I have a family member who works for an amazing service in San Jose, California. I follow them on Twitter and Facebook. I chat with this family frequently and she shares some eye popping statistics with me from time to time.
Here is just a small snippet for you, from the L&F website:
"In the Bay Area 1 in 4 children lives below the poverty line. In our region apartment rents average more than $2,850 per month. It takes an annual income of more than $114,000 for a family to pay their bills and put food on the table. The majority of the guests we serve earn less than $20,000 per year. Therefore, many of them have no other choice but to work multiple jobs or share homes with multiple familes."
I grew up in San Jose. Almaden Valley, specifically. Almaden was considered an affluent part of San Jose at the time. I've been away for a couple decades now, so I'm not sure about today. My brothers and I always had warm, often trendy clothes on our backs. We sometimes bought lunch in the cafeteria, sometimes brought a lunch prepared at home. Most nights we had a healthy, hearty, home cooked meal on the table. The exception being "Dad's night to cook," which usually meant Pizza or Chinese Food.
It breaks my heart to read the startling statistics about my home town now. Loaves & Fishes is a huge blessing to many in the region of San Jose, California, and surrounding areas. They provide hot, nutritious meals Monday-Friday. They also partner with other organizations to help serve the needs of surrounding areas from Gilroy to Palo Alto.
I give what I can, when I can. I decided a few months ago to start tithing to Loaves & Fishes because I'm not currently attending church. That is but a drop in the bucket compared to the growing needs of the community served by Loves & Fishes Family Kitchen.
I decided to donate 100% of the STEEM earned by this post to Loaves and Fishes. It may be another drop in the bucket, but many drops add up!