A Quick Note On Food Insecurity
The time for Shorts is nearly upon us. We have received a bunch of great submissions so far and hopefully there will be more to come in the next week. If you want to submit a track you may do so here. The only stipulation is that each track must be 90 seconds or less. Otherwise, anything goes. Please get your submissions in by May 2nd.
One of the things that I love about the indie music community is that fans and musicians, often from very disparate genres, can come together to support great causes. You all helped raise nearly $200 for our last compilation to benefit Hope For the Day, which was a huge success. I have also recently been encouraged by the great compilations that have been put together to support relief efforts in Ukraine.
It might seem cliché to support a local food bank, particularly when there are so many other worthy causes. But I strongly feel that lack of food resources is a commonly overlooked problem in this country. The cost of living continues to rise at a higher pace than wages, which makes food even more difficult to afford for needy families.
Every time I visit the grocery store, I am overwhelmed by the sheer abundance of food that is constantly available, but only to those who can afford it. The issue is not that there isn’t enough food to go around, it’s that it isn’t being properly distributed. Keeping people impoverished and hungry is by design, and there are many politicians who desire to keep it that way.
School lunch programs, which are the primary food source for millions of children in this country, are constantly at risk of being defunded or cut entirely. Just last year a school district in my own state opted out of the free school lunch program because certain parents were concerned about students becoming “too spoiled” by receiving free food. The district only relented after this news became public and they were shamed into accepting the funds.
There is so much readily available food, much of which is thrown away, and yet millions of families cannot afford to put food on their table. This is often despite working multiple jobs at low wages, or due to disability. It can be easy to sweep this problem under the rug because it is not always outwardly obvious that people are not receiving proper nutrition.
Food is a human right. Nobody should ever go hungry in a country that has such abundance.
All that said, I have chosen Second Harvest of Southwest Wisconsin because I know that they are putting their resources into directly helping the local community. They are not a faceless corporation that spends all of its money on fundraising mailers. I genuinely believe in what they’re doing.
I hope that you will join us in contributing to this comp musically and/or monetarily. All of the money spent on this comp will be donated directly to Second Harvest, and I will post the receipts to prove it. Even if you can’t contribute at the moment, the comp will be available for free download and I hope you will enjoy it either way. Thank you!