Our View: Solving Hunger, One Meal At A Time

Whether you’re a senior on a fixed income, a working mother with three jobs or a youngster getting ready for school, there’s nothing worse than not knowing where your next meal is coming from. All of life’s other challenges take a backseat to an empty stomach.

 Every summer, we come together to raise money for the Family Pantry of Cape Cod. It’s more than just a campaign run by a newspaper. It’s part of the fabric of who we are: a local paper working to encourage the generosity of its readers, year in and year out. Yet there’s nothing we’d like better than to close the books on Helping Neighbors because every last hungry person had been fed.

 It’s not a realistic prospect. On the Lower Cape, as in many other places, the problem of hunger is also a problem of housing. Families fortunate enough to find a place to live here spend an inordinate amount of their monthly income to keep a roof over their heads. Combined with the many low-paying jobs that drive the local economy, that leaves lots of families with little money left over for nutritious food.

 Without sacrificing their dignity, families visit the Family Pantry and leave with bags of hand-selected groceries worth hundreds of dollars, along with decent clothing, all at no cost. And it’s the generosity of donors like you who make it all possible. 

 Our Summertime Helping Neighbors campaign ends on Labor Day, and we’re just shy of reaching our $90,000 fundraising goal. The Campbell family and others have made sure that every dollar donated up to that goal is matched, doubling the power of every gift. But we need your help to get over the finish line. Click here to give.

 We know $90,000 won’t solve hunger on Cape Cod. But for our neighbors who rely on the Family Pantry, it will solve the problem of their next meal, the most pressing problem of all.