April Food Day

My blogging friend over at a Baltimore blog called Pigtown Design (and Pigtown is an old, ethnic community of Baltimore under revitalization,) has asked fellow bloggers to acknowledge and promote April Food Day.

I am using her words, "Everyday, the news is filled with the dire news about the current economic climate and a lot of us use the blogging community to take a break from the constant drumbeat. However, we can not ignore the fact that friends and family members, and even some blogger friends have lost their jobs because of the recession.

People who never had a worry in the world now have to think about where their next meal is coming from. People who never would have dreamt that they would need help are now showing up at the local food banks. But when they get there, the shelves are bare. There is not enough food being donated to meet the sudden rise in demand. There is not enough money to buy the food for the food banks. There is not a general understanding that food banks need help to help fill their shelves.

Bloggers and their readers across the country are posting on April 1 and asking their readers to make a contribution to either a local food bank or the national food bank, Feeding America. Every dollar contributed provides seven meals or 10 pounds of food. A gift of $25 provides 75 meals. If we all post together and ask our readers to make a contribution on April 1, we can make a huge difference in our communities.

We hope that you will help us help others. The need is great and the time is now. Thank you.
April Food Blog.

I know from recent articles I've seen in the media that food banks are hurting. I would add my own reflection, as you consider a donation.

When I was in college, through the Campus Ministry, I was sent to counsel homeless women in a shelter called New Endeavors for Women. They are still there doing good work in taking homeless women, teaching them skills while in a safe environment, setting up bank accounts, and helping them find careers and places to live to rebuild their lives. I am not going to lie. The shelter was in a terrible community off North Capitol Street. At the time, there was a drug kingpin ruling D.C., living in his Momma's house, just blocks from the place.

I would head to the shelter on Sunday mornings and face down the boys on the corners, tossing hand signals for drugs. The funny thing is, as I became known in the community, I would hear my name being yelled out in greeting. One time, sitting with a friend at the stoplight at New York Avenue and Florida Avenue, car windows down, we heard my name being yelled out from the large bus stop there. My friend said, "Are they yelling for you?" Expect the unexpected. That's all I can say.

I am also not going to lie. It was depressing working there and hearing the stories, sometimes listening to lies, seeing the poverty. I remember going outside to gather some leaves for an autumn table to make it prettier, and every leaf looked diseased. The birds looked horrible. Missing feathers, misshappened. Poverty hits nature full force, too.

Often I would stay past my time and help the ladies fix lunch; all the food donated from various food banks. Again. Why lie? The food looked horrible. Boxes of bruised apples. Fungal potatoes. Things you would peel down into ongoing spirals, getting rid of the bad bits, until you were holding a golf ball sized potato in your hand. And guess what? Poor people don't want to eat a diseased, rotten potato any more than you do.

So I would say, having seen it. If you do donate, and I wish you would? Chose wisely. Even think creatively. The food banks get a ton of cans of beans (any kind of bean,) or soup. Think, what might be something...a real treat they never get...and splurge on a bag or Oreo cookies, or a bag of candy, sodas, a jar of salsa. String beans they've got, 'til they would come out of your nose. Ditto peanut butter.

People can become poor in a blink. Do not think it could not happen to you. I saw people lose their lives in a matter of two months: a husband dies or leaves them. They miss the rent or mortgage payment in two months. Already it begins, and then it spirals, very quickly: you can't make the car payment, the phone bill, the utility bills. If it gets bad enough, children are taken and the next thing you are in a shelter with a schizophrenic prostitute telling you she was a realtor (true story.) And "no" she wasn't a realtor. Visit the April Food blog. If you can spare a little, they would truly be grateful. If not, no shame. Maybe next time. I find it does the soul good, even when you might be able to donate a tiny bit yourself, despite your own worries, because it lets you retain some pride, and a sense that you, too, are part of a community, in all it's varied aspects.

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