April Food Day 2011

                       One of the nicest people I met in 2010 is Meg Fielding of Pigtown Design.

I had been reading Meg's blog occasionally for several years, but had never corresponded with Meg until right before Christmas. I made a donation to Woodbourne, another one of her favorite causes, and we emailed a bit after that.

Meg is good this way. I am guilty of thinking too much about giving and sometimes forget to 

 JUST DO IT. 

Meg gets is done.

Three years ago Meg and Chris Cox, editor of Easy and Elegant Life started April Food Day, encouraging everyone to help out in some way, whether you give to your local food pantry or donate to a larger network of fund raising for food.

I am sharing astounding information here that I just read on Meg's blog.

• In 2009, 50.2 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33 million adults and 17.2 million children
• In 2009, households with children reported food insecurity at almost double the rate for those without children, 21.3 percent compared to 11.4 percent.
• In 2009, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (21.3 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (36.6 percent) or single men (27.8 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (24.9 percent) and Hispanic households (26.9 percent).
• In 2009, 7.8 percent of seniors living alone (884,000 households) were food insecure.

 All of this, after I just put my coffee cup down and casually, without even thinking much about it, walked into my kitchen to prepare a healthy bowl of cereal with fresh fruit because I was feeling a bit queasy after drinking my wonderful hot cup of coffee on an empty stomach - oh what we take for granted!

• Feeding America provides emergency food assistance to approximately 5.7 million different people per week.
• Among members of Feeding America, 74 percent of pantries, 65 percent of kitchens, and 54 percent of shelters reported that there had been an increase since 2006 in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites.
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•       Feeding America, the national food bank,has set up a website for donations.
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• To help out click here

 Don't be just a "do good thinker" like me.....do it now.

Start your day by giving - I am going to, right now...I promise.