The Largest Single Day Food Drive is this Saturday. Join the fun!
Food pantries and soup kitchens across the country are reporting that the face of the “typical” person who uses their services is changing.  They are driving up in cars. They are wearing nice clothes. The “new hungry” has a completely new look. At the same time food donated from manufacturers has decreased. Food pantries and soup kitchens now find themselves buying retail to feed this new demographic.

This Saturday the largest single day food drive will take place. It is called Stamp Out Hunger; the annual food drive by the National Association of Letter Carriers. Your local letter carrier will be accepting donations. All you need to do is leave a sturdy bag of non-perishables out by your mailbox on Saturday and your letter carrier will do the rest. They will deliver those goods to food banks and hunger relief organizations around the country.

“In these turbulent economic times more and more of our neighbors and friends are visiting soup kitchens and food pantries. They need our help and are too proud to ask for it” says Rich DiGirolamo, Chief Cook at One Less Meal Inc.; a non-profit dedicated to feeding the hungry. “A friend recently shared complete gratitude when she talked of her local soup kitchen; a place she never envisioned herself visiting as a recipient of the service. What the National Association of Letter Carriers is doing is not only a great idea but needed now more than ever. People have the best of intentions. But in their busy lives they tell themselves they’re going to visit a soup kitchen or make THAT donation and it just doesn’t happen. It doesn’t get much easier than this” says DiGirolamo.

With people watching their money these days this is a great opportunity for anyone to feel like they’ve done a good deed; that they’ve made a difference. Most households have some non-perishable items they can put out by the mailbox. This is an opportunity for everyone to give; big or small; and it is quite creative. The work is being done for you. You just need a bag and to take a short walk to your mailbox.

One Less Meal, Inc., operates the Double D Diner and they understand the importance of creativity, people’s busy lives, and fun when it comes to fundraising. The Double D is a Virtual Diner and they have definitely put the FUN into FUNdraising. When you visit their website you’ll be greeted by your sassy, fun and quick witted waitress Earlene, order your meal (like Flapplejacks or Fries for Guys and Women’s Thighs), pay for your meal, and leave the diner. That’s it. You don’t EAT the meal; you DONATE the meal. Those monies are then remitted to food banks and soup kitchens nationwide.

“We’ve all got to do our part to help one another these days” say DiGirolamo. “Don’t you have an extra can of green beans you can do without?”

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Earlene Babcock, and I am a waitress here at the Double D Diner. I used to work down the road at FLAPJACKS for Earl, but it’s rough when you’re dating the boss. Earl was throwing his weight around (which was no small thing!) and I just wasn’t getting the respect I deserved. So when Clyde asked me to help run the Double D, I jumped at the chance. Talk about jumping from the frying pan to the fire! Now Clyde thinks he’s the boss of me.

People think it’s easy to be a waitress. Just look pretty, smile all day and keep pouring the coffee, but there is a whole lot more to it than that…even with the looking pretty part. People think I just wake up looking this good, but the truth is, there is some work involved. Here at the Double D, I’m serving people all day long, trying to keep Clyde in line, and on top of that- I end up being a therapist to half the people that walk in here. Some kind of drama shows up and sits right down at the counter almost every day.

Believe it or not, even I have to blow off steam sometimes. Usually, I just go out with Wanda and we squawk about this and that, but she’s taken up with Russell Buckingham again (I am keeping my mouth shut this time, but I’ll tell you that it is a mistake of the monumentable kind!) and she’s not always around when I need her. I try talking to Clyde sometimes (we actually are friends), but it’s like talking to the wall. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer…..

I was watching TV the other night and was hearing about how these celebrities have their own blogs where they just write down any and everything to anyone who’ll read it. Like a diary I guess. So I decided…Why not? I will make a blogary of my own just like they do, and we’ll just see what happens.

Hello? Can you hear me? Is anybody out there? Anybody getting this?