Volunteer Opportunities in your local community

Have you given any thought to the rising cost of gasoline in your local area and how it may be effecting other less fortunate that yourself?

I have been reading some stories on line how food banks across the country are seeing an increase as much as 20 to 30% with new families needing help coming in daily. Then I came across another article about gardening and if you are planting a vegetable garden to plant an extra row and donate the items harvested to your local food bank-which made me think about my father-in-law David. My father-in-law loves gardening it's his full time hobby and he plants a HUGE garden every year and donates a large portion of it to his town's food bank. He sees the need in his community growing, especially with the elderly. Prices on everything from gasoline to groceries to medication are going and with many of the elderly being on a fixed income things are as stretched as they can be.

I think about our young military families struggling to make ends meet. With deployments being anywhere from 6 to 18 months being separated and trying to make ends meet while living on one paycheck can be hard. I know that some will say "can't they live in "free housing"? Well yes most do live in military housing but it isn't "free", they do forfeit a portion of their pay to be able to live in a military community. A majority of our military families live in our off base housing community which is almost 15 miles away from the base. Soaring fuel prices are going to effect us all, especially those that do a daily commute to work. Every military base has it's own food bank program that is run entirely on volunteers. When I was the Ellsworth OSC Programs Chairperson I would host monthly drives for canned food, toiletries, household goods, diapers and baby food, pet food and pet care products in connection with our monthly OSC functions.

Which brings me to the South Dakota Food Banks and how they could use your help in these ways- donate food, donate money donate your time. If you're looking to do something this summer, why don't you consider volunteering at your local food bank.