hunger in america

M

marketsurfer

greetings,

i actually watched TV this evening ( rare occasion now) and i saw a segment on 60 minutes concerning hunger in america. it focused on these poor working people in ohio who can't feed their families. it really made me think--- some of these people earn way less than i spend on my cars, let alone all the other luxuries. for the first time in my life, i actually feel bad and realize that i ( we ) have it really really good.

if i could just send a car payment a month to help some family eat, i want to do it. BUT i don't want to get ripped off and have the money support some bogus charity or go to drugs/ cigs/ booze. does anyone have any idea how i could go about this, directly helping a family ??

i am normally fairly laize faire and don't care abot this kind of stuff , but for some reason, i want to help one or two of these families/people. any ideas ??

best,

surfer:)
 
Surf,

I volunteer two days, about 10 hours per week at my local food bank. Most of the work is physical labor, sorting salvage foods from grocery stores and food distributors. After being at home alone for most of the week I really enjoy getting out and being in a "work" type setting.

About 1/2 of the food that goes out to the 200 or so agencies in NC goes to children. America's Second Harvest runs many food banks and for each $1 they collect they turn out about $15 worth of food.

My suggestion would be to make a commitment to spend a few hours per week doing something similar in your community. There is no doubt in my mind that they will need and appreciate the help.

Regards,
 
Quote from marketsurfer:

any ideas ??
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You can start to help by stopping to take the other sides of my trades. It looks like another week of dumpster diving because of you.
 
I've worked with food giveaway programs, you have to sort out the "chronic's", nine out of ten are just milking the system. There is a certain "milk the system elite" if you will, that live better than I did when I was volunteering. One lady left her Cadillac (I'm serious, she drove up to get free food in a Cadillac, not a new one however but not all that old) running outside and I sneaked out and checked it out while she was getting her stuff. Everything worked, A/C and all, the exhaust smelled like it would pass smog, the interior was perfect, the paint was perfect. People that knew her and her hubby said that neither had ever worked in their life. They were both in Government job training programs at the time that paid them while they went to school.

If you can overlook those sickies then you will find helping out to be very rewarding. Before I give the odd beggar money I make them agree with me that being poor in the richest economy in all of history makes them at least partially at fault, most can help it by dropping their alcohol and dope habits and getting a job.

Max
 
Quote from maxpi:


If you can overlook those sickies then you will find helping out to be very rewarding. Before I give the odd beggar money I make them agree with me that being poor in the richest economy in all of history makes them at least partially at fault, most can help it by dropping their alcohol and dope habits and getting a job.

Max
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Well said max.

marketsurfer,

you may also want look into this:

http://www.habitat.org/


for your local contacts just provide your zipcode

http://www.habitat.org/local/

not as much about food, but it's also very rewarding and helps build shelters for families in need.

Good luck

Josh
 
Max,

I certainly agree with you about the people who use the system. Even some of the agencies that buy the food have turned and resold it rather than distributing it.

On the other side of the fence, last Saturday we had 3 groups of people who were scheduled to sort food. None of the three groups showed up. This means very little food got sorted.
Which means agencies could not get the food they needed.

At the end of the day there are a lot of lazy, irresponsible people in the country. But that does not change the fact that a lot of the food goes to children. In fact the average age of a homeless person is about 10 in this country. So their parents may be lazy scumbags, but that does not change the fact that kids deserve at least a hot meal.
 
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