Food for Thought

Like many of my friends, I struggle on a daily basis to get my kids to eat. As a friend recently posted on Facebook, "Why do I feel like Monty Hall at dinner time?" I try to limit the choices and always have favorites on hand, and still I end up with wasted food and a feeling of frustration. I know that in the end, my girls are healthy and growing and getting the nutrition they need; but that isn't the case across the country.

Many parents don't have the ability to give their kids options or dinner at all. Times are tough and more and more people are finding it difficult to put food on the table. This exacerbates my guilt about wasting uneaten - untouched! - food, but feeling guilty isn't enough.

ShopRite, my parents' favorite grocery store, has a program called Partners in Caring dedicated to helping get food on the table for those in need. As part of this program, they have put out a call to bloggers to spread the word about hunger. In addition to highlighting participating bloggers on boxes of Honey Nut (or HoneyBunny as LP calls them) Cheerios, General Mills and ShopRite will donate one box of cereal to a food bank in ShopRite’s trading area for the first 30 people who comment on my post.

I have never had 30 comments, but now would be a great time to beat my record! I highly encourage any of my lurkers and all of my regular readers to leave a note about what they do or plan on doing to help get food to the more than 35 million Americans that live in households considered “food insecure,” including 12.4 million children.

I participate in nearly every food drive I encounter, from the girls' day care center, to my office, to my in-laws' synagogue. This year, for the first time, I dedicated some of my weekly shopping budget to exclusively buying food for donation. With grocery stores constantly having 10 for $10 sales, I don't have to set aside a lot of money to have a big impact. I have also blogged before about my frequent donation to the Norwalk Emergency Shelter, which provides assistance and a soup kitchen for those in need locally.

What are you doing?