With all the talk about the economy recently, the plunging stock market and soaring gas and food prices, it is hard NOT to be a little bit nervous about the future these days. We’ve even heard the words “next Great Depression” more than once in the past several weeks. My parents were children of that era and it was an awfully scary time according to them — food and gasoline were often hard to come by. My uncle in his later years refused to eat jelly from that “darn Mrs. Smuckers” (I cleaned it up a bit), because he ate so much of it during the Depression. Being the eternal optimist, I am a believer that it won’t get to that anytime soon. But, unfortunately, there are a lot of Renton citizens among us whose cupboards ARE bare right now and you can help them.
I had an enlightening – and sobering – talk last week with Capt. Terry Masango of the Renton corps of the Salvation Army. He is fearful that the food bank at the Salvation Army Renton Rotary Food Bank and Service Center might not make it through the holidays because they just don’t have
enough food right now. A local service club called them recently to help sort food; there wasn’t any food to sort. A major grocery store chain that used to donate 200 to 300 pounds of food monthly — mainly frozen items and meat — stopped donating. Capt. Terry told me that a shocking 65 percent of people coming to the Food Bank are working-class people who just can’t live off of their salaries anymore. The number of people in need has shot up dramatically since October of last year, with December 2007 being the highest numbers ever.
I put the word out to you, readers, a few weeks ago to clean your closets and help the Clothes Bank, and you did. More than 700 families were served last month. I’m asking you to do it again. The Food Bank needs you – and they need cereal, canned vegetables and protein, fruit, beans, ethnic items and rice (ideally in small packages, but if you bring in bulk, they will portion it there). If you’d like to help with their shortage of meats and frozen items, consider donating a gift card so they can purchase these items. I just filled a bag at Safeway with corn, beans, peanut butter, tuna, fruit and cereals. It didn’t set me back much at all. And, hopefully, a family will eat a little better this week. And, if you don’t have the money right now to help in that way, the Salvation Army will eagerly accept the donation of your time ringing a bell during the holidays at one of its 35 kettle locations. The more volunteers they get this year, the less likely they will have to cut back staff hours. And, last but not least, Capt. Terry told me that if they got one or two large donations — say, corporate ones — they could rest easy for the rest of the year. Any takers out there? I sure hope so. The reason I love Renton so much is that you take care of your own. I know you’ll do it again. And, thanks.
Susan Bressler is an active member of a number of Renton organizations, including the Renton Chamber of Commerce. E-mail her at scbressler@comcast.net.
