I woke up thankful that I have plenty to eat because I know there are many EVERYWHERE who are doing without right now. Have you ever been really hungry and had no resources to buy something to eat? Have you ever eaten the same beans and rice so many meals in a row that anything else would be a blessing?
Many people do not realize there are food banks in most major cities and even many small towns that feed your neighbors – and will feed you – if you ever have the need. Now more than ever the demand is up as more and more Americans have been underemployed or unemployed for extended periods of time.
People you know have received boxes of food – even people living in six figure homes and driving brand new cars. So do older people with no families to assist them and the working poor – many working multiple jobs and still unable to put food on the table.
Now would be a great time for those of us who have enough
to start making sure others can at least eat regularly.
My regular readers know of my concern for small businesses. I believe that they MUST increase their reach, because even if they have been ALWAYS been really busy their incomes will decline as the dollar buys less. Today I had an idea for one way I can make sure fewer people need a food bank while supporting those who do.
Many businesses are not yet convinced that they need to be doing Internet marketing or are not sure it will benefit them. So here is my idea. If you will donate $77 to any food bank listed below or of your own choice, I will give you an hour of my time and expertise answering all your questions and creating a custom marketing strategy specific to your business or blog. (If you don’t have a business or blog you can transfer it to anyone you choose.)
There is no program I am more interested in supporting than one that provides food to anyone who is hungry. We can do our part to feed those in need and you can find out if Internet Marketing will benefit you without risk. That sounds like three wins to me.
I have no idea how much interest this might generate. Many may read but choose not to act. Others may donate but not let me know. But no matter how many or how few I promise to fulfill my promise of one hour to each and every person interested. (If there are many I will make a list and work through it as efficiently as possible.)
FOOD BANKS:
- NEW: Exceptional information on Hunger in America at FeedingAmerica (@FeedingAmerica on Twitter) – special thanks to North Texas Food Bank for this addition. This site includes statistics (1 in 6 Americans go without food at times already) and a hunger map that shows how many in every U.S. County don’t have enough to eat and what it would cost to feed them.
- NEW: CityHarvest.org (@City_Harvest on Twitter)
- NEW: West Texas Food Bank
- North Texas Food Bank (@ntfb on Twitter) – Regular donation page ~ PayPal donation page
- Open Door Experience (the one in the video above) ~ Credit card donation page
- Food Bank of Central New York ~ Click Donate above the video for their PayPal donation page
- Want your favorite food bank included here? Leave me a link in the comments and I’ll move it up into this list
To claim your free consultation, contact me via Twitter @GrowMap, Skype to GrowMap, or IM or forward a copy of the thank you confirmation or PayPal receipt using the information on my contact tab. The number of hungry will keep increasing so this offer is still good no matter when you read it. If I get too many requests to fulfill I will recruit other experienced consultants to assist me.
As Joan Baez sings, There But For Fortune Go You or I.
Gail Gardner
Great initiative Growmap!
How is it going? At least you are raising awareness, that’s for sure.
In the Netherlands (where I’m originally from) foodbanks are more common/accepted. But of course it’s still not something people brag about.
But you have to eat.
Sometimes it’s a bit weird though because the foodbanks get donated a lot of food from stores and brands. So people going to the foodbank many times eat brandname food while the people who get it from the supermarket are getting the cheap stuff.
Nothing wrong with that though, just a bit weird.
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I respect your dedication to helping those going through rough patches. It may not be the most profitable thing you do, but I bet it’s the most rewarding.
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I am so glad to see that there are food banks for people who need food. Its shame that there are not more. I really feel for the people who don’t have enough to eat and wish I could do more.
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Donating to food banks is always a wonderful cause. There is always going to be people in need of food and help so anyway we can help is a good cause.
I didn’t know how many food banks we had in our area. I was shocked that there was so many. But this is a good thing for those who can’t afford to buy food for their family.
Thanks for this post
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This is an awesome idea to stretch out a helping hand to help someone else in need. I’m sure we’ve all been there before. You are donating so generously of your time and talents, I hope this reaches many people and an increasing number of them step in to help. Both those on the giving end and those on the receiving end can find joy in the benefits of sharing.
Thank you, Nick.
