My Outrageous Act for January 4, 2010

This weekend, the New York Times reported this sobering tidbit:

One in eight Americans now receives food stamps, including one in four children.

Also, from the Dallas Morning News’ boy band roundup:

Teenage rock star Nick Jonas pledged $25,000 from his family foundation to the North Texas Food Bank during a tour Saturday that thrilled 140 volunteers, including many from his core audience of young teens.

Apparently, there’s a hunger crisis going on in this country. (When a Jonas Brother decides to make Dallas-area hunger his cause célèbre, the problem has reached epic proportions.) The starving children aren’t just in Africa or Appalachia any more. They’re in Akron, Albuquerque and Antigo, WI, too. My mom donates money to the local food pantry every month and I’ve decided I can do my part, too. Hence, my outrageous act for today was to set up an automatic $20 payment to the food pantry every month via my bank’s online banking system.Twenty dollars doesn’t sound like a lot but over the course of a year, it’s $240. If just ten of you lovely readers did the same, we would’ve donated $2,400 to help our friends and neighbors get some basic groceries.

The scary part of all this is that more and more people are experiencing hunger all the time. Food stamp usage in my county in northern Wisconsin is at 10% among all people but jumps to 21% among children, an overall increase of 49% since 2007.  (Check out the NY Times’ scary but illuminating map here.)

If someone like me, who receives SSI payments as her only income, can afford to donate $20/month to the local food pantry, how much can you give?

Find your local food pantry at Feeding America

Photo credit: maeliza on Flickr