It is October 31 and I am in the city of Seattle for a writing afternoon with other creative souls. A running group just passed me dressed as bumble bees. My barista is a skeleton. A moving inflated ghost made me jump as I walked to my car. In a few hours residents will prepare for the masses or turn their lights out and hide. Which one are you? But we can’t hide, can we.

As of this morning a local bagel shop Toasted has given away 12,405 bagels and breakfasts no questions asked. A Portland coffee shop Heretic Coffee has raised over $225K to provide free meals to SNAP beneficiaries who are losing benefits. These initiatives –there are hundreds — to feed neighbors in need is a stark reminder of the tentative line between full and hungry, fed and starving, well and unwell. And this is America?

The holidays are coming in hot. Starting tomorrow I am going to donate to food pantries, organizations that wrap and deliver gifts for children at Christmas and community mental health outreach programs. If humanity in the United States is going to be so challenged by the very body of elected officials that we put there to preserve it, I say we turn our resources outward and show what we are made of: just google ‘food bank’ ‘holiday gifts for children’ and ‘wellness funds for _________’ to see who in your community needs your help.

I am telling Santa: I do not need anything but others do.

Join me in giving what you can to keep people fed and well and cared for. As I am writing I was alerted that the government has been ordered by a federal judge to use emergency funds for SNAP. Going crisis to crisis, this government is eroding the safety of our population.

Keep your neighbor safe. It’s time to care.

Someone recently commented to me they hoped the president doesn’t say ‘Well if they can feed themselves we don’t need SNAP.”

President Trump, we don’t need you.