Stamp Out Hunger!

Written by: Kate Snyder

This coming Saturday (May 10th) is a very important day. Do you know why? Answer: Saturday is the annual National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger food drive. This is the country's largest single-day food drive. In 2007, they collected and distributed more than 70 million pounds of food. Wow.

Participation is easy. All you have to do is place a bag of non-perishable food items in a bag by your mailbox and your mail carrier will pick it up. They ask that you make sure that none of your donated items have past their expiration date and please do not donate food in glass containers.

That's it. So simple! Last year, the Pittsburgh area collected 501,000 pounds of food. The food drive is run through America's Second Harvest, a national chain of food banks. The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is a member of Second Harvest, and East End Cooperative Ministry in turn receives a large chunk of the food for our Food Pantry from them. So by participating in Stamp Out Hunger, you'll be helping EECM.

Isn't partnership awesome?

Market District

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

We are always eager to have volunteer groups at EECM. They come from a variety of sources -- particularly youth groups and schools. Sometimes we even get adult volunteer groups, which is fun. Last Friday was the inaugural day of what will become an ongoing volunteer project with EECM neighbor Giant Eagle Market District.

Market District has always been an active community partner -- they support our annual fundraiser financially and also regularly donate baked goods to the Food Pantry (to the delight of all!). About a month ago, they approached us about setting up a regular volunteer opportunity for their team members.

And last Friday the first three showed up for duty! Fridays are always busy in our hunger programs so we put them to work making sandwiches and packing bags in the Food Pantry and for Meals on Wheels.

In the weeks to come, Market District hopes to expand the program and have as many as eight volunteers each Friday on a rotating basis. Carrie, a member of the Communications Committee at the store and a driving force behind the project, says they're hoping to encourage a spirit of community service amongst store team members.

Great idea, Market District! And welcome!

Heart Results

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Egad! It just occurred to me that, here it is two weeks after the conclusion of EECM's Have a Heart for Hunger Campaign, and I haven't shared the results. So here we go...the grand total is...(drumroll please)...$76,576 as of April 15th. Wow!

Let's put that number into perspective a little bit. First, the breakdown. A total of 261 individuals, congregations, businesses, and organizations made donations ranging from $5 to more than $6,000. These donors raised $46,576, allowing us to secure an extremely generous matching gift of $30,000 from an anonymous donor, bringing the total to that fabulous number of $76,576.

(To compare: last year's campaign raised a total of $68,324).

$76,576 -- that's a lot of money. In fact, it could provide:

More than 26,000 lunches at the Soup Kitchen

Meals on Wheels service for 40 clients for one year

Emergency groceries for almost 2,000 families

Operating funds for all of EECM’s Hunger Programs for 2 months

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the 2008 Have a Heart for Hunger campaign!

Happy Spring!

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

In honor of this (somewhat chilly) first day of Spring, several of our supporting congregations put together some very cute Spring Baskets for our Food Pantry clients.

The baskets came in two varieties. One genre was bright plastic buckets (like you would put crayons in) with cheerful flowers painted on the outside. Inside was a fun collection of jelly beans and chocolates, as well as handmade cards and tissue-paper flowers and bunnies. These had been elegantly wrapped in colored cellophane and tied off with yellow ribbons. Very pretty!

The other group were more traditional wicker baskets with shockingly-colored plastic grass. Their contents included crayons, colored pencils, coloring books, little toys and games, and some miscellaneous chocolates.

The baskets will be distributed to Food Pantry clients (primarily those with children, but we don’t discriminate!) this afternoon.

Happy Spring!

February Hunger Stats

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

To give you a sense of the magnitude of the problem of hunger in our community, here are some statistics from EECM's Hunger Programs for February 2008:

Soup Kitchen -- served 1,800 meals
Food Pantry -- served 374 families
Meals on Wheels -- delivered 1,534 meals

As high as these numbers are, February is actually the slowest month for our Hunger Services. For comparison, here are some numbers from January:

Soup Kitchen -- served 2,050 meals
Food Pantry -- served 467 households
Meals on Wheels -- delivered 1,742 meals

A Phone Call to Change Your Day

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Today is dreary and bleak and my computer was being dumb and I was just generally feeling a bit grumpy when the phone rang this morning. I glared at it and contemplated not picking it up but then grudgingly answered. It was Phyllis, our case manager at the Food Pantry. She told me that one of the participant’s from the Christmas Gift Program was in her office and wanted to say thank-you in person for the gifts her son had received.

