Last month was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The folks at Komen have created an extraordinary event driven juggernaut. Sadly, there are so many different cancers and cancer is a 24/7/365 disease. The pink is gone. Cancer isn't.
The same applies to hunger in America. This is the time of year when the hungry are in the news. Like cancer, hunger is a year-round problem and growing. What's changed the most is who is going hungry in our nation. You'd be surprised. Volunteering at a local food bank recently, it didn't take long to realize that the scruffy image of the hungry/homeless too many of us have in our minds isn't the norm. The people we helped were well groomed, intelligent and...hungry. Single people, families with kids, people who could be our neighbor. They just might be, we just don't know it.
I'm priviledged to serve on the board of directors of the Jeffco Action Center. Along with a food bank, the Action Center provides counseling, emergency shelter and rent assistance, operates a clinic, provides free clothing and other services. The food bank distributes an average of 4 tons of food a day.
4 tons.
Special focus is put on the hungry at Thanksgiving. Many, but not all the hungry get a Thanksgiving dinner through the generous help of donors and volunteers and agencies like the Action Center.
Many, but not all and Thanksgiving is just one day. That leaves 364 other days.
The need is year-round. The economic mess has forced many families to go from donors, to receivers of help instead. Solid "middle class" families.
It's a problem we have to solve. It all starts with volunteering an hour or so each month. It all starts with donating a dollar or a can of food. It all starts with us.
Please give in some way today, tomorrow and every day you can. This is the United States of America. No one should go hungry in this great nation.
No one. Otherwise we stop being a great nation.
Brian Olson
Conversation Starters LLC
"We start the conversation about you"
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