I've run my town's food pantry for 18 years and we are always trying to
keep our shelves stocked. Although most folks think to donate at this
time of year, we sometimes get too much and storage becomes a problem.
Almost every school, daycare, preschool, civic organization think about
the needy just at the holidays. We are more apt to need your help in
April or July.

From now until the middle of December, we will be receiving tons of
food, literally. The Boy Scouts alone will collect enough food to last
for months, but by March things start to thin out and no one wants to
have another food drive. I have asked many schools to hold off on their
drives until Spring and sometimes the coordinators are relieved to do it
when things are less hectic.

What we have the most requests for is tuna, canned pasta, baked beans,
juice, pancake mix and syrup, we also supply bread, fresh eggs, cheese,
cold cuts, cleaning products and TP. We would love diapers too.

Don't think of the needy as just the homeless guy living under the
bridge, or the mentally ill lady pushing the shopping cart. In most
cases, the needy is the woman next door who only has a small fixed
income, or the middle-aged man who is now permanently handicapped from
strokes, or the many young women with 2, 3 or 4 babies and a deadbeat
dad (don't get me started on this one). Regardless of how or why all
those babies are here, they still need to be fed.

Please be careful where you give your money or food. Try to think of
the small local charities, perhaps associated with a church run by
volunteers. Many Food Banks make the food pantries buy the food that
was donated to them. Try to give to a food pantry directly, instead of
a place that will charge them.

We have a large Food Bank here in NH that gets a lot of publicity so
naturally everyone has huge food drives for them. What people don't
realize is that the food pantries have to _buy_ the food from them. Why
not give it directly to the food pantry who deals directly with the
needy. Don't make us pay for the food you just donated.

Just a few thoughts from someone who has done this for a while.





Denise
http://community.webtv.net/DeniseJG/
My QI