What are you Giving this Christmas? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    One cold December day a few years ago I volunteered to ring the bell to collect money for the Salvation Army. A woman, obviously not as well dressed and coiffed as many who passed by, stopped and dug through her pocketbook, pulling out a five-dollar bill to put in the kettle. I thanked her and wished her a merry Christmas. She responded, "Now Christmas can begin."

    I asked her to explain. She remembered, a bit teary-eyed, an earlier Christmas when her mobile home caught fire, destroying all her belongings. Even more devastating was that the fire burned all the Christmas presents she had bought for her young children. The Salvation Army gave her clothes and food to feed her family and brought toys so that her children could have Christmas presents. She told me she had made a pledge that before she ever purchased a single Christmas gift she would make a contribution to pay back that generosity and give to others.

    I didn't learn her name or her circumstances, but her five-dollar contribution was unquestionably a larger gift than perhaps any given that day, reminiscent of the story of the Widow's mite found in the Gospels.

    In this season North Carolina is gaily decorated with bright lights, Christmas carols are heard wherever you go, holiday parties bring friends together and shoppers busily purchase presents for those on their lists. It is a marvelous time, however too many of us don't see or don't know the holiday experience of many of our neighbors.

    600,000 homes in our state face the holiday season with the threat of not having enough food to eat. Many families skip meals to stretch food supplies. Some 160,000 people receive emergency food assistance any given week, yet 36 percent of the food pantries in our state have had to turn people away this year because of a lack of food. The grim reality this Christmas season is almost one in four children and growing numbers of seniors face food scarcity. North Carolina ranks 8th among the 50 states with the highest level of food insecurity.

    In a survey taken last month by the American Research Group, Inc. shoppers around the country say they plan to spend an average of $929 for gifts this holiday season and these numbers don't count the dollars we will spend on decorations, food and parties.

    We would never suggest it's wrong to give to those whom we love or to gather together in the joy of the season, but we should be shocked and shamed by these statistics.

    Instead of spending $929 on gifts, what could happen if we spent only $800 and donated

    the rest of that amount to The Salvation Army, a food bank, homeless shelter, BackPack Buddies or other ministries that give directly to those in need? Our families would never miss the difference; in fact we're betting most would rejoice in our willingness to share with others.

    What miracles could happen if we pledged to give $1, $5, or more every day next year? In North Carolina we boast we are the state where "the weak grow strong and the strong grow great." Let us live into that by pledging that no one should go hungry in 2017.

    Publisher's note: Tom Campbell is former assistant North Carolina State Treasurer and is creator/host of NC SPIN, a weekly statewide television discussion of NC issues airing Sundays at 11:00 am on WITN-TV. Contact Tom at NC Spin.