TGIFYGDF…Thank Goodness It’s Feed Your Good Dog Friday!

“DOING GOOD” IS ALIVE AND WELL DESPITE REPORTED WANE IN VOLUNTEERISM

The results of some surveys indicate that we are experiencing a decline in civic engagement. The good news is that despite this decline we are helping in other ways. Especially true for Americans 45 years and older, who are making a shift from their work within organizational structure to helping others in their own neighborhoods by coming up with their own creative ideas and implementing them.

A New York Times article entitled, Volunteering Waning in Recession, Report Says, written by Stephanie Strom and published August 26, 2009, refers to an example of such creativity and work in Peter Norback, of Miles, Tuscon, AZ.

Mr. Norback, a self-employed computer consultant, saw hunger in his neighborhood. In January, after hearing President Obama’s call for community service, Mr. Norback started the One Can A Week Food Donation Program.

He shared his passion with his neighbors as he began talking to them about his idea and soliciting and collecting food from them. He felt if every neighborhood did what he was doing, hunger would go away.

All of the food Mr. Norback collects goes to the Community Food Bank, where the demand for food was up 40% and, as a result, the amount of food available to families had to be cut in half. Mr. Norback’s One Can A Week program is successfully helping to fill the need of the Community Food Bank. The first week Mr. Norback raised 78 pounds of food and, this past week, week 33, Mr. Norback’s One Can A Week program netted 340 pounds.

You can read more about One Can A Week at Mr. Norback’s blog, and if so inspired you can read his how-to-guide there and learn how to start such a program in your own neighborhood.

According to his Second Week Update post, Mr. Norback learned two things in the first two weeks: People like the simple but useful commitment to community service and if he is consistent in his weekly pick ups, the donations will be consistent.

Feed Your Good Dog encourages you to be of service, whether you volunteer within an organizational structure such as a non-profit or come up with your own creative way of helping your neighbors.

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!

visit with us on follow us on