action amongst young filmmakers to visually depict the growing epidemic of hunger in their communities. Now the entries are in and voting has begun! Please take a moment and log onto http://www.facesofhunger.com/ and vote for your favorite entry.
Vote for the film that speaks to you and best reflects the growing epidemic of hunger in the US. On December 5, the top six (6) films with the highest number of online public votes will advance to the second and final round of judging which will be conducted by an esteemed panel of judges. Vote early, vote often and spread the word!
Heather, Project Assistant
www.facesofhunger.org
How about voting for a film that best depicts a SOLUTION for the problem?
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