And so I spoke for a few minutes with Adrienne. Her son, Anthony, is 14 and his requests were simple. A sweat shirt. Socks. A watch. A sports book.

Thank you, she said, from the bottom of my heart. I cried when I saw all the gifts that were provided for my son. No one has ever done anything so special for him in his life. Everything he asked for he got and I am just so grateful. I wish I could give a big hug to the person who made his Christmas so wonderful.

And, just like that, it was a good day.

Christmas Spirit

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant & Crystal, Food Pantry Client

I love the holidays. Wrapping paper, snow, ribbons, elves, reindeer, carolers, cookies. You name it, I love it. But I’ve come to realize as I’ve been working on our Christmas Gift Program that Christmas can be a really hard time for a lot of people, financially and emotionally. Money gets really tight and the worries increase along with the gas bills at this time of year. And for some of our clients, getting into the Christmas spirit is hindered by other sorrows.

Crystal is a client of our Food Pantry and she participated in the Christmas Gift Program this year. She chatted with us briefly when she came in to pick up her gifts and I was touched by her words.

I’m having a hard time being excited about Christmas this year. This will be the first Christmas without my father who died earlier this year. I miss him and the holidays make me think about him. And about the father of my daughter. He was shot and killed on Christmas Day three years ago.

I want to enjoy Christmas for my kids’ sakes but it’s really hard. I am so grateful for the Christmas presents that you collected for them. Seeing the wrapped packages is the first thing about Christmas this year that has made me smile.

So as we bask in our celebrations over the next days and weeks, let’s take a moment to remember those for whom this time of year is a struggle, and to hold them in our prayers.

Thanksgiving Bounty

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Well, the Thanksgiving Bounty continued (and increased) last week. Here's a quick look at just a few of the donations that rolled in in time for Thanksgiving at EECM.

A group of students from the Falk School brought in the results of a pie-baking fundraiser: $500 and more than 100 pies. They got parents and other friends to "sponsor" the pies by paying for the production of a pie that would then be donated to the Food Pantry. What an awesome idea!

The 8th graders at St. Edmund's Academy came by with hundreds of grocery items, neatly organized into boxes of complete meals -- cornbread, green beans, etc. Just add turkey!

The Hunger Busters at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children rounded up more than 150 pounds of spaghetti.

Club One made good on their promise of a frozen flock -- they brought in 60 frozen turkeys along with enough side-dish groceries to fill up four of our HUGE plastic tubs (we're talking hundred of pounds of food here).

Thanks to all for helping to make Thanksgiving a happy holiday for all of our clients!

Full Turkey Ahead

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Thanksgiving may be still a week away but here at EECM it’s Full Turkey Ahead and All Turkeys Go. Harvest season is a bountiful time of year and the approaching holidays bring out the charitable in everyone. The result of which is that our Food Pantry is overflowing…which is a good thing because traffic at the Pantry increases dramatically at this time of year. Ordinarily, we see around 20 to 25 families each day. Yesterday, we served 76.

One of the reasons for the extra people is that EECM is a recipient of Turkey Vouchers from Giant Eagle. The vouchers are good for a turkey, ham or chicken at Giant Eagle and we distribute them to our clients. A good-sized bird can feed a family for quite a while and the turkey vouchers are always eagerly anticipated.

But what would a turkey dinner be without the sides? Never fear – East Liberty Presbyterian Church to the rescue! Each year ELPC participates in a Thanksgiving Bag food drive for EECM. At the morning church services, they pass out brown paper grocery bags, to which they have stapled a list of Thanksgiving sides like stovetop stuffing, canned sweet potatoes, jars of gravy, and cornbread mix. The filled bags are then distributed to our clients along with their turkey vouchers and voila, a Thanksgiving Day feast. They even toss in festive holiday napkins. This year, they collected well over 100 Thanksgiving Bags.

And if all that food wasn’t enough, we’re expecting a large feathery donation on Monday – a flock of 50 frozen turkeys. All Turkeys On Deck!

