Tag Archives: food banks

Good People Doing Good Things — Holidays Bring Out The Best In People!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Economic issues, Good people doing good things, Holidays, Social commentary

This time of year it seems the good people stories just fall into my lap.  Something about the holiday season seems to bring out the best in people – most people, anyway.  Here are just a few of the ones that touched me …

I’d like to start with a young lad I first highlighted in a ‘good people’ post in October 2022, Isaac Winfield of Redditch, Worcester in the UK.   At only 11 years of age, Isaac had started his own foodbank in his garden shed to help people in need during the pandemic.  Today, Isaac has taken his philanthropy a step further and is preparing to open a “gift bank” for moms and dads who can’t afford presents for their children, in addition to a fifth shed-born foodbank!

He went on to open additional food banks in his hometown of Redditch, in Worcestershire, England, after realizing how many people in his community needed a helping hand. His gift bank opened last week, after enlisting the help of the local Greenland Pub to store the hundreds of toys and gifts for needy families he’s received from donors.  Said his mother, Claire …

“Christmas can be a stressful time and Isaac wanted to help as many people as possible have a celebration without worrying about what is under the tree. The response has been phenomenal. We’ll be holding present bank days another three times at this same pub and put on more dates if there’s still the demand.”

Isn’t it uplifting … encouraging … heartwarming to see one so young who cares so much about other people?

Next, another young man, Reed Marcum of McAlester, Oklahoma was a shy child.  His parents divorced when he was only 7 years old and due to his shyness, he has long been a victim of bullying in school.  But a few years ago, Reed found the courage to step out of his comfort zone when he discovered that some children he went to school with and others in his town would not have any presents under the tree at Christmas.  McAlester has a poverty rate of 24% according to international statistics.

Although Reed was only ten years old at the time, in 2016, he proposed to his mother that they hold a toy drive to provide toys for those children who would not otherwise have them.  Reed’s mother, Angie Miller, posted a video on Facebook explaining her son’s intentions, and asked for donations of toys or money to buy toys for a giveaway that Reed had decided to do as a 4-H project.

“There was a great response—lots of people went out and bought new toys to donate, or they sent money for us to buy them.”

Reed is now a college freshman, but he is coming home this Christmas to participate in the toy drive that was his brainchild seven years ago.  They are estimating 10,000 toys will be distributed this year, and in addition to a special toy, each kid also receives a pair of socks, underwear, trousers, a shirt, gloves, and a hat.

Let’s head now to Sunnyside Elementary School in Cumberland County, North Carolina.  The assignment given to the third-grade class was to read the book “Think Big. Work Hard. Be Kind. No Excuses.” and then write an essay expressing their thoughts for a chance to win one of three new bicycles.

Londyn Anderson shared her aspirations of joining the WNBA in her winning essay. She was the first recipient of a shiny new bike. As two more exceptional essays were read, the last two bicycles found their deserving owners.

Amidst the initial disappointment of those who didn’t win, a surprise awaited the entire class. Unbeknownst to them, a group of 60 volunteers eagerly stood by in the hallway, ready to unveil a monumental surprise.

The assistant principal took to the microphone, exclaiming, “Everyone gets a bike!”

The generous gesture was made possible by Old Fayetteville Insurance, the company behind the donation and assembly of the bicycles. Paige Ross, representing Old Fayetteville Insurance, emphasized that these bikes were a small token of appreciation for the students’ hard work during the fall semester, focusing on their academic endeavors and character development as highlighted in the book. This was the second year the company donated bicycles – the previous year saw 80 students from Westarea Elementary School receiving the gift of new bicycles.  A company with a heart!!!  Will miracles never cease …

And last, but not least … I don’t know much about Taylor Swift, don’t listen to her music, and until recently barely knew who she was other than wondering why she didn’t wear more clothes.  But in the past year, I see her name weekly and am beginning to see that there’s more to her than I first thought.

A week and a half ago, devastating tornadoes wrought devastation on a number of towns in Tennessee including Hendersonville, where Taylor went to high school.  Her response?  She donated $1 million to Hendersonville and other towns that were affected by the tornadoes.

