As the new year kicks off and we reflect on this year’s holiday gatherings with friends and family, let’s take a moment to ponder all the food and fun we’ve shared during the last few weeks. I personally believe that its important to receive these gifts with gratitude and that there’s no better way to demonstrate our appreciation for these gifts than to give back to our community and those less fortunate than ourselves.
With that in mind, I am planning to volunteer some time during the coming months to America’s Second Harvest of Tampa Bay and I would love to have any interested locals join me in this effort.
In case you are not familiar with America’s Second Harvest, they “are in effect, a clearinghouse that sorts the food, stores it, and efficiently matches it to [their] recipients by need. [They] act as a distributor and central supply point for donated foods.” Because their projects include “sorting and repackaging food at [their] warehouse, assisting with special events and preparing mailings,” there are ways for individuals, families, and groups to participate. You can learn more about them at their website.
If anyone is interested in joining me, please let me know and I will make all the necessary arrangements.
Happy New Year!
Paul M Martin said,
January 2, 2008 at 12:32 am
As our government gets out of the business of using our tax dollars for anything but war, we definitely need more people doing as you suggest. I’m an invalid living at home, mostly bedridden, and neither of the two meals on wheels programs in my county will bring me food – they won’t screen for my allergies. Maybe they could with more staff.
I live on cold pizza, no kidding, because I don’t have enough mobility to “prepare” anything else. My sister puts it in bags and cuts vegetables to go with it; she’s working sixty hours a week, my sole sibling who’s also trying to look after our eighty year old mom.
I have no access to health care relevant to my rare disease. Too fragile for safe transport by any means, no specialist will come to me under our insurance dominated health care system. We tried to make it happen for two years before becoming convinced by the fruitlessness of our efforts and one medical person after another saying no way on earth.
So my disease progresses, surrounded by distinguished teaching hospitals. I guess I’m thankful that I can get a podiatrist out to cut my toenails, but only after my feet have hurt for a couple weeks – Medicare will only cover one cutting every two months.
American has become a nation in which “those less fortunate” are less fortunate than they’ve been since FDR’s New Deal, which has been steadilly dismantled in recent decades.
And the less fortunate can be ANYONE. I had normal heath till I was 37 and no one on either side of my family has anything like this – no rare diseases on either side of my family but mine. You never know.
tej kohli said,
February 7, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Thanks for working on it.
I hope to be part of this community soon and help improve and advocate it even more.
Jen, writer MembershipMillionaire.com said,
February 26, 2008 at 3:04 am
It’s always fulfilling to be able to give your time and/or money to a cause. I myself have volunteered for different advocacies in the past and the feeling is really amazing. Being able to give something gives me a sense of purpose and inspires other people to do the same as well. The great thing about “volunteerism” is that you don’t need to be a millionaire to be able to make a difference in a person’s life.