I wonder how many of you ever really give thought to that question. I know I don’t, unless it’s to decide if I want Chinese or Mexican for dinner. Not trying to sound flippant but it’s my reality. And it’s a reality I’m glad I have. But the sad truth is there are more hungry children than you can ever imagine and I’m not just talking about children in Africa. Something I never really understood until about a year ago.
I’ll be honest and tell you that I didn’t think much about hunger in North Carolina. Sure, every year I go to the North Carolina State Fair on “canned goods night.” It basically means you bring a bag of a couple of canned goods for the Food Bank and you get in free. I’ll even confess to buying the cheapest canned vegetables I could find, regardless of what they were.
I’m older now and a little more aware (and hopefully compassionate). I pay more attention to humanitarian causes. I think more about who might be on the receiving end. I think about how I was once on the receiving end.
When I was growing up, my father worked in the trades. Specifically, the printing trades. For many years, he was a union man and when they said walk, he walked. It meant that there were some spotty times in his employment and times when it was difficult for my parents to feed four kids and God knows how many animals. I’ll never forget the generosity of our neighbors bringing over bags of groceries from their church food bank.
As a child, I didn’t really understand that we didn’t have money for food. I didn’t know what it meant to have food from a food bank. I simply saw it as an opportunity to enjoy foods we never normally had. I mean, we had a jar of Marshmallow Fluff! As I got older, though, I remembered the lean times and could never imagine being in that situation again.
Last summer, I was invited to attend the Kids Summer Stock Social Media Mixer sponsored by the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. We enjoyed food and drinks in the warehouse. We got to tour the facility. We got to hear the process of intake, overstock, distribution. For an old warehouse, I was impressed at what a well-oiled machine it was.
What stayed with me, though, was the realization that you don’t have to be homeless and on the streets to be hungry. There are over 1 million North Carolinians living below the poverty level. This includes working adults with a house, struggling to provide for their family. And yet, their children sometimes go hungry.
During the school year, many kids have access to free or reduced breakfasts and lunches. So what happens when the school year ends? There is a greater need for food banks to supply meals in the summertime.
For the fourth year running, Kids Summer Stock is an annual campaign to help support the 277,000 children (and their families) who are on the free & reduced meal program at school and don’t have access to this food during the summertime. In the past 3 years, Kids Summer Stock has provided more than 4 million meals. The campaign officially runs from June 1 through July 15.
What can you do? It’s laid out nicely for you right here. Lots of ways you can help.
You can start by joining a pretty awesome Raleigh crew for the kickoff of the campaign with a Social Media Mixer. Food, fun, prizes. The event will be held at the Raleigh branch warehouse on 3808 Tarheel Drive. If you’re a coastal person, you can still mix it up in Wilmington at Zoes Kitchen in Mayfaire Town Center.
***
While I try to have a generous heart and wallet, I definitely pick and choose which charitable organizations I support. And then when it comes to working with them, I work with those that really speak to my heart. I’m proud to serve as a Social Media Ambassador for the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.