The EECM Classroom

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Meet Isaiah, Eliza, Elena, Chloe, Nathaniel and Evan. They’re part of a group of students who came by the Food Pantry last Friday to deliver the results of a Food Drive they had done for school. Their teachers had decided to go beyond simply collecting the food – they wanted the kids to get a better feel for why they were doing the food drive and where it was going. So they brought their students to EECM to deliver their collection in person. They’re planning to come to EECM regularly to volunteer, bring food, and generally experience the ministry.

Now you may be thinking to yourself: how are they able to arrange so many volunteer opportunities? Won’t the principal have something to say about weekly field trips? Well, the unique thing about this particular group of students is that they are all part of a home-school cooperative. The teachers who brought them are their parents, and they have made the decision to incorporate service learning into their curriculum for their kids.

This particular cooperative is actually one of several that have started volunteering with EECM. Keep an eye out for more stories about service learning at EECM in the months to come.

A New Perspective

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

People talk about “ivory tower academics.” You know the type – they sit in their office all day pondering great existential questions and never come out and interact with the real world. I’m discovering that it’s easy to become an ivory tower non-profit worker too. EECM is housed at a variety of locations. Our admin offices are housed in one church. Our homeless shelter and soup kitchen are in another. Our Children & Youth staff have work space in a third and our Drop-In Center is at yet another location. You get the picture. Most of the time, my job doesn’t require that I leave my office all that much, so I don’t have very much contact with the work we are actually doing. But every now and again, a situation arises that takes me over to one of our program offices and I am always so grateful for the experience.

It is rejuvenating to spend some time working directly with the clients that we serve. And it forces an often-needed change in perspective. Yesterday I was interviewing Food Pantry clients who were signing up to take part in our Christmas Gift Program. After being there for a few minutes, I realized that my attitude toward these people had been unfairly colored by the phone calls we sometimes get at the office – angry complaints from people who got left off the list or exasperating individuals who try to reschedule for inconvenient times. When this is the extent of your contact with the program, it’s easy to get frustrated.

But when you leave the ivory tower and enter the Food Pantry, your perspective changes. The people this program serves are poor. They worry about food. They worry about rent. They worry that on Christmas morning they will have to look at their children, shake their heads, and say “I’m sorry, there’s nothing for you.” And they are so very grateful to be included in our Christmas program.

These encounters are, for me, both inspiring and humbling. It is wonderful to see that the work we do is making a tangible difference in someone’s life. But I find myself feeling guilty, too. How could I have been irritated with Donna for wanting to reschedule – she didn’t get paid until later in the week and couldn’t afford to put gas in the car until then. And Shawn missed his appointment yesterday because there was a death in the family – why did I immediately assume he just forgot or didn't care enough to show up? Lorraine had called about being left off the list and she was right – it was our mistake. And she wasn’t really angry about it, just frustrated by what she saw as still more evidence that “the system” never seems to be on her side.

I will try to make a point of interacting with our clients more in the future, even if only briefly. Because you can’t stay in the ivory tower all the time. Sometimes, you need to step outside and get a new perspective.

The Renaissance Volunteer

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

One Fall day in 2006, our Volunteer Coordinator, Emily, received a phone call from a man looking to donate some of his time to EECM. This is not unusual – it happens almost daily. What was unusual about this particular would-be volunteer was the time commitment he was looking to make. The majority of our volunteers spend a couple hours at EECM – driving a specific Meals on Wheels route, interviewing clients at the Food Pantry, or serving a meal in the Soup Kitchen. Tim said that when he came to volunteer with EECM, he wanted to stay for most of the day.

Fabulous! said Emily. What day do you think would work with your schedule?

Tim replied: How about Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays?

Once she picked her jaw up off the floor, Emily readily agreed to the plan and Tim joined the EECM volunteer team. Three days a week, he volunteers in our hunger programs, usually arriving by 7:45 AM and staying until after the Soup Kitchen closes at 1 PM.

During those five hours, he is a jack of all trades. The renaissance man of EECM. Emily keeps a flurry of volunteer files and schedules and classifies her volunteers by type (Bob = Meals on Wheels Driver). When Tim appears on a list or schedule it is as: Tim = The-Super-Flexible-Volunteer, because he is truly beyond classification!

