Two months ago, I announced the 100 Item Challenge, asking readers to donate to their local food banks. The challenge was designed to help food banks across Louisiana prepare for summer, a time when donations are down and demand is up, but there's still time to get involved.
My request came on the heels of Louisiana food banks experiencing a 40% increase in the number of people needing assistance in the fourth quarter of 2023. With the number of people going hungry in Louisiana on the rise, the situation was looking pretty dire.
The challenge is for individuals or groups to donate 100 of the following items:
10 cans of tuna, 10 jars of peanut butter, 10 bags of dried beans, 10 cans of canned meat, 10 cans of vegetables, 10 cans of chili, 10 cans of soup or 10 boxes of pasta, 10 cans of tomato sauce, and 10 boxes of cornbread mix. The Threadhead Cultural Foundation collected 291 items for a local food bank at its annual party on the Tuesday during Jazz Fest weekend. The foundation plans to make this an annual event. Courtesy photoâ–²
When I wrote my March 24 column, I said that challenges like this work because most people are willing to pitch in, but they need someone to say, “Give it a go.”
I challenged people to be that person.
And people have been literally delivering. In Louisiana and other states, people have been delivering food to food banks. Deliveries have been made for a variety of reasons, from book clubs to Sunday school to exercise groups.
For example, Karen Lewertz of Mandeville and her sister, who lives in Arkansas, participated in the 100-item challenge in April to celebrate their father's 92nd birthday.
“We both delivered at least 50 items to the local food bank and my dad was so touched and grateful for our donations,” Lewertz wrote.
Pickleball Food Drive League holds donation drive in Baton Rouge. Photo providedâ–²
Tom Burkhart wrote to me and said he came up with the idea for the Baton Rouge pickleball community to participate in the challenge.
Others, including Lisa Hostetler and Kathleen Freeman, helped organize the event, which saw the pickleball community rise to the challenge and become a huge success.
According to the Baton Rouge Food Bank, 1,899 pounds of food was collected over the two-week period, which is the equivalent of providing 1,583 meals to those in need.
Threadhead Cultural Foundation took on the 100 Item Challenge.
“We are a nonprofit that provides grants to musicians and artists who promote the culture of New Orleans and Louisiana,” wrote Cindy and Dave Ciullo of New Orleans. “We collected 291 items at our annual Threadhead Party on the Tuesday during Jazz Fest weekend.”
They plan to make this an annual event.
Cindy and George Murphy have tasked their third-grade Sunday school class, which they teach at Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, with bringing in one item each week for the next 10 weeks, with their adult class helping to fill in the gaps and make up the 100 items.
Bessie Sennett, director of pastoral services for Volunteers of America, wrote that she and her team accepted the challenge to help resupply the food bank.
“We are aiming for 1,000 meals not 100. Five area offices are participating: Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria and Shreveport. Thank you for the inspiration,” she wrote.
Vanessa Nowruz, who was taking an aqua fitness class at the Manship YMCA, also joined the challenge, and women rose to the occasion.
Along the way, they learned from Emily Slazer, director of food procurement at Second Harvest Food Bank, that the 100 items in the challenge will total about 82 pounds. While they can't actually track the weight of the food donated, Mike Manning, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Food Bank, said the donations are substantial and it's not just food.
In response to the 100-item challenge, St. James Place in Baton Rouge organized a drive to donate cash to the Baton Rouge Food Bank.
“Several other organizations, including senior citizens' groups, have also been inspired to organize food drives,” Manning said. “These donations will be extremely helpful with the increased demand we face during the summer months.”
Sandra Golembiewski of Norco also made a donation to the St. Charles Community Center Food Bank.
Good people have sent in more photos and details than I have space to print in a week, so I'm going to spread the joy and try to get them all printed over the next few weeks – in the meantime, there's still time to donate!
Cheers to those who said, “I'm going to do this,” and made it happen. Small things lead to big things. We can't change the world in one fell swoop, but we can be kind. We can be generous. We can be thoughtful. We are the ones who say, “I'm going to do this.”
We can also say, “Yes, that's right. I agree,” and help build momentum to make things happen.
And the people after that.
Creating positive change requires a long line of people deciding, over and over again, to do the right thing.
