| rev:text
| - I work for the same company as the first reviewer and this week it was my department's turn to volunteering at St. Mary's. This was actually my third time volunteering for the organization as it is an annual event for my team. In prior years I haven't been into volunteering because I was basically an ass and didn't see the benefit in it for me. Personally, the past six months have seen some really good highs as well as some very bad lows, but I met people who helped change my perspective on helping people and giving back to the community. And even though it should be a year-round thought and not only be about this time of year, the need is more visible during the holidays. Knowing that people are struggling and seeing the good this organization does for people really does make a difference. With my family back East and just me here in Arizona I don't participate in the holidays, but spending time volunteering or supporting local charities is a great way to give to those who are in need and I have discovered the good feeling it brings.
The first reviewer provided good quantitative data on the number of hungry children and adults living in the country today. With 3 grandparents still living, I am sensitive to the needs of our seniors and the struggles they face with heating bills and medication taking money away from food expenditures. Another thing that impressed me with St. Mary's is that it was the country's first food bank, founded back in 1967.
A difference this year in comparison to my first experience with St. Mary's is the impact the economic downturn has had on families. Due to increased unemployment, cutbacks in jobs, rising bills and other concerns, many more people are facing hunger this year than ever before. That puts extra pressure on organizations such as St. Mary's to meet the demand, and that is accomplished in part to volunteers such as you and me. We were told that last year they served more than 65 million pounds of food - enough for 300,000 meals per day - do Arizonans alone. With unemployment continuing to increase, that number is sure to be higher this year. The volunteer staff member told us that the emergency bags they assemble, which is for people who just lost a job or are in immediate need and not yet in the system have seen an increase of 400% this year.
My group today totaled about 60 people and we filled boxes for 2 hours. When you volunteer, the cool thing is the volunteer staff member will total how much food the group assembled and how many people it helped. With our work today, she said we bagged 6800 lbs of potatoes, 2230 of the emergency food bags (which she said would be gone by this evening) and 15,200 lbs of prepared food boxes (550 boxes on 22 palettes). All total for the day, the grand total with prepared boxes and food bags, she said would be enough to feed 35,200 people. Granted we had a big group, but for just 2 hours of help, that is a big difference. The sad thing is with the number of people coming in for assistance, that food will be gone in a couple of days.
I would encourage everyone to take some time out of the schedule and help out. A little bit does go a long way and those recipients greatly appreciate what they receive.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)