I am the 9th of my mother's 11 children. My dad split when I was 5 and left my mother with 4 pre-schoolers, 4 elementary kids & 1 middle-schooler. I don't remember a time when my mom was not employed & I remember her going work with pneumonia, unable to afford to take time off 1/

Although she worked her fingers to the bone (AND put herself through college) we were on welfare until I was in high school. I remember every year the firemen would come to our house in the week before T-day and Xmas with boxes and boxes and boxes of food. 2/

My siblings and I would run to our rooms as soon as they showed up because we were ashamed to be so poor. I regret this so much now. I wish we would have swarmed those fire fighters with gratitude...but we were punks (poverty propagates neglect that wouldn't happen otherwise) 3/

I only tell this story to show you the other side of those donations to firefighters & folks talking the time to collect food for human beings in need. Somewhere there'll be kids swarming boxes of food in utter delight to feast!.picture that when you drop food in those boxes 4/

....and there'll be mama's sneaking away to the bathroom to quietly sob in gratitude and relief. So on behalf of poor kids, thank you in advance for being so generous. It make a huge impact.

/end/