Christmas in July ...

Welcome to summer vacation for many kids , not only in New Hampshire but across the country. It occurred to me that this blog would be an appropriate place to post a plea to any and all readers to consider making a few donations of foodstuffs and/or a monetary donation to their area food banks. This is the time of year when we, the fortunate, can harvest fresh fruits and vegetables from our gardens, visit farmstands to pick up the freshest of local fare, and go blythely on our way at the supermarket getting the regular items .

There is, though, a whole segment of the American population that relies on subsidized lunch programs at schools to help out with providing their children a nutritional lunch ... but school's out for summer. If those children aren't fortunate enough to be involved in a summer camp experience, they may not be getting the mid-day meal or what they are getting may not be as filling and healthy as their parents would like. Food budgets are stretched during the summer months for folks on tight budgets or the federal foodstamp program. 

It's funny. At Thanksgiving and Christmas time, many of us open our wallets and hearts and give bags of food and checks to our food banks and soup kitchens, but during the rest of the year, we slack off. In this current economic situation, it's all the more important to 'keep Christmas' all year. We may well be helping a neighbor as well as ' the poor unfortunate' out there in the Dickensian world  of our imagination.

I'm just sayin' ...