I’m also told that over the past year, Ms. Swift has made generous donations to food banks in every town she has visited while on tour, as well as distributing $55 million in bonuses to dancers, truck drivers, sound crew, and catering staff.  Yes, indeed … this young woman has a good heart and is a true philanthropist.  The world needs more like her!

Christmas is coming……….

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Economic issues, Good people doing good things, Holidays, Re-blogs, Social commentary

I don’t know of another person who is as caring and giving as our dear friend David Prosser. His posts these days are rare, but this morning he reminds us to think of people who are far less fortunate than most of us in the upcoming holiday season, and suggests some simple ways in which we might help just a little. Thank you, David, for being who you are. Cwtch

The BUTHIDARS

Here we go again, it seems like about a month since the last one. But the shops are full of Christmas items and people are bustling around with determination on their faces.. We all want Christmas to be special for our families and our friends. Good, that’s how it’s meant to be.

But, let’s extend the range of our friends to encompass all those currently at war, who aren’t at war against us. All those who have lost their homes and their possessions and some, almost their lives. For a moment though let’s start closer to home. Almost every Supermarket these days has a basket for donations to food banks. These are not handouts to the bone idle but possibly the only food source for the homeless or those who have no work through no fault of their own, Being homeless is not a choice most people make, especially when…

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Good People Doing Good Things … This ‘N That

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Good people doing good things, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I hope you’re in the mood for a few ‘good people’ this morning, for it just so happens that I’ve found a few!  Most of what I write for this blog is on the dark side, but we need balance in our diets … our emotional diets as well as our nutritional diets.  Good people serve to remind us that there is hope for a brighter tomorrow.

A win-win

In March, when restaurants in most every state in the U.S. closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, farmers immediately lost their restaurant contracts and many ended up having to plow their crops under, taking a huge loss for the year.  On the other side of the coin were people who had lost their jobs due to the shutdown and were unable to earn the money to buy food.  But in the State of Washington, there was George Ahearn …

When George Ahearn heard that farmers in Washington state were giving away onions and potatoes they suddenly couldn’t sell, his instinct for goodwill kicked in and George went to work.  Thinking of the food banks in Seattle that were overwhelmed, George asked on Facebook to borrow someone’s truck or trailer for the day, to haul around 2,000 pounds of restaurant-grade onions and potatoes. The response to his altruistic post was dramatic, and soon 4 trucks and 2 trailers had hauled 9.3 tons of crops grown in the east to feed hungry people in the west.

On that first inaugural run, Ahearn learned that food banks originally couldn’t accept a semi-truck load of ‘loose’ potatoes.  Enter Zsofia Pasztor, a farmer and fellow nonprofiteur who began donating crates and boxes for transporting the crops.  As these things tend to do, the movement grew and became a nonprofit organization called EastWest Food Rescue. Ahearn-1One person who donated a truck on that first day, Nancy Balin, is now one of the program’s directors, as is Zsofia Pasztor.  Says Balin …

“The whole thing was extremely organic and took on a life of its own almost immediately.”

Thus far, EastWest Food Rescue has saved over 2.4 million pounds of food from fields and brought it to those who really needed it, while also amassing enough donations to help compensate farmers for their loss.  The goal is to rescue 10 million pounds of food, for which Ahearn is trying to raise $250,000. Ahearn says one of the most important priorities is to get refrigeration capacity for fruit and other produce, as well as for milk and eggs.  Ahearn had originally planned to shut down the operation after they reached 70 tons, so he could spend more time with his family, but that was long ago, and he accepts that in this moment he “can’t stop.”Ahearn-2What a good man … and so many others … yes?

Kind hearts start young

Bike Planet of Memphis donated a bike to celebrate the grand opening of Covington Parks and Recreation Bike Park.  A young boy named Chase was the winner of the bike.  Only one thing, though … Chase already has a bike.

His neighbor and friend Daniel, however, didn’t have a bike, so … you can guess what’s coming, right?  Yep … Chase gave the brand-new bike to Daniel! chase-danielMethinks he’s been taught well!  Good job, Chase!

And then there’s 11-year-old Cartier Carey, a young entrepreneur.  Cartier has a lemonade/snack stand, like so many kids his age, but his is just a little bit different.  You see, rather than trying to earn money for that new toy or a puppy, Cartier is raising money for single moms to buy such things as diapers and other essentials.  So far, he has raised close to $5,000 through the stand and donations and all proceeds go directly to the single moms.

cartier-carey

“I wanted to help mothers who were struggling.”

