Letter to the Editor: Consider a donation to the Decorah Community Food Pantry in lieu of a present

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Julie and Robert Fischer of Decorah):

"The First Lutheran Food Pantry is in process of big changes. Recognizing that food security is a moral priority for all people of faith, Pantry organizers have begun to expand its board to include representatives from each of the community churches. To tackle big challenges requires a broad base of support.

Before attending the planning meetings as adjunct liaison from the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, I had no real appreciation for the scope of the Pantry's work. The director and volunteers coordinate collecting and appropriately storing food from six resources--Waterloo Food Bank, Sodexo at Luther College, Walmart, the Farmers Market vendors, individual contributions, and cash purchases. This demands know-how and tight logistics, transportation, heavy lifting, and proper storage. Each refrigerator and freezer needs to be checked for temperature every day. Any spoiled produce needs to be culled. Then volunteers need to be on hand at client pick up times to guide folks through and restock the shelves. Without these caring relationships, much valuable food would go to waste in dumpsters. Friends, this is win-win, social justice and environmental stewardship!

Our Decorah Community Food Pantry, now a 501(c)3 organization, served 475 families (1370 family members) from nine counties in October. No wonder that we need a site where freezers and refrigerators can be on one level, easily accessible to volunteers and clients. We need a building dedicated to this important community effort. It will take all of us, doing whatever we are able to do, to raise the capital to achieve this goal.

Just think: if each of our churches and civic organizations were to come on board and donate the results of one of their yearly fundraisers to this effort, we would get a great boost. If we can then encourage 100 committed community supporters to invest $1,000 each in this community building effort, we'd be even closer to that goal. (Renouncing one luxury plane trip would do it.) Then we would have enough leverage to ask for a few grants to finish the project.

One family has already given a substantial donation. We are today following suit with a Christmas gift to the DC Food Pantry Building Fund. We do this to honor the generosity of current donors, the generosity of the First Lutheran congregation for 20 years of facility use without compensation, and especially to honor the hard work of all the Pantry volunteers. Our family does not need things,  so we want to keep the Christmas Snowball for the Decorah Community Food Pantry rolling."