50 for 50 Day 41: Your Local Food Bank
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 41. Once again, let me explain: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
I have tried to keep these posts mostly national in scope and confined to highly rated charities. But in my search for good charities, it kept coming up over and over – local food banks are among those doing the most good with the least money and overhead.
So no links today. You probably already know who runs your local food bank, and you probably know that they are always looking for donations. Food is good, but money is better, because they can buy in bulk to get deals you can’t, and they know exactly what they need most at any given time.
But if you feel you must donate food, keep one word in mind: protein. People who need food assistance get calories where they can, which often means lots of carbs. They can use some protein. Peanut butter will do it, but they probably already eat a lot of peanut butter and beans. So if you can send them some tuna or canned meat, they would probably give you an extra special thanks.
Go. Feed the world. Hugs.
Previously featured organizations:
Girls for a Change
Operation Smile
Wheels for Humanity
National Security Archive
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
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Suebob's Red Stapler 
We donate monthly thru the Park.
You’re all right!
Food banks are amazing. One of the local ones in our area says that they’re now getting clients who used to donate. That’s a bit of the economy turning around, yeah? And not in a good way.
Along the same lines of you saying, hey, look at this instead of giving gifts, this same food bank said that they’re getting more small donations these days. From people who have a girl scout meeting or birthday party, and put in the invite, “please bring some peanut butter or tuna, etc., for the food bank”. What a great idea. We did this for my daughter’s girl scout meeting in June. It brought in about 42 lbs of food, which isn’t a LOT, but it sure isn’t nothing, either.
Along the same lines of looking for a local charity, one of my charities that I donate to is our local Child Abuse Prevention Council. Mostly it seems to be early child care education, to help stressed parents know how to care for their babies and toddlers, without resorting to abuse. They do a lot more in addition to this. I love them.
What a great idea, for the GS meeting. I’m impressed.