Veg Out! Healthy Food For All is Essential

All families and growing children should have easy access to healthy food. 

 

Have you hear of “food deserts?” I certainly never did until reading last year in the New York Times about entire swaths of urban areas with nothing but corner stores filled with processed packages foods and no produce whatsoever.  I started paying attention and it is true.

There is something you can do about it, by making a donation of www.WholesomeWavge.org who will provide fresh fruits and veggies to these underserved communities.  How great is that? Actually, it is even better, as Wholesome Wave obtains their organic produce from small and mid-sized farmers.

Holiday Acts of Kindness: Pay It Forward

Teach your children well: here's one sure-fire way to successfully pass it on:

If your heart and your wallet have different ideas about making monetary donations, it is time to summon your inner regifter.  An unwanted gift could be a welcome donation to a charitable organization. For help selecting a charitable organization, visit the Better Business Bureaus’ Wise Giving Alliance. You can also contact the government office responsible for registering charities in your state. A little research upfront will make sure that your donation is put to good use.  If the process of selecting a charity seems daunting, remember, you benefit from giving as well.  

Involving your children in the selection of and contribution to a charity teaches valuable lessons.

Give to causes in your own backyard as well as internationally

You have an opportunity to make a difference.

Some charitable gifts are tax-deductible if made to a qualified organization.

But be sure your organization meets IRS guidelines, as there may be different tax breaks when you donate certain types of assets to charity. 

Share the Love: A Volunteer Christmas

The holidays can be a difficult time for many people who don’t have family nearby, a home to sleep in, or food to eat. Helping others expressed the true holiday spirit. 

A great way to be a good in the world is to do good for the world and the people who inhabit it. Volunteer a few hours of your time to work in a soup kitchen and help serve those who are in need of a hot meal. You can also use this time to get your family involved and impart good moral values on your children. For many years running, I have volunteers at Glide Memorial Church in downtown San Francisco and enjoyed each and every minute of it.  I bet your community has a place like Glide that can be your “happy place” meaning that you make other people happy and that alone filled YOU with joy.  But if you find yourself in the San Francisco Bay Area around Thanksgiving or Christmas, come on down and we’ll have fun together serving up some love:

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GLIDE on over and Serve a Meal!

The Volunteer Resource Program at GLIDE places about 10,000 volunteers each year, totaling 65,000 hours of service. www.glide.org Meals Program is a transformative experience. This program requires 85 volunteers each day to fill the breakfast, prep, lunch and dinner shifts, 364 days a year. With your help we can serve up to 2,400 meals per day to our community. Volunteers assist with everything from serving food, to bussing tables, to handing out silverware and condiments. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves, and make some beautiful human connections! you have any questions please feel free to contact the volunteer team at volteam@glide.org or 415.674.6081

Gifts That Keep On Giving

What if all your holidays gifts gave back and helped feed hungry people?

 

My favorite kinds of gifts are the ones who keep on giving. The FEED project has many cool options that are made-in-America and crafted with love and pride.  By presenting a beautifully carved wooden cutting board for your best friend’s birthday from www.FeedProjects.com, that gift will help feed the hungry.  I love their FEEDbags, which are a handy way to ditch the plastic and the paper, too

From Growing Up Homeless to Helping the Homeless

NFL player James Jones knows it’s better to give than to receive

“Being homeless made me a better man,” says James Jones, wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders since 2014. “And while I wouldn’t wish anyone to go through that, I wouldn’t change anything as far as how I grew up.” Having slept in shelters and on park benches for the first fifteen years of his life, Jones’ success as an athlete defies stereotypes about homelessness and poverty.

He has taken his challenging experiences to heart. Since being drafted to the NFL in 2007, he has volunteered for many community organizations, and in 2008, started his own with his wife Tamika. The LoveJones4Kids foundation provides funding for school supplies, football camps, and pep talks to underprivileged children, many of them living in the same conditions that Jones did growing up.

“People are used to hearing about a homeless person or kid and don’t think it’s possible to be a professional football player. But down on your luck doesn’t mean down and out.” Touchdown

Honor Our Fallen Military By Helping the Troops Now

We should should really think about the military more than once a year, right?

 

Talk to United States troops we have now! Don't wait for Veteran's Day! Give an Hour is a nonprofit organization that provides free counseling to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, including their families. This is a great way to show your support to the military while giving the affected people a place to turn to. http://www.giveanhour.org/

Give Life: Practical Acts of Kindness

Donate blood. One donation can help up to four people. 

If that’s not inspiring enough, every three seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion due to various injuries, illnesses, or conditions. Donating is completely free and completely safe. (http://www.bloodcenters.org/) Go to the American Red Cross website (http://www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation) to find a location near you. And you usually get cookies and juice after your donation! Did you know this?

Did you know T\the Red Cross can use more than your blood? Cjheck it out!

For some people, health, time, and logistical restraints means donating blood isn’t possible. But blood donation isn’t the only way to support organizations like the Red Cress. As well as financial donations, the Red Cross also accepts airline miles and credit card rewards. Easily transferable from your computer, these sorts of donations don’t cost anything but can still make a difference.

