Welcome!

My name is Neil Makur. I am a High School Junior and a Boy Scout living in the Bay Area, California. As we all know, the world has seen many crises in the last two years - the COVID pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement, and the wars in Afghanistan and Ukraine to name a few. I was looking to help local refugees and reached out to the Afghan Coalition. We brainstormed many ways in which my Boy Scout troop and I could help them, and problem that they most need help with is food. Feeding hundreds of displaced families while taking into account religious considerations until they get settled down needs a constant supply of food. I started a food drive at the local library and got a surprisingly generous response. Although not all the food was usable, the surplus food from the drive that did not meet religious dietary restrictions was donated to a local food pantry to ensure that it would still be useful.

The library organizers also helped me connect with other food banks in the area, and working with them over the summer gave me a new appreciation of the simple privilege of having food available at home at all times.

 

3 main things that I observed from my experience so far are:

  1. The biggest need for refugees, homeless and many others who are struggling due to the pandemic is food. 
  2. Community members (individuals, youth organizations, non-profit organizations, library employees) are very happy to help provide food to the needy. 
  3. There is a lot of food that goes waste in grocery stores, homes, and restaurants.

With this in mind, I am starting this blog to help connect those with extra food and/or willingness to help, with those in need. I also aim to study the current state of how these things work in our local area to see if we can find more resources or help more people with the same amount of resources.

No person should go hungry, especially when there are neighbors willing to help.



If you are a California Bay Area Tri-City (Fremont, Union City, Newark) resident, watch this space for how we move to a NO-HUNGER-NO-WASTE society. I will be posting about places that help, how you can help, and other resources.

Please comment below for any suggestions you may have.



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