At least a couple other bloggers have chosen to make similar offers so hopefully we can raise awareness and make sure more people have plenty to eat.
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Great idea, everybody needs food, water, and shelter. I gave you guys a “like” and also shared you on FB. Hope you get some good response!
Thank you Harry,
The more people we can make aware the more likely some will elect to change what they believe is important.
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Hi Lisa,
I would be very surprised if you do not have this in Australia too. Here it is not very well known that food banks exist so that is probably true there too.
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Hi Petra,
I totally agree. Many people have never had to go hungry in their entire lives and are used to being able to buy fast food or eat at a restaurant or buy whatever they want. They won’t know what to do – and that is another reason for this post.
I suspect the reason fasting is taught in The Bible is so that we will all know how it feels to be hungry – and knowing that we will make sure that others are fed.
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Hi Shannon,
There are so many reasons I was moved to write this post. I know that many people do not even know there is such a thing as a food bank nor do they know that there are programs in their area. I wanted to make sure everyone knows there may be a source for food when money is short so they aren’t going hungry or letting their children go without.
If you watch the videos about food banks you will notice that many of the volunteers are elderly. They need the assistance of young people to do what they physically have difficulty doing now and more food and assistance has been required since about 2008. That is the year many food banks starting seeing huge demands and were running out of food.
I really hope many people will spread this post and even if I never hear from them that it prompts some to start donating. I suspect the reason for fasting is to understand how it feels to go hungry. Anyone who wants to ignore this issue should decide not to eat for x hours and see how they do. They may be surprised. And then they should think about the people who have gone days without eating – and consider that even a few dollars would feed them at least today.
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Knowing that millions are going hungry and kids are dieing because of this, shows how ignorant we are, spending billions for war but nothing to help this poor people. Just sad, this world reads anything and everything but not the Bible!!
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Hi Radu,
You are absolutely correct. We have our priorities totally skewed. What most don’t realize is that for Americans and many others this is going to affect far more people who will not see it coming.
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it is great to see you writing about things of this nature. Now it is more important than ever to look out and love thy neighbor (i am not all that religious either) Times have been tough, I have always volunteered in my county and It is small but we all pull together and help. I always clean out my pantry b4 going and pick up buy one get one frees at the store and give the free one away. The food bank is filled with stuff that doesn’t go well together so I have thought of recipies and brought in things to go with particular odd items. The people love my inventive meals and have fun trying out new one weekly. We have made it fun. It is hard and can be embarrassing to need help. We try and take that away.
I know that many get uncomfortable when I write posts like this one but it is so very important that it is worth the risk that I will lose readers and followers because I won’t let the truth go untold.
I love your inventive meals idea – so many have no idea how to take whatever is in the cupboard and turn it into a meal. One of these days maybe I should write a cookbook (or find one) on how to turn almost anything into a meal.
It is good that you make the people feel good about themselves and make it fun for them too. I suspect pot luck dinners will make a comeback too – and that would be a very good thing because those who have can bring larger quantities and dishes that are more expensive to prepare and those who have little can still contribute and eat much better than they will on their own.
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That is a really goo idea about the potluck dinners. I don’t think we would have any problem putting that together. We are fortunate to have our community food bank located in the basement of a house turned into an office building. So we could easily use the facilities and back yard. I will have to bring it up next saturday when I go in.
It really is too bad that you think you will lose readers because of a post such as this one. But I seem to think if you lose them than they really weren’t all that valuable to begin with. If people can not see that there is a big issue in our own back yard than they are just ignorant to the truth and have no problem sticking their heads int he sand so to speak.
This is a great and generous idea. I have never seen anything quite like it on the internet. It is good to see that at least some people’s hearts are in the right place.
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Hi Toby,
I just hope many will take me up on it because it can really benefit them and especially because no one should have to go hungry anywhere any time!
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That’s really great your incentive for people to get your support and to give back in that light. I give back to Blind charities as in our profession with out our eyes it would really make it very hard.
p.s remember to add alt tags to images. Does help for those that are visually impaired
Welcome to GrowMap Robert,
There are so many who can use our time, expertise and donations including those who support those with physical differences such as the seeing-impaired.