And this isn’t Cartier’s first foray into altruism.  Earlier this year, Cartier created care packages called “Carti packs,” filled with deodorant, soap and tissues to give to the homeless population.cartier-carey-2He founded his own non-profit organization called Kids 4 Change 757 about a year ago. Cartier says he was motivated to create the movement so he “could help the community and make the community better.”

Chase and Cartier are our reason to hope for a brighter future, my friends!

Welcome to Ontario …

Maurice Ellis, his wife Caroline Leslie-Ellis, and their daughter, Amara, immigrated to Ontario, Canada from Jamaica to create a better life for their family.  Maurice works two jobs to support his family and put his wife through college. Caroline has earned top marks in the hospitality and tourism management program at Fanshawe College, but the expenses are tough for the family to manage.

Shortly after they moved to Ontario, in an effort to become a part of their new community, Maurice joined Dad Club London, a club for fathers and pending fathers, where they can network with other like-minded dads, give and receive help, and become more involved in their community.  One day, Dad Club London founder and president, Jeremy McCall, posted a Black Lives Matter message on the group’s Facebook page that started a conversation, and Maurice admitted that he was the target of a number of racial slurs at his second workplace.

McCall didn’t just commiserate or offer words of sympathy … he leapt into action to show the Ellis family that those who directed racial comments at Maurice were not representative of their community.  He organized a secret fundraiser to show Ellis and his family how much the community supported them.

Contributions came in from the local police union, 70 families, and numerous businesses. The group was able to raise nearly $7,000, and McCall arranged a get-together last month to surprise the family.

First, their daughter Amara was given a gift—the biggest LEGO set the club could find, and then Maurice was given a prepaid Mastercard to help with family living expenses. Finally, smiles turned to disbelief when Caroline unfolded the check for her college tuition.  Said McCall to the gathered ensemble …

“What happened to you doesn’t represent this community. We don’t stand for that. When you said, ‘I guess that’s the way the world is,’ it broke our hearts because it can’t be that way, and we won’t let it … We, together, stand as a community against racism.”

maurice-caroline-ellisNeedless to say, there was no shortage of tears all around.  What good people, yes?

good-people

Did You Get Money You Don’t Need From the Feds? Here Are Some Ideas of Where to Donate It.

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Blogging friend Brendan from my old stomping ground of New York City, has written a post with some ideas for those who have received stimulus checks from our bankrupt government that they do not need. Please, people, if you don’t need your $1,200, give it to someone who does! Thank you, Brendan … great work! 👍👍

Blind Injustice

Those of you who have been following the weekly updates on how I’m doing, and how my city (New York City) is doing with the coronavirus, will know that I am in a pretty stable situation professionally. As a result, I didn’t need the federal government to give me $1,200…yet I was given it anyway since many of us are receiving somewhere between $1,200 and $4,700.

If you are a person struggling to make ends meet, you need not feel guilty about using the money to help yourself financially. In fact, you’re the kind of person who was envisioned as benefiting the most from receiving the money.

However, if you are like me in that you don’t need the money, I strongly recommend that you give away the money in ways that help those less fortunate (because there are so many people less fortunate than you, in that case). However…

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WHY???

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

hungry41 million people in the United States alone do not have enough food to eat.  That’s more than 12% of the population in a nation that sells itself as a “great” country, and where some people have billions of dollars sitting in offshore accounts and investment portfolios that are doing nothing for anyone.  Worldwide, although enough food is produced to feed the world’s population, some 820 million people go hungry each day.  That’s 1 in 9, or approximately 11% of the people in the world.

Think about those numbers for just a minute … and now consider this from an article in the New York Times …

In Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into lagoons and manure pits. An Idaho farmer has dug huge ditches to bury 1 million pounds of onions. And in South Florida, a region that supplies much of the Eastern half of the United States with produce, tractors are crisscrossing bean and cabbage fields, plowing perfectly ripe vegetables back into the soil.

After weeks of concern about shortages in grocery stores and mad scrambles to find the last box of pasta or toilet paper roll, many of the nation’s largest farms are struggling with another ghastly effect of the pandemic. They are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food that they can no longer sell.

