Have's and have-not's

She Says:

The past week has been full of the simple pleasures of life: quality time with the family. We had my Mom come out to share her birthday and then came Martin’s daughter (my stepdaughter and good friend). We had time to show off with the dogs too – my pup and I finished obedience classes with flying colours and Simon learned a new trick. We celebrated all of those events around the kitchen table, as is our custom, with treats and favourite dishes.

The other side of life is not so kind and we like most people tend to forget how real it is for many, even right here at home. It is awful to think that in this part of the world there are families that go hungry and cannot enjoy treats and favourite dishes at the dinner table. Thankfully we do at least have resources so families can stretch the gap. Sometimes that resource is called a community, and this week we wanted to reach out and remind our readers that a community that cares is the glue which holds the two sides of life together, making sure that a chasm doesn’t develop between them.

I was given a great example of a way to bridge the gap by my friends in the 1st Glenrosa Girl Guides. It is cookie time again so they will be out selling those famous sandwich cookies to raise funds for their activities. The leader I know is a great example for the girls and she always makes sure they make the most of every activity. So this time not only will they be raising money for themselves, they have chosen to encourage people to donate for the Food Bank as well. If you don’t want to take the cookies home yourself, you can still feel good about giving by buying a box, and then the fat-free way to enjoy the cookies is to have the Girl Guides give them to the Food Bank. They will even take partial box payment and pool the money till enough is raised for another Food Bank box to be donated. Talk about sharing the wealth! I hope you can stop by to see them this Saturday at Save-On Foods in Westbank, to help two great causes.

He Says:

This week I was listening to the radio and a report from the Food Bank came out which was very shocking. In the 80’s when the Kelowna Food Bank opened, they would feed 600 people a year, and now with the growth of the Okanagan in 2007 they fed 30,000 people most of whom are children. Wow, what an accomplishment! That’s a lot of food.

This week they had to get food supplies from Calgary’s Food Bank surplus. Not that there is anything wrong with that, the food will go to good use. We are used to hearing about not enough food for most African countries, but in Canada, it’s seems like nonsense to me. I can understand not wanting to give money to all the charities calling you at home, but food is so basic and taken for granted by most of us that we don’t think that children could actually go hungry right here in our own neighbourhood.

I think it’s time for the people of Kelowna and Westbank to rally and give a hand to our Food Bank. Have a collection at work or even do a clean up in your pantry at home and get rid of some stuff that you obviously don’t need.

I plan on buying a few cans of food in my next grocery trip and dropping them in the bin at the grocery store. I will also start telling all my clients to do the same. Keep in mind that just a few cans of food will go a long way.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.