Star City Challenge promotes random acts of kindness

Sunday, February 8, is the beginning of Random Acts of Kindness week. One way to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness is to join The Star City Challenge to raise hope in our area by helping to feed the hungry. The Star City Challenge is a grassroots campaign to raise, funds, food and volunteers to help the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank.

Three local citizens inspired by President Obama's call to service responded by creating The Star City Challenge. Beth Barnes and Freeda Cathcart were recently unemployed. Carolyn Greene, a real estate agent, had more free time than she used to. They wanted to do something to help their community.
They were concerned about their neighbors being hungry. It's hard to believe that people where we live are hungry, but recent studies show that 40% of people in our area are hungry. The three ladies hope to spark a grassroots campaign in our area to help meet that need. They learned that the Food Bank needs donations of non-perishable food, especially canned foods and that every dollar donated is worth six dollars of food. You can donate directly by clicking on The Star City Challenge at http://www.swvafoodbank.org/

The Star City Challenge began when a band called The Kind heard about it and sent out an appeal to their fan base to bring food to their gig. They raised several boxes of food and $130 ($780 worth of food). They are collecting food and donations at their next two gigs: Feb. 12 at Champ's in Blacksburg & Feb. 13 at the Pine Tavern in Floyd. They are encouraging other bands to follow their example.

Cathcart received permission from Roanoke City Parks and Rec. to collect food at the Indoor Soccer games Jan. 17 where they raised 119 pounds of food and $12 ($72 worth of food). The GSA baseball league heard about it and decided to collect food and donations during their sign ups.

Beth Evason’s study group collected food and donations. Carolyn Greene asked her church Unity of Roanoke Valley if they could do something. The church is collecting donations the entire month of March. Lee Hartzell, a retiree, went to a training session at the food bank and is going to help out by doing surveys for them.

People can get ideas, receive support and share their successes in the Facebook group called The Star City Challenge Feeding SWVA. People are encouraged to do something doable. It could be as simple as sending an email to your friends and neighbors to ask them to set out food at their house on a particular day so they can collect it to bring to the Food Bank. When you bring a donation into the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank tell them it’s for The Star City Challenge.

Any Random Acts of Kindness to help to feed the hungry in our area would be much appreciated.