As a part of our performance plans at Dell, we are supposed to support and volunteer for a social cause at least once a quater. I had the opportunity to spend some time at a local food bank today. The concept of a 'Food bank' was alien to me. I spent my first ten minutes there mostly looking all around, amazed by the tons of food around me. I wondered how my working there for three hours was going to help the poor.
After the initial introductions, the manager shared some mind blowing facts and stats about hunger in Texas. The fact that struck me was that 20% of the population in Texas is below the poverty line. Organizations such as this food bank collect food and other surplus supplies from individuals and grocery stores and distribute it to the poor through the church, the schools, the hospices and the old age homes. A program that touched my heart, was the 'Kid's cafe'. Single parents, who handle two to three jobs per day, and still can't feed their children, are eligible for this program. The food bank delivers goodies such as cheesecakes, pastries, cookies, candies along with nutritous meals to such unfortunate homes. Isn't that a wonderful program?
During our stint there, we did various things such as sorting canned food, sorting non food items, weighing and packing beans etc. Though this was not very exciting, the end result was phenomenal. By the end of the three hours, we had contributed to 6000 meals for the poor...that'll feed almost 20 children an entire year!
www.austinfoodbank.org is the official site of the food bank.
This stint showed me how a little effort can go a long way!