Tim starts out by helping to prepare the 150 or more meals for the daily Meals on Wheels delivery, assembling sandwiches, ladling soup, and packaging it all together. If we’re short a pair of hands, he helps unload and sort the huge daily delivery of bakery items and produce that comes in from Whole Foods Market.

After that, he sometimes drives a Meals on Wheels route, delivering nutritious home-cooked meals to the elderly and homebound. If he’s not out on Meals on Wheels, he helps to prepare and serve the noonday meal in EECM’s Soup Kitchen. Tim says he likes this part of his day best – interacting with the clients as they go through the Soup Kitchen line. He’s become friendly with the regulars and enjoys greeting them as they arrive, or sitting down to eat with them if the lunch rush is slowing.

We love all of our volunteers, but Tim is unique because he has chosen to make his volunteer work with EECM such a high priority in his life. When chatting with fellow volunteers or clients, small talk often includes mention of employment – “What do you do when you’re not here?” When Tim gets asked the obligatory “so what do you do?” question, he responds with a smile and one word: This.

Alligator Anyone?

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

EECM’s Food Pantry relies heavily on private donations to stock its shelves – we happily accept contributions from individuals, congregations, and businesses. There are certain staples that we are always in need of including tuna fish, peanut butter, pasta, spaghetti sauce, and canned fruit. We feature one of these each month as the “Food of the Month” to encourage regular donations of these items. You can always find the Food of the Month posted on the EECM website.

While we’re always thrilled to receive items from the Food of the Month list, we don’t limit donations to these items – we publicize that we accept most non-perishable food items. Which means that we get some…well…unusual donations from time to time.

Like caviar.

Or half-eaten jars of peanut butter (note that this is in the plural).

Or falafel mix.

Or a boxed food item with a coupon on the back that expired 8 years ago.

But perhaps the most intriguing Food Pantry donation of all time came in just a few days ago. Above you will see our Food Services Coordinator, Jim, posing with the item in question. Look closely.

Yes, that’s right. Canned alligator. Cajun style.

12 Ways to Help the Homeless

I confess that I did not write this article -- I read it, liked it and borrowed it. You can read the whole thing (35 Ways to Help the Homeless) here.

The world of the homeless seems very far from yours -- but in some ways it is quite near. For any of us, the loss of a job, the death of a spouse or a child, or a severe physical disability could be the route to total despair. These are the very tragedies that have happened to many homeless people. Struck by personal tragedies, the people in shelters across America, have lost their homes and been deserted by the families and friends they once had. What can you do, personally, to help them? Sometimes the smallest gesture -- and a good attitude -- can go a long way.

1. Understand who the homeless are - Help dispel the stereotypes about the homeless. Learn about the different reasons for homelessness, and remember, every situation is unique.

2. Respect the homeless as individuals - Give the homeless people the same courtesy and respect you would accord your friends, your family, your employer. Treat them as you would wish to be treated if you needed assistance. Try a kind word and a smile.

3. Develop lists of resources - Carry a card that lists local shelters, food pantries and soup kitchens so you can hand them out to the homeless.

4. Bring food - It's as simple as taking a few extra sandwiches when you go out. When you pass someone who asks for change, offer him or her something to eat.

5. Give money - One of the most direct ways to aid the homeless is to give money to reputable non-profit organizations.

6. Donate toys - Children living in shelters have few possessions --if any-- including toys. Homeless parents have more urgent demands on what little money they have, such as food and clothing. So often these children have nothing to play with and little to occupy their time.

7. Volunteer your hobbies - Every one of us has something we can give the homeless. Wherever our interests may lie -- cooking, repairing, gardening, and photography -- you can use them for the homeless.

8. Take homeless children on trips - Frequently, the only environment a homeless child knows is that of the street, shelters, or other transitory housing. Outside of school -- if they attend -- these children have little exposure to many of the simple pleasures that most kids have.

9. Teach about the homeless - If you do volunteer work with the homeless, you can become an enthusiast and extend your enthusiasm to others. You can infect others with your own sense of devotion by writing letters to the editor of your local paper and by pressing housing issues at election time.

