We just had the big push for food for the needy at Thanksgiving, but now I’ve found out that the need in Nevada is more than any of us thought possible. I found out that one in seven people in the United States does not know where their next meal is coming from. For Nevada, that equates to 350,000 people. That is just a little bit smaller than the population of Reno and Sparks. Of the 350,000, 75,000 are in northern Nevada.

The average person thinks that all of those 75,000 people can’t all be homeless and that is true. Some are truly homeless, yes, but some are people who are out of work and drawing unemployment benefits. Some are people who had a two-income family and one of them is out of work and neither of them can’t quite meet all their obligations and they need help. Still, others are working, but because of cutbacks in hours or days, they also can’t meet their obligations. Some are retirees who thought they had a secure retirement, but that also fell through.

The real problem is that this is ongoing. The Northern Nevada Food Bank does a fabulous job of providing food to locals. Local school districts feed their students breakfast, lunch and dinner in select locations.

The canned food drives are wonderful. Various churches collect food and that is tremendous, but we need to provide food on a continuing basis for 75,000 people in our area.

In all your hustling and bustling for just the right Christmas gift for that certain someone, why not fill up one of the food barrels that are around to help feed the needy in the area? Knock off a few carats from that certain someone’s shiny bobble and send a check to your favorite food collection program.

Do you really need that inflatable Santa with the snowflakes swirling about his head? Do you really need all the lights around your home that when they are turned on the rest of the community suffers a brownout?

How does someone enjoy the Christmas season listening to Christmas carols while their empty belly is growling?  This is the time of year when the phrase “it takes a village” comes in to play. Someone once said if you give, you should give until it hurts and then you would really appreciate the purpose of giving.

Well, others are hurting now and it’s our turn to make it hurt. Many have given, many more will give, but even more need to give even more this year and on a continuing basis as well. Let’s show that true Nevada spirit during these hard times. People need that from you more than any other time. 

Larry Wilson is a 50-year resident of Sparks and a retired elementary school teacher. You can contact him at lawilson16@aol.com.