Editorial: Season showcases Vermont’s generosity

Burlington Free Press
Sunday, November 29, 2009

Thanksgiving weekend marks the start of the Free Press Giving Season campaign, our annual holiday appeal to help friends and neighbors in need.

This year’s Giving Season recipient agencies are the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS), the heating assistance program WARMTH and the Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation.

The campaign’s three core receiving agencies — the food shelf, COTS and WARMTH — represent the basic necessities of food, shelter and heat. New on the list this year is the Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation.

The private, nonprofit organization was founded in 2005 to help meet the emergency financial needs of Vermont National Guard members and their families. Including this foundation is especially relevant this holiday season as the deployment of 1,500 Vermont Guard members to Afghanistan — the largest Vermont mobilization since World War II — is under way.

We don’t have to look far to find people in our community who could use a little help. The report on hunger in Vermont released this week is one more timely reminder that as we enter the year-end holiday rush, we need to remember the many Vermonters who may be less fortunate than we are.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture report says 12 percent of households in Vermont face reduced quality, variety or desirability of the food they can afford, while 5.7 percent face some degree of hunger. The USDA data are for 2008. The toll for 2009 — a year when more and more people felt the impact of the recession — has yet to be tallied.

The hunger statistics that place Vermont as the sixth-hungriest state in the nation hardly jibe with the recent ranking of Vermont as the healthiest state.

Despite the great need, nobody should doubt the capacity of this community to give generously. That people donated more that 2,700 turkeys to the food shelf in Burlington to give out to families for Thanksgiving in a matter of days is just one example of this generosity.

Another example is that people donated $61,000 to local nonprofits during the 2008 Giving Season campaign. Many people gave despite facing economic hardships themselves. There is no greater tribute to the character and community spirit of Vermont than the people who find it in themselves to help others, to find a way to share even in reduced circumstances.

Thanks for giving again this season.