10. Educate your children about the homeless - Help your children to see the homeless as people. Volunteer as a family in a soup kitchen or shelter. Suggest that they sort through the toys, books, and clothes they no longer use and donate them.

11. Stand up for the civil rights of the homeless - In recent elections, for example, volunteers at shelters and elsewhere helped homeless people register to vote . . . even though they had "no fixed address" at the moment.

12. Contact your government representatives - Our legislators rarely receive more than three visits or ten letters about any subject. When the numbers exceed that amount, they sit up and take note. Personal visits are the most potent. Letters are next; telephone calls are third best. Housing issues don't come up that often, so your public officials will listen.

The Need to Serve, Where the Rubber Truly Meets the Road

Written by: David Kaplan, Council of Congregations Representative for Rodef Shalom Congregation

Eight years ago, when I first became an active member of our Brotherhood, I was introduced to a core group of men who amazed me with their social awareness, their sense of purpose, their moral conscience, and their overwhelming need to serve the community. They embodied the phrase, “Think globally, act locally.” Among their many activities was membership on the Council of Congregations, a representative group of East End Cooperative Ministry. I was recently given the opportunity to carry on the tradition and serve as our EECM representative. I jumped at the chance to participate. I knew there was good work being done there and I wanted to contribute.

A while back, I stopped by EECM for a tour of the facilities. I knew that my morning was going to be educational. I did not expect it to be inspirational. My first glimpse was of the whirlwind offices, people scurrying in every direction. I sat with Rev Darnell Leonard who is responsible for Children and Youth Programs. Darnell is a very soft-spoken but powerful man. He has an obvious connection to the children he serves, over 900 at-risk elementary, middle and high school students. Darnell spoke of his activities with the school board and city government trying to get a stronger voice and more attention for his kids. They need all the help they can get in their part of our world that people love to forget.

The next stop was at the Orr Compassionate Care Center to meet Paul DeWalt who directs the Homeless Programs which include five separate facilities that provide interim shelter and housing for over 100 people on any given day. Paul is an incredibly busy yet patient man putting out a seemingly endless stream of emergency flare-ups ranging from facilities issues to personnel matters. Paul is here because he cares.

The last stop on my tour was at the EECM Soup Kitchen to meet Jim Hart who oversees all Hunger Programs. Jim has three programs to orchestrate and integrate: The Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels and the Food Pantry. Jim is a master juggler and a magician who manages to see that all of these efforts come together each day, managing a constant flow of perishable foods and eager volunteers who make it all work.

My friends, this is where the rubber truly meets the road. I am excited about the work being done and I am pleased to know that Rodef Shalom has long been a supporter of EECM and its programs. We have history as a congregation of providing financial, material, and physical help for many aspects and programs. As I talk to my friends and colleagues about the many faces of EECM, I am delighted to find a well of support that is all around us. During these times of great difficulty discerning direction on a world stage and ferreting through the propaganda and position statements all around us, it is nice to have an area of my life that is clearly defined, with no ambiguity or hesitation. My moral compass is perfectly clear. By helping those around us, we build a stronger community, a stronger nation, and a more peaceful world, person by person.

Hunger Statistics

The data in this post was taken from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) website.

Sometimes it’s hard to take hunger in the United States seriously. We know in a sort of abstract way that there are probably hungry people in our neighborhood but it isn’t a topic that gets talked about all that often. And the United States is fortunate not to experience the kind of wide-spread famine that haunts many third-world countries and that results in heart-wrenching front-page photographs of sunken-eyed children with distended tummies.

Here in the US, hunger is a more subtle presence. However, it is a very real—and growing—problem for many families. The government uses the term “food insecure” to refer to people who struggle to obtain adequate nutrition. That umbrella term is often broken down further into:

Low Food Security: Due to restricted financial resources, people experiencing low food security are forced to cut back on the quality and/or quantity of the food they eat.

Very Low Food Security: People experiencing very low food security struggle to provide enough food for their households. They may cut back significantly on their food consumption or frequently skip meals to stretch their nutritional resources as far as possible.

How many people in this country are actually affected by hunger? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2005, 35.1 million people lived in households deemed food insecure. This represents 10.4% of all adults and 16.9% of all children. In Pennsylvania, it is estimated that 10.2% of households (or 490,000 individuals) experience low food security and that 2.9% (or 141,000 individuals) experience very low food security.