The closing of restaurants, hotels and schools has left some farmers with no buyers for more than half their crops. And even as retailers see spikes in food sales to Americans who are now eating nearly every meal at home, the increases are not enough to absorb all of the perishable food that was planted weeks ago and intended for schools and businesses.

The amount of waste is staggering. The nation’s largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America, estimates that farmers are dumping as many as 3.7 million gallons of milk each day. A single chicken processor is smashing 750,000 unhatched eggs every week.

WTF???  I urge you to go read the rest of the New York Times article for yourself.

Mothers cannot get enough milk to feed their children … while farmers are dumping 3.7 million gallons of the life-sustaining stuff every day???  And the United States bills itself as the ‘richest nation on earth’?  I think not … perhaps the greediest, likely the stupidest, but obviously whatever wealth is in this country is not available to keep people from starving.

To be fair, some farmers have been donating some of their surplus to food banks and Meals on Wheels programs, which have been overwhelmed with demand. But there is only so much perishable food that charities with limited numbers of refrigerators and volunteers can absorb.  So … why isn’t the federal government helping to coordinate the efforts to move the food to where it is needed?  Why can’t they do something decent just for a change?  Why, for that matter, aren’t trucking companies volunteering their labour and resources to help move that food to the people who are starving???

And where are those damned evangelical churches who rake in millions of dollars … what are they doing?  Not a damn thing … Joel Osteen (net worth $60 million), Franklin Graham (net worth $12 million), Robert Jeffress (net worth $18 million) and Rick Warren (net worth $28 million) could make a huge difference if they coughed up some of their ill-gotten gains to help move the food.

This, to me, is the single most unconscionable abomination of recent times!  And those wealthy philanthropists like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates … yes, I know they have contributed to other causes in this, the era of the pandemic, but why the hell can’t they dig a little deeper into those pockets, rent some trucks, find ways to transport the produce and dairy products from the farms to the cities where people are literally starving to death?  Why is it that the only people who seem to care about this are those of us without the resources to do more than make small donations or volunteer a few hours of time, while those with the resources either don’t know or don’t care?

This global pandemic has already taken nearly a quarter-million lives worldwide, more than 54,000 in the U.S. alone.  But you know what, folks?  At the end of the day, we’re going to find that number is actually higher because of people around the globe who couldn’t get much-needed food, while farmers were plowing it back into the ground, planting new crops in hopes they will be able to supply … not people who need it … but hotels and restaurants and the people who can afford to patronize them.  I am very nearly at the point of declaring that I will never again eat in any restaurant, but unless I can get a substantial number of people to join me in that protest, it would be meaningless.

There is plenty of blame to go around, and some of it is ours.  Turns out that on average, Americans eat more veggies when meals are prepared for them in restaurants than when they cook at home.  I am the opposite, for I cook fresh veggies every night, but … what a lazy society we have become!  And now, the price is being paid by those who can’t even afford a gallon of milk, let alone a restaurant meal.  Tonight in what is touted as one of the richest countries on earth, some children will go to bed hungry and not wake up tomorrow, while farmers will wake to destroy more food, and the wealthy will wake to Eggs Benedict and steak.  Think about that one.

“Merry Christmas” and the Spirit of Giving

Posted on by under Global Issues, Holidays, Social commentary

Our friend Nan is spot on with this post … something we should all remember at this time of year … and year-round, for that matter! Thanks Nan!

Nan's Notebook

Recently a Facebook friend wrote that he wasn’t going to stop saying “Merry Christmas,” no matter who it might offend. Comments to his posting were equally supportive, some going so far as to say it’s a bunch of “bullshit.”

It continues to amaze me that at this (supposedly) time of peace on earth and good will towards all, people continue to exhibit such animosity, hostility, and rancor towards those who don’t believe as they do.

I personally do not honor December 25th in any religious way. For one thing, although popularized as the date Jesus was born, evidence from all fronts indicates this is in error. But beyond that, I simply am no longer a “believer.”

It’s a long-standing tradition to give gifts at this time of year. In fact, kids have learned to expect toys and other goodies – to the point that people are urged to donate to…

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