This week’s A-team project was to give in some way involving food. A fitting and relatively easy task for this time of year. I chose to go to the store and buy about $25 worth of non-perishables like beans, rice and canned meats and veggies. I brought them to a local organization called Northern Nevada HOPES, which is facility and safe house for families and individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. They have a food pantry, which they struggle to keep open. It’s is only open as often as there is enough food to open it. And then, when that supply is gone, they close it again.

This organization doesn’t mean anything in particular to me, other than I worked with them on a marketing campaign Ad2 Reno did for them last year. I don’t really have a particular connection to any organization or charity. At least not one that’s personal to me. It’s hard to try to determine who deserves my help and volunteer hours [I'm unsure how to say this without it sounding somewhat snooty]. Yes, battered women deserve a place to go, veterans deserve proper care, puppies deserve a home and terminally I’ll children deserve a life they wanted. I’m blessed to never have been affected by these things enough to know that any one cause is the one for me.

So, I brought them the food last night.  I’m not sure how I expected to be recognized. I guess I thought maybe someone I’d worked with might be there. To thank me profusely. I expected $25 to look like much more food. I expected that my contribution would push the pantry to full and they’d be able to open it for Thanksgiving. I don’t know if that will or won’t happen. But the point is, my expectations and my being recognized don’t matter. I did what I could to help for this holiday weekend. I could have bought a meal for a friend, or paid for the coffee of the stranger in line behind me. But I wanted to do something that means something to me. Even if it goes completely unrecognized. That’s not the point. The reason I did it is because it was the right thing to do and the best way I could do it.

I guess for now I’ll just have to be involved with the organizations I get to know and grow to care about through my work with Ad2.