The necessity to help those around you

In following up on a story we covered a few months ago about the needs of local food banks around the country one fact was very clear. Help is still needed, and the need for that help won’t evaporate overnight.

With the Dow breaking the 10,000 barrier this week it would be easy to assume the worst is over. While the financial markets aren’t in dire shape they were a year ago, there is still considerable recovery which needs to take place in the job market, which admittedly is not exactly breaking news.

Until the employment picture substantially improves – Six months? A year? Two years? More? – a long-term need for a high level of food assistance will have to be filled. This is where our responsibility as Christians kicks in and to, borrowing an environmental maxim, act locally and think globally.

There is no feasible way a family with two gainfully employed adults such as my own can solve all the hunger-related problems related to job loss or trimmed working hours within a five-mile radius of where we live. But everybody who can do something, even something small, by way of food donations to a local distributor should.

From a Scriptural standpoint, the mandate given to believers throughout the New Testament to help others in need is crystal clear.

Looking at the calendar, it’s obvious we’re getting into the prime giving season where donations ordinarily rise from direct solicitations by non-profits to the gentleman ringing the bell over the red kettle at the local grocery store.

The reality is that neither the recession nor the need to address it will end Dec. 26th. Start a pattern of contributing now so that when the holidays are over it will have become a worthwhile habit.

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