One Back

There are many charities and organizations helping people that we often don’t think about.  I never realized for example how important a local food pantry can be to people.  Certainly in many larger metropolitan areas there are many church and other community organizations that have a food pantry to help people in need.

But I found out by chance that even in our local, semi-rural area there are people that benefit from a food pantry.  We participate in Cub Scouts for our son, and our meeting place is provided by a community church.  When we participated in the annual food drive, I was amazed to find out that this church provided the only food pantry for the surrounding 10 mile region.  And they never had enough food to help all the people in need.  The scouts conducted the annual food drive and gathered donations for about 4-6  months of the year.  And we try to help by bringing canned goods for the food pantry when we hold scout den meetings a couple of times each month.

I started to wonder how people even find out about a food pantry in their local area, and wouldn’t you know it- there’s a website for that!?   America’s Second Harvest calls themselves The Nation’s Food Bank Network, and host their online presence at SecondHarvest.org.  The link above will take you to their site and the zip code lookup page to find a food bank in your local area.

The site doesn’t list all the food banks that may exist, but it’s a nice place to start.  And I’m glad to see there are so many dedicated organizations for helping people with essential needs.  There are few things more important than food on the table- and poverty is an endemic problem that we are still challenged to solve.

If you do find out about a local food pantry where you live, why not stop by and make a donation?  Better yet, involve your family or friends, or maybe someone you know with kids in cub scouts.  It’s a wonderful example, and does so much good.  Last Thanksgiving we were able to put together two complete meal and Christmas present packages for two families in need.  They were going through some challenging times, and were so thankful.  The young boys and girls who helped collect the food were very proud and learned that helping others can make an enormous difference.

Filed under: Giving Options