My wife Chris and I started the Rolling Help Foundation last year with one mission in mind, with one plan. We focused on being that “Drop in The Bucket” against Food Insecurity in small towns. While nothing mission-oriented has changed, the world certainly has.
When we began to plan for a new life dedicated to fighting food insecurity, in mid-2019, the pandemic was yet to strike. While there was undoubtedly a political divide in this nation, it hadn’t heated up to the near “civil war” temperature that we face today.
However, in addition to our country facing massive levels of strife with these challenges, the problems of hunger and food insecurity have never been more significant. Statistically, and by every measure, it hasn’t been at this level in over a century. Regardless of your hope for vaccination and the eradication of COVID-19, or your political position, irrespective of how politics and the pandemic might distract and concern you, food insecurity continues to plague us. And, it has only become more profound.
Simply put, hunger has become much worse over the past 12 months. And, according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest non-profit focused on food insecurity, rural counties make up 87% of the highest risk of food insecurity, while they are 63% of our population. So, our target “markets” represent a disproportionate rate of hunger.
Not only do these small-towns experience higher rates of food insecurity, but they also experience a much higher rate of poverty overall. And all of these statistics are based upon data we had available to us pre-pandemic. Estimates are as high as a 15% increase in food insecurity rates, and children affected by hunger, as well as poverty, since the pandemic began. This is a radical increase in these problems from a statistical point of view.
So, given all that we know and what we understand, Chris and I believe that politics has no bearing on any of it. Rolling Help is about one thing, and one thing only is raising awareness and financial support for those hungry in typically small-towns of America.
Amen.
That said, as we have immersed ourselves into the realm of non-profits and examined the reasons why people find themselves in need of food assistance, it is challenging not to see these things through a political lens. This forced us to think through the choice of participating in a political agenda or keeping our organization free of political bias. While the latter might seem the obvious choice, it is nonetheless a difficult one.
I am personally a fiscal conservative and a social “left of center.” How’s that for attempting to stay out of the fray. Today, I might be considered a Lincoln conservative. Chris’s political leanings will remain anonymous. We recognize that this nation has become so incredibly polarized, but does that matter to a hungry second grader?
Does political party matter to a laid-off father of 3, whose wife had her hours cut by 75% at her waitstaff job, as he waits in line for a box of groceries at a food bank supported by the Food Depot in Northern New Mexico. An organization that we just had the honor of donating to last week.
It was there that we heard of folks lining up in BMW’s as well as beat-up old pickup trucks; people who not that long ago were donors themselves to the Food Depot, and now they stand in line for food support. They sometimes have tears running down their cheeks as they invariably would express an emotional thank you for the volunteer serving them. They would explain why this “will only be temporary.” Sadly, they have continued to come by for their grocery box every week for months now.
Do you think it matters to them right now which party they are supporting or anything else other than feeding their families? You see, hunger is a primal issue. When you are hungry and know your partner and your children are as well, politics doesn’t occupy much of your thinking. The only thing that matters is your next meal.
So that next meal and being that “Drop in The Bucket,” is what we intend to focus on at the Rolling Help Foundation. While I’m sure there is plenty of political advocacy yet to be done, in the interest of those who are unable to feed themselves and their families, that is not our mission. Our mission is to actually provide that meal. Last week, our first active week, we donated over 1,200 meals to one location alone, and tomorrow we will do the same with a food bank in northwestern Arizona.
Forget about the politics; what matters is that people are hungry, kids are hungry, and we can do something about it! One “Drop in The Bucket” at a time!!
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