With only 15 days left until Christmas, two local banks (West America and Umpqua Bank) are still taking donations for next year’s holiday food boxes. An annual cooperative campaign including Lakeport Rotary, NCO Community Action, the Lake County Hunger Task Force, Lake Family Resource Center and this newspaper, the boxes are always distributed in December in time for the holiday season.
The Lake County Hunger Task Force was formed 18 years ago as the result of a recommendation of a study done in the winter of 1999 regarding hunger in Lake County. It became a registered nonprofit in 2012 and is an all-volunteer organization. They offer a unique gift idea this time of the year by putting together their bountiful boxes which contain all Lake County products, including pears, apples, walnuts, and either red or white wine. They are priced at $50 each and typically only 100 are sold.
The boxes will be available for pick up on Thursday, Dec. 14, only, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Scully Packing in Finley and are but one example of the good work done by the nonprofit’s staff and volunteers throughout the year. Another recent example was the organization’s partnership with North Coast Opportunities, Community Action in October during the 20th annual “Make A Difference Day” where a collection of non-perishable food for our local communities yielded more than 3,700 pounds of food collected per year in its first two decades of operation.
We could not help comparing last year’s donations totals for the food boxes to previous years and we discovered that donations were down. The nonprofit leadership explained to us that the county was suffering from what some refer to as “donor fatigue” with a plethora of worthy causes competing for the precious financial resources they need to carry out their philanthropic goals in the wake of yearly emergencies and devastating fire seasons.
This is where the generosity of our readers plays a vital role, we encourage residents to donate today so that others will be able to enjoy these Holiday food boxes again next year. Please donate any amount you can and remember that no amount is too small. Making a donation is easy, they can be made directly at the two participating banks along with any dedication donors might want to include. We are publishing these in the Record-Bee throughout the holiday season during the campaign as we have done in previous years.
The total donations to date amount to $1,150 but we know that this total can increase by the generous efforts of our readers and the community. Also if money is too tight, there are also opportunities for residents to volunteer as most of the nonprofits in the county are administratively and operationally lean and rely on volunteers to help them carry out their mission.
The old seasonal adage, “it’s better to give than to receive,” may seem hackneyed to some, but it’s never been truer to us and if you take a look around, there is no shortage of opportunity to make the season brighter for those who are less fortunate and there is ample chance for Lake County residents to help out their neighbors and friends during this special time of year, after all, nothing embodies the spirit of the season more than giving back and aiding someone in need.
