One of the greatest needs that Humanity House sees is the need for food.
With or without children, people are having a hard time making ends meet.
Food insecurity can be devastating for lots of reasons. Not knowing if you will have anything to eat tomorrow is the reality for lots our friends and neighbors in Allen County. Food insecurity is scary. Lack of food makes you weak, makes it hard to go to work, makes homework harder, concentration harder and decision making poorer.
Humanity House, through our food pantry, provides 3,000 pounds of food each month on average.
This food goes to around 175 families. Every month this includes 25-30 new families who have never been here before.
Some come in once when something unexpected has happened. Some come in every month as a way to stretch their SNAP benefit or to fill in the gap between paychecks. Some are disabled or living on social security and are surviving on just $700 every month. For them, their financial circumstances will not be changing. There will always be a need for food aid each month.
From late April until October, our Fresh for You program distributes fresh produce. On average, this produce feeds 326 people per week.
Each month we use funds that we have acquired to purchase food from the Kansas Food Bank. This food usually last 10 days to two weeks, not as long as we would like it to last. Through a generous $6,000 donation from an anonymous donor, we were able to supplement our pantry shelves each week and keep a supply of, among other things, milk, butter, and potatoes available to those who come in. Unfortunately, those funds have now been depleted.
I would not say that I am a naive person. I feel like I walk around most of the time with a level head, eyes wide open, and I try to have a clear idea of the amount of stress something is going to bring.
However, the Humanity House food pantry keeps me awake at night. I worry about the next family who comes in when we have one can of soup and a can of peas. When a family comes through the door and needs help with food and we can, without looking, list to them what we have, it is the most terrible feeling.
One of the reasons why Humanity House exists is the little boy visiting Santas Toy Shop who told me that all he wanted for Christmas was food in his house. There are many times when I feel like I am failing that boy and so many other children just like him.
If you feel a hankering for doing a good deed, organizing a food drive through your church, club or neighborhood would be fantastic. If you want to go through your cabinets and pick out a few things and drop them off, that would be terrific. If you are out shopping, and you put a couple of items in your cart and drop them off at our office, you would be our hero.
As always, we thank everyone who is so generous to Humanity House.
Without you, we would not exist.
Kindness Matters!
