Good Friday and the Food Stamp Challenge

Most of my friends know that the community center I work at shares a building with a food bank.  In fact, the building was specifically built with the food bank in mind; the community center was planned, but with a less solid idea about what it would do.

This afternoon I went downstairs to the put some stuff in storage.  Our store rooms are right off the food bank, and I know many of the volunteers, so I started chatting with Barb.  Now, don't get me wrong.  ALL donations are gratefully received, and people use them.  But what is up with the tubs (like, ten of them) that are full of bubble gum?  And there is green tea--more than I could drink in a year.

The shelves of food are not bare, but they are missing some essentials.  Like tuna.

Oddly enough on the food stamp challenge, I have only used tuna a couple of times.  I like tuna, I just got hooked on black bean tacos and stir fried spinach, and so tuna moved down my list of things to eat.  

Schools hold massive food drives for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as do many other organizations.  But something happens after January.  Donations start to falter a little.  We remember the hungry during the holidays, but the rest of the year . . . well, not so much.

I went back up to my computer and used facebook to invite everyone to bring tuna to church on Easter Sunday.  I called it Loaves and Fishes day. And already four or five people have said they will help out.  Which is a start.  But the reality of it, according to Barb, is that they need 300 cans of tuna fish every time they open the doors to serve.  They go through it fast.  

First off, it's a shelf stable protein.  And you can do a lot of things with it: make a sandwich, make tuna noodle casserole or tuna with rice.  Peanut butter is the other common shelf stable protein, but most people just use it to make PB&J sandwiches.  Tuna is a bit more versatile, and fewer people are allergic to it.  Canned chicken is good for the same reasons.

But 300 cans?  Tuna used to be cheap, but the price has gone up in recent years.  In the long run this is probably good.  Tuna fishing often catches other fish, and hurts endangered populations.

But still . . . I wonder if we can get anywhere NEAR 300 cans of tuna on one Sunday?  It seems unlikely, if for no other reason than this was a spur of the moment ask--and I have no idea how many people will bring tuna.

Next week will be hard for a lot of low income families, as their kids will be on spring break and miss that free or reduced cost hot lunch.  It makes it harder for the dollars to stretch.  So please, pick up a can or ten of tuna and take it to your local food bank or church collection site.

Because kids should not have to go hungry just because school is on break.