A few weeks ago a couple of co-workers and I had the chance to visit a local soup kitchen that we will be partnering with for some volunteer efforts this holiday season. Getting to see the inner workings of this organization and just how many people it takes to run the operation was truly inspiring. With the amount of negativity we see and hear about these days, I think we sometimes forget that there are still good people in this world. People still willing to reach out and help their fellow man. People who actually take the time to step back and remind themselves of just how fortunate we really are.
While we were touring this organization, their Executive Director gave us some statistics that were quite surprising. Of the thousands of meals they give out on a weekly basis, he estimates that only about 10-15% actually go to the homeless. The other 85-90% go to working families here in our city who simply can't put dinner on the table every night due to economic hardship. This number equates to roughly one in five children whose families cannot afford to provide them a hot meal. This is happening in a city that is considered upper-middle class where almost 20% of the population have a household income of over $150,000/year. The numbers in other areas of our country must be even worse. Other areas of the world worse still. And yet it isn't very often that we stop for a moment to put this into perspective. Stop to remind ourselves that if we don't have to worry about when we will have our next hot meal, then we are probably better off than a vast majority of the human population.
As we approach this holiday season I'm going to make it a point to continually remind myself that it is our responsibility to give back and help those in need. That even when we are having a rough day, there are others who have it much worse. That a small, simple act of kindness can go a long way. That the cost of a Starbucks coffee could put a meal on someone's table who could otherwise not afford it. That if every one of us fortunate enough to be financially stable just reached out to help someone in need, we really could make a difference. So please take a moment to slow down and do the same; to step back and remind yourself of how fortunate you really are. I believe that if we all take a moment to sincerely reflect on this, we'll find that becoming a philanthropic and magnanimous person is much easier than we may have previously thought.
"However, I continue to try and I continue, indefatigably, to reach out. There's no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference- but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort."
- Isaac Asimov