Ladies and gentleman, this week, I want to talk about something serious. I’m not going to talk about my comics this week or the characters. Just recently here in the USA, we celebrated the holiday of Thanksgiving where families gathered around the table for dinner. Soon, Christmas will be here and that will mean more dinners. But while some of you out there might be enjoying food, there are those out there who won’t be. There are many people out there in my country, including families that will have little or even nothing to eat this holiday season.
Luckily there are many private charities out there designed to help the hungry. There’s probably no shortage of soup kitchens in your area and food pantries as well. Food pantries are usually run by non-profit groups, especially churches, and have food donated by individuals which they give out to the poor and needy in the area. Now some of you are wondering why I, your humble comics creator, would bring this up or even care in the first place.
To be honest, the thought of people going hungry while I have plenty of food to eat is a real downer. I also was able to help out a local food pantry in my area. As a resident of Queens, New York, I donated some of my energies to helping out a local food pantry called Helping Hands of Ridgewood. What I did was I offered my services as an artist without charge to help promote their group. I was surprised to find out that not many knew of the pantry’s existence and that Helping Hands wasn’t really aware of other food pantries active in the immediate area. To help publicize and promote this pantry, I came up with two pieces of artwork for them to use in notices, flyers, posters, etc.
Those are two of the pen-and-ink artwork pieces I did to help promote the existence of Helping Hands of Ridgewood, NY. This should definitely grab the attention of locals who could donate money, food, or even their time helping out.
If anyone is interested in helping out your local food pantry, be sure to check around your area for more information. Ask around to find out about one. Failing that, you’ve always got the Internet search engines such as Hotbot and Bing. You can also check out Food Pantries for listings all across the USA. Check with each one as their requirements in donating money and food products may differ. If you are an artist (illustrator, graphic designer, etc.), you can offer to donate your service pro bono. A good illustration or design can help out food pantries a lot, plus it’ll net you some experience and a portfolio piece. So talk to your local food pantry about this if you’d like to help out in this manner.
Thank you and that’s all for this week. Check back on Saturday as I will have more comics posted up. Watch for next Wednesday’s post as we’ll be back to our regular programming.
