Stafford: A stimulus response? Join the 1200 Club

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

It isn’t in the mail yet.

But unless the post office is defunded immediately, our federal government soon will be mailing me a $1,200 stimulus check.

It’s not that I can’t use it. But my wife and I don’t need the money to feed ourselves. And it’s money that people who can’t feed themselves don’t have.

So we’re giving it to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Clark, Champaign and Logan Counties (theshfb.org).

Now, people who know about fundraising tell me $1,200 is too much of an “ask” for a fundraiser. And I get it.

We’re not rich, either. We’re semi-retired, our 401K has taken a big hit, and who knows how long it will take to recover. But I’m thinking it will recover - and that the $1,200 thrown in now won’t make that big a difference for us in the long term. Whereas, filling stomachs with it will make a big difference in the short term.

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And there’s this: I don’t want to give up on a dream - the dream that there are 99 other people in Clark, Champaign and Logan counties in my situation, and that if we all donate our $1,200, we can raise $120,000 to help our neighbors.

That’s why I’m calling this the 1200 Club.

But here’s how weak-kneed I am: You don’t have to give $1,200 to be in the club. Any amount will be appreciated - and will be warmly welcomed. And you can be part of it even if you decide to give to another worthy community cause, of which there are many.

I do have a pitch for the food bank, which I’ll get to in a minute.

But first, a word to my fellow senior citizens who are in a position to give: A fixed income is usually seen as a disadvantage, but you’ve got to admit, at the moment, it beats a broken one.

On to the pitch:

All of you surely know what the food bank does.

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But some may not know that it was reorganized on Jan. 1 by a group of stand-up people who decided that we, the people of Clark, Champaign and Logan counties, would take responsibility for helping to feed our neighbors in these counties.

This means that the organization is in the midst of a first major fundraising effort to secure the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to fulfill that promise every year. And in its third month, we have called on it to respond to two emergencies: The opening of food desert caused by the closing of the Kroger store on South Limestone Street and the coronavirus pandemic that has brought the nation to its knees.

The opening of the food desert caused our community to think again about racial and economic inequities in a society in which so many live from paycheck to paycheck. To many of us, the closing of the economy and the unequal distribution of suffering doled out by the coronavirus - particularly to minorities — has repeated that lesson in all caps.

The Second Harvest Food Bank stands as an institutional response to an expected - and, I fear, accepted — consequence of institutional inequality: food insecurity.

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So, here’s how to join the 1200 Club.

Those who do their donations online can:

1. Go to theshfb.org.

2. Click on Donate Now

3. Give what you can.

4. In the box that says “Do you have a special purpose for your donation,” write: I’m in the club.

My fellow snail-mailers can:

1. Write a check for whatever.

2. Scribble “I’m in the club” somewhere on it.

3. Mail it to Second Harvest Food Bank, 31 N. Sycamore St., Springfield, OH 45503.

Once the danger passes and it’s safe, we’ll have a party at which the Hugely Brothers, a band I’m in, will play. At this party, we’ll take a group picture, if we can, and celebrate. In addition, if our 401K does well enough, I may buy the first round.

In the meantime, enjoy the benefits of 1200 Club membership: Feeding (or otherwise helping) others while feeding your soul.

All this is satisfaction guaranteed, tax deductible, and not reserved for licensed drivers only.

Welcome to the club.

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