Yesterday I went with a friend on their "Meals on Wheels' route into the South Valley. I give a monthly donation to the program which sends lunches out to the poor, elderly and shut ins. It was a gratifying two hours as we delivered 11 meals to some of these folks.
One comes to the realization that for many of these folks the knock on the door by the meal delivery volunteer might be the only interaction for them during their day. You can tell that this little communication means a lot to some of them.
One also comes to the realization that many of these recipients of a meal are poverty stricken in a permanent way. Some of the better off ones do pay for their lunches, but others would not be able to eat a decent meal daily if it weren't for donations coming in. $15 bucks a month would feed one of these folks for a week or so. You can donate here.
There is also a program that delivers dog food for these people's pets. Pretty cool thing to do.
One comes to the realization that for many of these folks the knock on the door by the meal delivery volunteer might be the only interaction for them during their day. You can tell that this little communication means a lot to some of them.
One also comes to the realization that many of these recipients of a meal are poverty stricken in a permanent way. Some of the better off ones do pay for their lunches, but others would not be able to eat a decent meal daily if it weren't for donations coming in. $15 bucks a month would feed one of these folks for a week or so. You can donate here.
There is also a program that delivers dog food for these people's pets. Pretty cool thing to do.
4 comments:
A very positive post, Jim. I give a monthly donation to the Roadrunner Food Bank, but your post encouraged me to also support our local Meals on Wheels.
I was going to do the monthly donation via credit card, but noticed Network for Good charges 5% of the donation for that service. This is not to slam NfG, they are providing a service to the charity and the credit card companies take most of that, but I decided to simply write a check for a year's giving and mail it to them... check written, envelope stuffed, ready for the mailbox. I think my lunch will taste a little better today for it.
Thanks for that post, that reminder.
I was down there a few weeks ago and was wondering how many people even know what it's like down there, especially in the pockets of extreme poverty and despair, where you see the crack-heads get off the bus.
We live these compartmentalized lives. A lot of it is that you have everything you need right in your neighborhood, supermarket, Wal Mart, bank, credit union, pet groomer, tattoo parlor. So we need to be reminded but we need to remind ourselves, and drive around down there, too, like along the tracks and on the east side of the river.
The Journal in Monday's Business Outlook section (should be called the "If You're Doing Alight, Go Here To Reassure Yourself That You're Doing Alright" section) did have a story about some of the many serious health problems the people who live down there face. The writer pointed out that there's poverty, all kinds of chemical storage tanks, diesel train engines sitting and idling 24/7, but then bizarrely went on to explain that the relationships between these things and bad health are correlative, not causal, so you just have to throw up your hands and wonder, and go back to checking your stock portfolio.
He did allow, in a final, brief paragraph, that the state health department is too underfunded to find out what's going on down there, but of course made no connection between that and the Journal's daily thrashing of government and its calls for the rich to get out of paying their share to fund the health department.
Odd the timing coincides with Councilman Lewis and RJ's reelection campaigns and they both look like reasonable people. Ray Schultz is a figurehead of a very deeply troubled department. If RJ wants change, Bowdich may be the source to tap
Thanks also for helping them out, I should have said. I was just so glad to see you shed some light on something that goes so unnoticed I forgot to mention that (and so eager to put in my two cents worth, I might add). But we are up to a 20 percent poverty rate now, substantially higher for so called minorities.
The poverty rate for seniors, before Social Security, was higher than that, and now they want to chip away at that, too, and unfortunately our president is in on it.
Mr Bill, too, thank you.
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