Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Charities are needing charity...
I don't know if anyone has noticed or anything, but there has been just a teeny little rise in gas prices that has been creeping up and up and up the past few years. Along with these rising fuel prices, cost of living has also increased. However, people's salaries have not kept up with these fast-paced increases. This trend does not help with charities either. In order to have a charity, people must donate. Due to these factors, there is more need (and more people who need) and less donations. The Salvation Army, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Goodwill aren't just for the homeless. Volunteers at these locations have all agreed that more and more working class people are needing these services. The trouble is...there isn't enough to go around, with donations low and all. Food donations are low too because of strong agricultural exports. "Donations of canned goods are down 35 percent from last year; dairy and frozen meat donations are down by 26 percent." "The federal government donated $242 million in surplus food to food banks, soup kitchens and emergency shelters in 2003. Last year, it donated $58 million in surplus food to the same places." Congress is looking at a farm bill to increase aid to food banks...but really?? How much will that help with everything else sky-rocketing?? What to do...
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5 comments:
I guess it just shows that even charities are gonna be hit by the recession. Hopefully things will come back up soon.
I think the best thing to do is to stop the problem at the source. Finding ways to use less gas is always a plus and stimulating the economy somehow by getting more money into those who would normally be spending more. Everythings connected, so once families have more money to spend, the donatiosn will start going back up.
I think that one way to increase donations to charities is to create more publicity encouraging people to give. I've noticed that while over the past year there has been an increase in the number of "save the environment" campaigns and such, there have been relatively few ads in magazines or on T.V. encouraging people to donate money to charities. Because raising environmental awareness has been quite successful, I think that charities should use the same strategy as the environmentalist groups who have done a great job with encouraging people to be "green". Charities need to get their message out there and raise awareness for their causes, which will result in more donations.
A relevant news issue that relates to both topics in your post - recently, as the gas prices have been soaring, there have been more and more incidents of gas stealing. Thieves have been poking holes in the bottom of fuel tanks and just taking gas out of trucks and big cars. One major victim has been the Second Harvest Food Bank, which lost thousands of dollars of gas to gas thieves.
yeah. Gas prices have gotten pretty ridiculous. On CNN they had a segment on how to save money to have extra money for gas. They sent the reporter to a supermarket to help with tips to saving on groceries, and also to spend less money on gas by driving to the store less. I don't know, but I just find this kind of sad that we've gotten to this point.
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