GNO Virtual Food Drive

I work in downtown Seattle, right by our fancy new football and baseball stadiums actually. As I walk from the parking lot to the office, summer and winter, I pass people sleeping on the street. They are huddled, in blankets and under cardboard, alone or in groups of two or three with their possessions in shopping carts or garbage bags around them.

The street sleepers I pass on my walk to work are folks who did not get a bed for the night in one of the many shelters run by Seattle's awesome Downtown Emergency Services Center. And yes, I do find it ironic that the people sleeping on the street do so within sight of multi-million dollar sports stadiums.

The City of Seattle offers emergency services in finding shelter and providing food for those who are homeless or are just struggling to make ends meet. In 2007, this program received $1.8 million in funding from the city. But I can see that this is not enough. To compound this, as The Seattle Times recently reported, lately there has been a startling increase in the number of people using local food banks. The line outside the food bank near my house has grown significantly over the past few months.

So, I'm supporting the Virtual Food Drive hosted by Jyl and Carissa at GNO for Feeding America. My donation will go to one of the 200 food banks across the U.S. which are members of the Feeding America network - including a local Washington State organization which delivers 22 millions pounds of food annually to feed 600,000 people through food banks, meal programs and shelters.