According to the results of a 2006 Census Bureau survey, the households that run the greatest risk of food insecurity have some or all of the following characteristics:
They are headed by single women
They are minority – especially Black or Hispanic
They are living on incomes below the poverty line
They have children – overall, households with children experience food insecurity at almost double the rate for households without children.
They are located in a central city environment

How to Have a Heart #5

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

How to Have a Heart for Hunger

#5 -- Organize a Food Scavenger Hunt

Try a Food Scavenger Hunt for a fun and easy variation on the traditional food drive theme. It’s especially good for groups of kids – youth groups, school classes, neighborhood play groups, etc. – but is also endlessly fun for the perpetually young at heart.

Here’s how it works:
1 -- Create a list of scavenger hunt items and assign them point values (see below for a sample).
2 -- Divide your pack of participants into however many teams you like.
3 -- Assign each team an adult leader (or just a team leader if you’re doing this with adults, and I highly recommend that you do some time. Nothing says bonding like scouring the neighborhood with your friends for a frozen turkey).
4 – Distribute bags (preferably cloth—let's be good to Mother Earth, shall we?).
4 -- Decide on a time limit .
5 -- Hit the streets! (If you’re covering a large area or have high hopes for collecting large quantities of food, you might want to have a driver with each group so that you don’t have to carry thirty tons of groceries with you from house to house).

At the end of the designated time limit, count up the point values for the foods collected and whichever team has the highest number of points wins! The great thing is (and this is a wonderful opportunity for a “teaching moment,” by the way, so take note) that everyone really wins because the more food you’ve collected the bigger a difference you will be making in the lives of our less fortunate community members.

Feel free to assign whatever point values you like to food items but here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

Peanut Butter -- 5 points/jar
Jelly/Jam -- 3 points/jar
Macaroni and Cheese -- 1 point/box
Canned Soup -- 2 points/can
Juices -- 1 point/fluid ounce
Spaghetti Sauce -- 5 points/jar
Pasta -- 3 points/box
Canned Tuna -- 1 point/can
Hamburger Helper -- 3 points per box
Frozen Turkey* -- 50 points

* Why the fascination with frozen turkeys, you ask? Call it sentimentalism. When I was in high school, my youth group did a food scavenger hunt and my team was the undisputed victor due in large part to the fact that for some mysterious reason (it was nowhere near Thanksgiving) my family had a nice chubby butterball turkey in our freezer. So feel free to put some tricky items on the list. It makes it more fun.

Reflections on Hunger

Written by: Suzan Krauland, Community Relations Director

Wednesday - the first day of the Have a Heart for Hunger campaign, you'll recall, was extremely cold and snowy. I went to pick up the Whole Foods daily contribution because my all-wheel drive Element can hold a lot and go just about anywhere. We weren’t sure the vans could get through.

We got back to the Food Pantry with bread, pastries, apples, eggs, oranges, berries, milk, canned goods, and much more and began unloading the groceries onto a cart. Just as some of the Soup Kitchen diners were leaving the building, a bag of unwrapped sandwiches toppled off the cart, spilling its contents onto the snow-covered sidewalk. Two gentle men came by and each picked up a sandwich, asked if it was okay to take it, and continued down the sidewalk, eating their second lunch.

My friends, that's hunger in the East End.

How to Have a Heart #1

How to Have a Heart for Hunger

#1 Organize a neighborhood food drive

Hosting a food drive is a great way to promote neighborhood bonding. Rally the inhabitants of near-by homes to pillage their pantries in support of a good cause. And ransack your own while you’re at it! Be ruthless: do you really need all 8 jars of spaghetti sauce? Might it be time to part with that jar of gooseberry jam your sister-in-law slipped into your gift-basket last Christmas? (We won’t tell.) To make it as easy as possible for your neighbors to participate, offer to pick up their unwanted groceries on a specific day and bring them to the Food Pantry.

Don’t know--or don’t like--your neighbors? This is a fantastic opportunity to get to know the strangers living next door or to reassess your opinion of that weird family with the irritating dog across the street. After all, if they’re willing to donate food to the less fortunate, how bad can they be?