Conscious Acts of Kindness

When I lived in the Panhandle District, I would occasionally wonder to myself from whence the name came. It is actually a skinny strip of land at the end of San Francisco’s spectacular Golden Gate Park, like a handle on a skillet or big pan.

 But with so many down and out, there is a good bit of panhandling, the verb- asking for money. In fact, it sometimes seems overwhelming, especially when on any given day, I might be hit up over a dozen times.  I noticed that after 9/11, it became especially grim, as there was a scary economic downturn that accompanied all the other chaos. So, I developed a system of my own and I always kept change in the little pocket of my driver’s side door handle to be ready for when I was driving.  Here is my system and I just did it today: moms with kids, children, and amputee’s, anyone who really seems to me to need help now.  If I am driving an author around on tour or out-of-town visitors, they have, on occasion, been startled when I mutter,” Oh, an amputee; let me see what I have on me. “ I explain my seeming rudeness by saying this is my personalized system and that I was almost an amputee when I was hit and run by a drunk driver a few years back and managed to talk my doctor out of that idea.  I had to learn to walk again and it took a looong time and a lot of pain. So, I always think, “that could have been me” and I want to help.   Many a vet who served their country came back without a limb and even fewer options.  This really is the least I can do and wanting to do more is one of the reasons behind my book, Be a Good in the World. 

Gifts That Give Back: The Feed Project

Now that October is here, are you thinking of making a holiday shopping list?

My favorite kinds of gifts are the ones who keep on giving. The FEED project has many cool options that are made-in-America and crafted with love and pride.  By presenting a beautifully carved wooden cutting board for your best friend’s birthday from www.FeedProjects.com, that gift will help feed the hungry.  I love their FEEDbags, which are a handy way to ditch the plastic and the paper, too.

Listen With Love: Veteran's History Project

We all have stories and it is important to make sure they are told and heard. 

 

My dad loved to tell his stories of being in World War II and he did have many dramatic tales, especially of having saved lives and delivering a Japanese POW’s letter to his parents in Tokyo, a major act of kindness involving much risk. I really wish I had recorded these but I carry dad’s stories and share them his honor. Our elders, in particular, have much to share and life lessons we could all learn from. The Library of Congress is gathering these by sending out volunteers to video record in the Veteran’s History Project, loc.gov.vets. To me, one of the most special aspects of this oral history project is that it is not only the “Greatest Generation,” but also even young people coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan whose stories are equally precious and just as important. I think we are learning that every generation has true greatness.

Thinking With Your Heart: Volunteer!

When I lived in the Lower Height district of San Francisco, I drove for an AIDS food bank in my rusted-out little car had driven across the country from West Virginia.

I had arrived in the mid-eighties, which we may all remember as the height of the AIDS crisis. My best friend delivered meals to patients in their homes and I gave rides and also hauled groceries donated to the food bank by the Church Street Tunnel. One early morning, I was walking to the Market and Church Street MUNI station and there it was with giant pink letters announcing itself as a place to lend a hand for the AIDS cause. I went in and within two minutes had a shift and assignments for the week.  Plus everyone in there seems extremely cool to me and they were not grim at all but seemed to have a mission of importance.  It seemed such a small way to help during that scary time but I also learned that whatever you can give, large or small, it is important to give of yourself. And it all does add up. Feeding America is the LARGEST hunger relief organization the United States and they need YOU. Please visit www.feedingamerica.org to find your local food bank or hunger organization. Get involved and you’ll make a difference and you’ll make friends along the way. I sure did and they remain my friends to this day.

Give Someone’s Grandfather or Great Aunt What They Always Wanted

I was talking to a Swedish gentleman the other day and he mentioned, "America has forgotten about the old people. There is so much to be learned from our elders. That is a big mistake." He is right!

 

So, start learning and spend time with these wise ones. Also, what can you offer them in return?

Grant a Wish to a Senior Citizen. Volunteers for the Twilight Wish Foundation grant wishes by donating items (like a home computer requested by a grandmother who wanted to e-mail her grandkids) or by contributing their time. Learn all about it at www.twilightwish.org  Some wishes—like one from a retired postman who wanted to go over his old route one last time—require planning instead of money, and volunteers tend to choose items or actions that most speak to them.

Take Action Against Hunger: Gift a Fishing Kit

How can you help people to help themselves? Action Against Hunger makes it easy!

 

We all remember the Biblical parable about teaching a man to fish so he can provide for himself and his family. Two thousand years later, we can do exactly this. My dad taught me how to fish in a pond back home on the farm in West Virginia and, even as a 7 year-old, I could not help but notice that we not only got a couple day’s worth of yummy trout for our efforts but my papa, a former Marine with many battle scars to show for it, seemed so relaxed after an afternoon at the pond. You can gift in a loved one’s name a $49 fishing kit or up to $100 for a daily goat to Action against Hunger (www, ActionAgainstHunger.org), which feeds over 7 million, people each year. Go fish!

Donate Your Miles to Military Families

If you have frequent flier miles you're not going to use, give them to service members:

There are many in the military who have been injured in the line of duty and need to be flown to get proper medical treatment. This can also enable family members to visit.  As the song goes, "love lifts you up so you can fly." Check out fisherhouse.org to discover all you need to know about Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles Program. Love has an enormous power to heal so sharing your unused miles stretches YOUR love a mighty long way!