I do always use the alt tag field which is conveniently built in when creating a blog post in WordPress (WP) and encourage other bloggers to do the same. I hope that WP and the Thesis theme are doing a good job of formatting blogs to make them readable with the devices available to those with less than optimum vision.
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Sometimes the only service that anyone’s need is something like the Salvation Army. That one should be included in that list of places to donate to!!
Hi Paul,
I didn’t originally include them because I don’t see any obvious programs they provide specifically for food, but they do mention food on their site so I will add them.
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They Do actually give out money for people to pay for food and they also do have food banks so I thought they should also be a good place for people to donate to help others who are in need nationally. Even though local is good to, sometimes the only organizations that can help are the national organizations!
We’ve had to go to a food bank multiple times since my husband was laid off in March of 2010. It’s unbelievable the number of people who are unemployed or just don’t make enough of an income to support their family. I know for us sometimes it came down to buying groceries or paying a bill. Without the help of food banks there would have been a few times we wouldn’t of have anything to eat. I wish more people donated to a food bank near them. Even if you can’t donate money volunteering your time is just as important to places that rely on donates.
Thank you for mentioning that donating your time can be just as important as money. I hope that many more social media savvy bloggers will use their influence and reach to encourage more support.
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It’s not just in the USA people are going without… It’s worldwide and will be for the foreseeable future.
World Governments have a lot to answer for, it about time they got together and sorted out a solution to world problems.
After all we are superposed to be civilized… This is the worst it’s been since the great depression of the 1930’s.
Hi Steve,
You are absolutely correct – note that my very first sentence was people EVERYWHERE are hungry. I encourage everyone to stop expecting governments to do anything about this – they allowed multi-national corporations to intentionally create this situation so they are highly unlikely to solve it.
There are truly scary things coming – and they, too, are by design. Imagine what will happen when Monsanto‘s terminator seeds cross with non-gmo plants. (For those who don’t understand farming, normally seeds are saved from one year to plant the next. Monsanto‘s patented technology kills the seeds so they are unable to reproduce. If that spreads there will BE NO SEEDS and therefore NO FOOD THAT GROWS FROM SEED. Most plants are usually grown from seed!).
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We’ve had to utilize the food bank near us on more than one occasion, and it’s looking even worse as unemployment goes up even more in Oregon, which already has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country.
It’s so frustrating and tragic to see so many people working as hard as they can and still not able to make ends meet.
Delena
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Hello Delena,
Thank you for being willing to share that you have used a food bank. This is so vitally important because many are too embarrassed to admit they accepted food – and that is a tragedy in itself. Allowing others to assist when they can blesses both them and ourselves!
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Sometimes we tend to forget that there are people out there hungry, but it’s always good to find someone who reminds us, thank you for your effort.
Hello Edgar,
You’re welcome. This subject is near and dear to my heart because over the years I have known many people who were too proud to want to accept food no matter how much they really needed it. I encourage others to do like I do – do not take no for an answer but do find a way to give them food without hurting their feelings.
Here are some ideas:
1) Ask them to take leftovers – both from home or from eating out – because you don’t want to go to waste and can not use yourself.
2) Bake extra bread or goodies and give them to those you know have tight budgets and can not afford treats. If you garden grow zucchini and turn the excess into bread – or give it to someone you know who bakes who will.
2) Raise more eggs than you can use and give the surplus away freely to friends, neighbors – anyone who can use them.
3) The more you pick the more vegetables your garden will grow, so plant plenty, pick often, and give freely to all around you. Some food banks and other good causes will even let you donate eggs and vegetables to their programs.
4) Consider buying grass-finished meat locally and sharing what you buy with those who most need it.
Don’t forget those you know who are on fixed incomes. I had a dear friend, now passed for many years, who would buy plants and oil paint instead of food with her Social Security checks so periodically I would just show up with bags of food and put them away for her – over her objections. I understood she wasn’t very practical and good nutrition is essential so I would just insist that I wanted to keep her healthy and she wouldn’t object too much.
She didn’t understand why I would do this for her “because I wasn’t blood”. Just ask the person you want to help if they have ever helped anyone. When they say yes, just tell them now it is their turn to be helped.
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