87 Cents

pacomotorstuff

Coast to Coast
87 CENTS
I was told this story by a friend of a friend of someone I know, probably 5 years ago. I have no reason to doubt the facts as stated and if anything, I think it is more pertinent today than ever.
I live in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area – a big city with big city problems. Homeless and hungry folks are just two just of them and these days, probably the same issues as any town with more than 40 people living in it.
Anyway, in conversation with a woman who was running a food kitchen in her neighbourhood, she was asked how she managed, how many folks she fed, stuff like that (remember this was 5+ years ago, so the numbers are a bit different now and my memory is a little fuzzy, but…).
She said her budget was 87 cents per person, to provide a hot meal to anyone who walked into her place and on an average day, about 250 folks would join her for lunch. The food kitchen was fortunate in that there were a number of grocery stores in her area who were amenable to giving her their almost-expired or expired goods but sometimes, it must have been awfully tight – maybe as tight as the guy I know that told that when he was growing up, there was always food on the table but sometimes, it was noodles with catsup for sauce - but I hope not.
I think 87 cents is about 1/3 the price of a medium coffee or ¼ the price of a cheap franchise hamburger and probably less than 1 percent of the price of the last anything you bought for your bike. I don’t propose to tell anyone how to spend their money (more hard-earned than ever these days, it seems to me) but as Christmas approaches, maybe drop in 87 cents (or more) into whatever charity you care to.
I kind of got re-focused on the whole Christmas thing today when I was on the phone with someone who said their in-laws had said they didn't want anything for Christmas, just make a donation to a charity so... they did, went shopping and dropped off about 200 bucks worth to a food bank in a city that isn't anywhere near Toronto.
Have a Very Merry and a Happy New,
Pat
 
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