Do what you can do

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

I am not going to lecture you—and by “you” I mean me—about all we should be thankful for. I am not going to food-shame you—and by “you” I mean me—by writing about the calorie-busting over-consumption that will undoubtedly be taking place in your (my) dining room tomorrow, in dining rooms in homes from coast to coast.

What I am going to do is remind you that you have it in your power to help some hungry members of your community eat a warm meal tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.

I am one of 80 volunteers who help feed up to 300 hungry people a day, Monday through Thursday, in a welcoming, humanizing we are not a soup kitchen restaurant. We are overseen by a small, dedicated staff of seven of the hardest working, warmest-hearted people you could ever hope to meet. The Dining Room, our cloth-napkin, sit-and-be-served facility is one program under the umbrella of Food for Lane County, a nonprofit food bank founded 34 years ago founded to help low-income folks have access to wholesome, nutritious food.

Because we are affiliated with county government, we observe government holidays. That means tomorrow, Thanksgiving, we will be closed. Our big fancy meal is being served today. Our diners will be greeted outside with new socks and gloves if they need them, and with hot coffee and cocoa as they wait to be seated. We’ll serve generous slabs of ham with mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh-baked dinner rolls and a slice of apple pie.

Our efforts today—and all the other days of the year–will not eliminate hunger in our community. But that doesn’t deter us. Nor should it deter you. This Thanksgiving (and every day), I want to remember what author, Unitarian minister and fellow Aries Edward Everett Hale wrote :

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Do what you can do.