Perhaps You Have a Food Bank in Your City - Get Off Your Butt and Support It!

Before retirement my company had always helped out in our local markets with community support, everything from sponsoring fundraisers for non-profit groups to running food drives. With small businesses strained, less money available to be donated, and job losses, things are tough in many parts of our country. But, let's talk about food banks for a moment, shall we?

Not long ago in fact, in my local newspaper there was an article; "Food Bank Starved for Cash," written by Nicole Brambila, and in that article the readers learn that it's not just cash, but food too. Seriously, and this is a huge problem around the nation. Right now 1 in 8 American Families is using food stamps, and that ought to tell us something is seriously wrong, not exactly the change anyone was really hoping for I presume. Many cities are broke, and thus, they are no longer able to fund food banks with grants like before, this at a time when more and more people desperately need them.

Indeed, things are at such a strain that Wal-Mart is stepping up to the plate and pledging - get this $2 billion dollars to food banks over the next 5 years. The first installment will be $250 million dollars for refrigerated trucks and refrigerators to hold the perishable foods. The rest will be in the form of actual food. Food which is not selling well, or is at its expiration date and cannot be sold, but has a week or more left before it needs to be used. Wal-Mart has developed protocols to make sure the food is distributed correctly. Wal-Mart figures it will donate some 1.1 billion pounds of food a year.

If you have canned goods at home you will most likely never use, look at the date, is it still good? Great donate it. In fact, I bet you could easily fill up half a grocery sack and never even notice, maybe you are like me, I filled up two bags and took them to the local food bank, it's the least I can do. Also, you might notice super-sales going on from time to time at your local super market, why not pick up some 10 for $5.00 sale items and consider that your donation.

Do you even know where the food bank is in your city? Find out. Also maybe you frequent a certain food business, coffee shop which throws away its perishables nightly, why not find a few friends, and take turns picking it up and dropping it off. This is a great nation - no one should ever go hungry in America. Think on this.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes in helping the community; http://www.detailguys.com/founder.shtml.

Note: All of Lance Winslow's articles are written by him, not by Automated Software, any Computer Program, or Artificially Intelligent Software. None of his articles are outsourced, PLR Content or written by ghost writers.