Feed Your Neighbor

So I wasn't going to do it. 

The Berkeley Food Pantry just launched a new program, "Berkeley Neighborhood Food Project," to collect food from people in the community.  I could have signed up to be a neighborhood coordinator, but I didn't want to knock on doors on my block, and I didn't want to be responsible for collecting, say, 50 bags of food from people every two months.

But last week, on its first "harvest day," the Pantry collected over 800 pounds of food through this program, which is based on a very successful one in Ashland/Medford.  And I found out I can ask just a few friends if they'd like to join up, not 50 strangers.  So I'm in.  Tentatively.  No pressure!

If you'd like to join up, here's how it works.

 

•  I give you a snazzy green bag.

• You buy one food item a week for the Pantry. (We have a list of needed food, all non-perishable.)

• You leave the bag outside your door every two months, on the second Saturday of even-numbered months.

•  I collect it and leave another green bag.

• Repeat.

That's it.  The USDA is cutting back on what they give the Pantry, we have more and more new clients, and people from every zip code in Berkeley and Albany come in for food, from the bay to the hills. We regularly give food to homeless people who live in shelters or on the street anywhere in the East Bay.

If you live within 30 minutes of my house, let me know, and I'll drop off one of those snazzy green bags.

Especially needed