Need is all around us; solution is generosity

Good news usually doesn’t last very long, as is the case with the food banks and homeless families in our county.

First we were hit with the bad news that Marysville Food Bank’s cupboards were nearly bare because the school drives that really do make a difference each year had been pushed aside by the strike. That was followed by a community response that turned the situation around and made everyone feel good — for a few seconds.

While Marysville’s situation is to be celebrated, food banks elsewhere in the county are hurting badly. And there are more families looking for shelter this year. Many of these people were working not so long ago. Other families are one or two steps away from homelessness — spending their money on rent, utility and energy bills and using the food banks to make ends meet.

Now the services that rely upon cash and food donations to help the neediest can’t make ends meet. Grocery bags are being pared down and those who answer the phones at shelters are having to tell callers their space is full.

For those who haven’t lost their jobs and don’t know any family that is suffering, it might be difficult to see the effects of the slumping local economy. We don’t see the lines outside the food banks. Most of us probably don’t even know where the shelters are in our city. And the messages are so mixed in the media with people asking for help in one article and reports of anticipated holiday retail boosts in another. But we can heed the words of the people who work with the needy daily and know their needs better than anyone else: