One Can at a Time

I am working on a great new project at work. About a year ago I approached HR with the idea to organize a food drive for staff in our building. After several follow-ups and still nothing, I had pretty much given up until I got a call just a few days before Labor Day. It seems my name had reached the ears of many people in the company and what I had suggested as a trial food drive for the building I work in (I didn’t want to ask for too much) was becoming something much bigger.

We’ve now had two meetings and are well on our way to holding a food drive the second week of November. As of now, 11 buildings in 4 cities with probably over 3000 people, will participate and everyone working on the drive is extremely enthusiastic. It hasn’t even been announced to staff yet, but I’m so excited I had to share the news with you. Here in New York we will be collecting food for the Food Bank for New York City while the Los Angeles buildings will be working with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Nashville, Miami and possibly an office in Dallas, will be collecting for local food banks as well! Go ahead, call me a geek if you want, but I think it’s really exciting and fantastic to see that we’re going to do something that has the potential to help thousands of people.

There are always people in our communities who don’t have enough food to fill their stomachs each day and now, this is affecting more people than at any other point in my lifetime. I am lucky and have enough food, if not too much, each day. It makes me sad to know that there are thousands of children who go to school without breakfast because their parents are unable to put food on the table. It makes me sick to see people throwing food away because they’re full or they don’t like it or they let it sit in their fridge for too long (don’t get me wrong, I am guilty of this too) when others have to beg and look through garbage. And it’s a shame that food banks are running low and soup kitchens don’t have enough to feed the lines of people at their door.

My hope is that we can do something to help a few people put food on their tables. That we can give someone a Thanksgiving dinner. A breakfast so they can go to school and concentrate on learning rather than trying to hide the grumbles coming from their belly. Or laundry soap to wash their clothes. In this time of hardship when there is 9.8% unemployment (and that doesn’t even count all the people who have given up looking for work) we need to come together and help each other. Those of us who are fortunate to have jobs and houses and food should offer a helping hand because if the tables were turned, I’m pretty sure we would be hoping for the someone to do the same thing for us. An extra can of beans or an extra box of pasta will add a few dollars to our grocery bill and give strength to someone else.

I promise to let you know how it all turns out!