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Feature_Article_Food_Challenge

Feature Article October 9

Feature Article October 9, 2003

LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb Home

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Lions Issue Food Bank ChallengeNorthbrook When they sit down to their Thanksgiving dinners later this month, members of the Land OLakes Lions Club can collectively take comfort as they consume the traditional feast. As a group, they have played an important part in ensuring that all residents of our communities enjoy a similar meal on a day when we should be grateful for our bounty. Thats because the Club will have come through for the Land OLakes Emergency Food Bank not just once, but twice, by the end of this year. And the Lions are button-holing every individual, as well as other organizations, to examine their consciences and dig deep into their pockets to help out as well! At recent meetings, Club members opted to donate $750 towards the Banks Thanksgiving food drive, and that kind of gifting is crucial as the holiday approaches. The Banks resources are usually strained at the best of times, and festive seasons do add to the crunch. The Club had hoped to again build a food pyramid in a prominent place at Cloyne Village Foods, but time constraints will prevent that from happening. Instead, food will be purchased through that establishment and donated to the Bank in time for Thanksgiving.

A one-day toll road will be held on Saturday, November 1 on Highway 41at Northbrook, and proceeds from this venture will go towards funding a food pyramid in time for Christmas. Just prior to last Christmas, the Club donated enough supplies to build about a 3 meter high food pyramid at CVF. That act and its surrounding publicity encouraged others to come forward with donations, and the whole process took on a contagious effect that benefited the Food Bank.

As we get caught up in our daily routines, we tend to forget the less fortunate in our midst as we walk by the many food drop-boxes that are out there in our communities. When you scrape the remnants off your plate into the garbage following your Thanksgiving dinner, will you be grateful that you had enough to eat throughout the year? Will that gratitude for your personal situation allow you to share your gifts of plenty with others? Think hard now, when was the last time you put some item into a Food Bank box? Whenever I feel I am experiencing hard times, I need only recall a story related by an acquaintance who was on a peace-keeping mission to a Third World country. While there, he took his meals in a local eating establishment where he was waited on by some very attentive children. He was shocked and dismayed to find out in time that the youngsters toiled every day for the mere scraps that were left on his plate. My friend said he soon learned to order plenty but eat little, and even though he often left hungry, his conscience was stuffed to satisfaction.

Service and fraternal organizations, church groups, agency staff, and yes, YOU, the individual we are all in this together. Will you meet the Land OLakes Lions Club challenge? Lets all do our part to put the Thanks into Thanksgiving and donate to our local food bank.
With the participation of the Government of Canada