Bill Morem: Our hungry neighbors need you now

By Bill Morem

Picture a city the size of San Luis Obispo — some 44,000 residents — where every single person is hungry.

As a matter of perspective, that’s roughly the number of our neighbors countywide who sought help last year in putting food on their tables.

Do you find it appalling that so many of our neighbors can go to bed hungry each night? Do you find it unconscionable that the bulk of those individuals are among our county’s most fragile, our elders and our young?

I think so, too; now what do we do about it?

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been telling you how you can help put food on the table of those less fortunate by donating just $1 on Tuesday as part of the second annual Hunger Awareness Day.

Because the county’s hungry are our own, the message is well worth repeating: Your dollar will have a profound impact. One buck can be leveraged into a week’s worth of food for a child; an entire family can eat on a dollar for a day.

As a community that’s not afraid to show its compassion, you stepped up to the plate for last year’s Hunger Awareness Day and donated $120,000. If everyone in this county gave a dollar that $257,000 could be used by the Food Bank Coalition to feed each and every one of our 40,000 hungry neighbors for a year.

Toward that end, I ask those of you who have been generous with your philanthropy in other areas to please challenge your friends to a matching grant. $5,000? $10,000? $50,000? No matter the amount you give, consider that $150 given to the Food Bank will sustain a family of four for almost four months; $100 will feed a family of four for 10 weeks; $10 will keep a family of four fed for a week.

I’m not aware of any other endeavor that offers such bang for the buck.

The situation is especially critical this year. Those on the economic edge are barely hanging on by cutting such essentials as medicine and food.

The Food Bank Coalition uses your money to secure matching grants. When what’s left of federal subsidies is added into the mix, the Food Bank can buy and distribute groceries at some 90 percent less than the same cost of grocery store goods.

From its Paso Robles warehouse, the Food Bank provides several million pounds of food to our neighbors, sending it to homeless and women’s shelters, soup kitchens, foster care homes and low-income households.

Although the Food Bank will be making its major push through collection points and phone banks Tuesday, you can donate right now by logging on to www.slofoodbank.org or by calling the coalition at 235-2851.

This is a local need that can be met immediately with local dollars. As a personal plea, please be as generous as you can.