By Ahndrea Blue
Making A Difference Foundation
There are a lot of people who want expensive electronics, cars, vacations, and gifts for the holiday, which is not inherently a bad thing. Yet so many people in the community, the working poor, lack the very basic essentials. For them, they would just be more than happy and grateful for healthy, fresh food, whether to make a nice holiday meal for their family or to know they will be able to eat consistently for the long term.
They just want to know food is in their cupboards to easily feed themselves and their families each day, each week, both through the holiday and beyond.
As most of us know, having fresh and healthy food to eat on a regular basis extends well beyond just immediately filling a belly. It satiates the immediate hunger pangs, yes, but it also supports good health, longevity in life, and even hope. It can ward off disease, decrease stress and anxiety, and increase longer-term stability.
When people have ready access to nutritious food, it makes a measurable difference in someone’s life, much more than any material gift they could receive. You certainly can’t eat a car or TV. And while memories of a tropical vacation are nice, you can’t eat those either.
Giving to a local food bank like Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank, whether donating food or money, is truly a gift that keeps on giving long after the holiday is over, and one that multiplies your giving investment. Because, for every dollar donated to the food bank, we can provide five meals to needy families. A dollar donated not only fills a hungry stomach but lets those in need know the community cares and they are not forgotten, that they matter.
At the Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank in Tacoma, we see 70,000 food-insecure individuals each and every month. All of them either work or are on fixed incomes and have to decide whether to pay for housing, utilities, medical care, or food. Add in the extra costs of the Christmas season and gifts for their children, and food is often the budget item that gets reduced or cut first.
The food and hunger need aren’t just through the holidays, but all year long. And I hope that the generosity of the holiday season is a feeling and action that the community considers continuing well beyond December.
Ahndrea Blue is the Founder and President/CEO of Making A Difference Foundation. Making A Difference Foundation’s mission is to make a difference in the lives of others, one person at a time, by helping them acquire the most basic human needs: food, housing, encouragement, and opportunity. To learn more about the organization and its hunger-related programs, please visit www.themadf.org or by calling (253) 212-2778.