Last night we had a great time at our friends' home - David and Lynn. They hosted a charity wine tasting with Wine for Humanity. This org hosts wine tasting events and then let's you order some of the wines you had during the event. Then they give a portion of the proceeds to a charity of your choice.
David and Lynn chose The Society of Saint Andrew, a "gleaning" organization that recovers food that cannot/will not be harvested for whatever reason and gives it to the poor and hungry.
Didn't now anyone was even doing that. Wow.
The woman, Marilyn, who is one of three women who run the whole thing in Virginia, North and South Carolina, explained their approach and how they get things done. Totally inspiring. She also said that about 25% of the food produced in the US never makes it to market - for reasons of controlling the price, or farmers being unable/unwilling to complete a harvest, and because of perceived imperfections in the items (melons that are not the "standard size" for a supermarket, etc.).
She brought up a question that many in America have, but none of us were brave enough to ask - "If the poor are hungry, why are so many of them overweight?" She beat us to the punch and explained how many poor people live in what is called "a food desert", which is to say their part of town only has convenience stores which enables them to buy soda, candy, macaroni and cheese - essentially items that are high in sugar, fat and sodium. And many of them don't have vehicles to travel to the part of town where the abundance is.... essentially, where we live.
For a moment there, I got a clear glimpse of how things work in America and felt a little distrubed. It was a good day for reflecting on that - being 9/11 and all.
She said she is working to get a produce stand into the bus station in uptown Charlotte. Makes perfect sense.
This was one of the most interesting things we had heard of in a while and we were both really inspired. Great party, too!
^ Marilyn explaining things about the Society....
^ Marilyn and Debbie, the woman from Wine for Humanity
^ Ms. Marilyn
^ Orders were collected by Debbie.....
^ Meeting old friends and new....
^ By the end of the night, David was making strong declarations about how good the cheese was.... so, I got a picture of that.
