Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

Put this on your calendar, America: Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is coming up. HSP, where I work, gets food from the Stamp Out Hunger Drive, which happens on Saturday, May 9. Food from this drive largely fuels our Feed the Kids summer nutrition program.

Lots of food pantries need your help. Simply leave your donation next to your mailbox and your letter carrier will pick it up if your local office is participating. Call yours to see. Sadly, some are not. If that’s the case, Google food pantry and the name of your town and then take your donation to a local agency who needs it. Feeding America has a pantry locator too.

What should you donate? Peanut butter and jelly (our shelves are pretty bare), hearty soups, pasta, pancake mix requiring no eggs, syrup, cereal, tuna, coffee (we never get enough of this), mayonnaise, ketchup, canned tomatoes, canola oil, oatmeal, juice (V-8 is my favorite), crackers, Ensure, and low-sodium or sugarless products.

No glass or expired products. That’s really all you need to know. Except . . . there are so many in our country who really do need food. I talk to people everyday looking for help. Shouldn’t be this way. Not in America. Go forth and donate.

National Volunteer Week Starts April 19

Most of my long-time readers know I work for a nonprofit organization that helps low-income senior citizens and children. Heck, some of you have even contributed to HSP. So, y’all shouldn’t be surprised that I would have volunteers on my mind this week.

I recently recruited three new volunteers for our speakers’ team. These speakers spread our community outreach efforts further than our small staff ever could. What impresses me most is that these talented people are working full-time; and yet, they are called to volunteer their time when I’m sure they could be otherwise engaged. Our nonprofit’s lifeblood is the volunteer. With a lean paid staff, volunteers support us every day in our mission to alleviate some of the pain caused by poverty. I’ll bet it’s that way at most nonprofits.

Today, contrary to what was once the image of volunteers as retired folks seeking ways to fill newly acquired “down” time (we have a great bunch of those folks too), volunteers come in all ages and from all backgrounds. One of the new speakers is a young man not long out of university who plays music on the weekend in a band. Another is a working-outside-of-the-home mom with two teens. And the third is a dynamic young man who is working and going back to school. The common thread is that they are passionate about wanting to help others and have chosen our organization as the conduit.

If you have an extra hour or two, find a way to volunteer. You’ll make someone happy and that could even be yourself. And if you happen to be in the Chicagoland area, drop by for a tour this Tuesday. I’m making oatmeal scotchies.


Open House for National Volunteer Week
Humanitarian Service Project
465 Randy Road, Carol Stream, Illinois
Phone: 630-221-8340
Tuesday, April 21: 9:30-5:30 p.m.

Sustainable and Affordable Housing

“I see life as both a gift and a responsibility. My responsibility is to use what God has given me to help his people in need.”—Millard Fuller

Anyone who has read the Sink for any length of time knows I’m about connections. As a recently transplanted Alabamian, I found that Habitat for Humanity, the wonderful organization started by an alumnus of my Alma Mater (The University of Alabama School of Law), has a chapter here in Springfield, Missouri, at Drury University. However, Drury’s chapter among others is taking Habitat and community service homebuilding to a new level. Drury’s school of architecture students designed a sustainable or “green” house. No, this isn’t a greenhouse for plants. It’s the kind of wise design for the future I wish more home builders would engage in themselves.

On Monday, during a morning of heavy rain, the Drury community took the first construction step, building prefab walls, inside an old warehouse. Despite rotten weather, some 300 strong, the volunteers included students, faculty and staff.

I think Millard and Habitat co-founder Linda Fuller would be proud. That dream of helping families in their quest for decent, affordable homes, which started back in 1976 after a trial run in Africa, is taking a new direction with forward-thinking efforts like Drury’s Habitat chapter. Follow along with me to see the "House that Drury" builds.


Note: Can any reader impress me and tell me the name of the other famous or infamous University of Alabama School of Law grad Fuller made his millions with?

Photo used with permission and courtesy of Drury University.