Giving Back . . .

[MIDNJAC]

One way to do that is by joining the various community Facebook groups for where you'll be living. You can get a real sense of the good, the bad and the ugly by sifting through these groups.

I trust that you are on "whidbey island drama and gossip"

In all seriousness Rob, great idea. What you say about your volunteer experiences makes me wince thinking about my boys who will turn their noses up at about any meal served to them. I'm not a big user of the term "privilege" but dear god, do they have it. Maybe a trip to the local shelter would make them appreciate what they have. Thanks for giving me that idea.

 

[cfam]

Food insecurity for kids really, really bothers me. As an enlisted AW and Rescue Swimmer, I usually spent one or two of my liberty days in port while on deployment volunteering my time for local churches, schools etc, usually helping to paint a classroom, or play soccer with the kids. Ultimately, we ended up throwing a huge BBQ with food donated from my ship. Watching kids devour a hamburger or hot dog that was mediocre at best really reinforced the Navy's forward presence and community engagement mission. The more I learn about kids, in our own country, that don't have enough to eat, makes me angry and frustrated. If anyone has any organizations or causes that helps kids and their food insecurity, please post here. Thank you . . .

I don’t know how interested you are in traveling to volunteer, but World Central Kitchen sounds like it’d be right up your alley when it comes to fighting food insecurity. They maintain a pool of on-call volunteers to travel to their sites around the world. They’re also pretty active in the U.S. as well. They had a big presence in NC after the hurricanes among other locations.

Not food security related, but Team Rubicon is also an awesome organization. They do a great job of letting you know about both local and travel disaster response volunteer operations.

 

[HSMPBR]

These days I think those college Fraternities are more important than ever to grow boys into men. I know they get a bad wrap, but the colleges and general public have started to come around to the idea that if you lay waste to historical male centric organizations, that vacuum will just be filled by YouTube/TikTok/Podcast grifters who are even less accountable.

Your experience is valid, but man there is/was some heinous stuff coming straight from the source of those boys in places like tfm.

I trust that you are on "whidbey island drama and gossip"

Fallon 411 was gold too.

Not food security related, but Team Rubicon is also an awesome organization. They do a great job of letting you know about both local and travel disaster response volunteer operations.

+1 for TR

 

[gparks1989]

In all seriousness Rob, great idea. What you say about your volunteer experiences makes me wince thinking about my boys who will turn their noses up at about any meal served to them. I'm not a big user of the term "privilege" but dear god, do they have it. Maybe a trip to the local shelter would make them appreciate what they have. Thanks for giving me that idea.

Send them to Calcultta (or anywhere in India) to work in one of the many orphanages there. That certainly scared me straight as a 15 year old kid.

Another option is working with the local hospital system. Almost all medical residencies are funded by the CMS and are designed to serve Medicaid/uninsured population, and many have separately developed programs to help with things like food insecurity, giving new moms basic goods etc.

To Brett's point, small acts can be hugely impactful. My wife is an OB resident and saw that the private practice patients at her clinic got to use large flat-screen TV monitors to see their ultrasounds, while the resident clinic patients had to use small, shitty CRT monitors. In the Gateway to the West, there's a clear racial disparity as well as socio-economic disparity between the two patient populations, which is particularly jarring. We gave $500 to buy new monitors for the resident clinic patients which are now better than those of the private practice patients. Does that make a huge difference in their lives? No. Does it show some respect to that single mom with no loved one there to support her? Yup.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Yesterday afternoon I was talking to a HS and former coworker of mine who's son is an E-5 in Virginia will make the drive up to DC and help take around the honor flight veterans, his son said listening to the experiences of those veterans and just talking to them has been a great experience.

 

[taxi1]

micro-philanthropic interactions

I'd just like to say that I'm proud of myself for not making a joke about the needy hookers outside the gate of any USMC base.