A note from Second Harvest: Neighbors who generously donate time, money and food to serve people facing hunger are the heartbeat of our mission. One of our neighbors recently invited us to share his reasons for supporting Second Harvest and asked to remain anonymous. We hope you enjoy his story.

I wish that Second Harvest and their steady stream of emails would go away.

I mean it. But perhaps not in the way you might think. For if our region’s crucial safety net for the food-insecure were to disappear, it would mean that we will have solved Spokane’s and the Inland Northwest’s hunger issues once and for all. However, the brutal reality is that isn’t going to happen any time soon, if ever.

My wife and I started supporting the Spokane Food Bank, as it was known way back then, soon after we arrived in town in 1983. We did so for two simple reasons. First, we believe that nobody—anywhere, any time—should have to go hungry, especially in a community like ours with an abundant food supply. Second, we donate what we can of our resources to organizations or individuals who are doing what we cannot do. My wife and I cannot feed Spokane schoolchildren who start their day without breakfast or whose parents can’t afford to send them to school with a packed lunch. Nor can we connect with that single mom, working two jobs at a minimum wage, struggling to afford wholesome food for her two preschoolers. However, Second Harvest, with its staff and 8,000 volunteers, can do what we cannot.

In brief, that’s why we have nongovernmental organizations like Second Harvest. They are our proxies, doing the hands-on work of meeting all kinds of needs in our community. Whether it’s refugee resettlement, tutoring struggling schoolchildren, or addressing healthcare needs, these nonprofits all do important work, enabling our neighbors in need to have richer lives—or at least less burdensome ones.

But vital though these agencies are in addressing our community’s needs, nothing is more important than having food on the table. To state the obvious, food—like shelter—is something without which we cannot survive. Second Harvest thus quite literally provides a lifeline for those whom my wife and I cannot feed directly. And it has done so for the nearly 40 years that we have supported Second Harvest. During this period we have seen not even a hint that their mission is diminishing in importance. On the contrary, the organization seems to be throwing out more and more lifelines to those in our midst who are in danger of sinking.

So, now that I think about it more, my wish that Second Harvest and their emails would go away is quite unrealistic. Yes, we can dream of a day when all in our community will be prosperous enough to fully cover their own grocery bills and food insecurity will be but a memory. But until then, we urgently need Second Harvest to keep throwing out those lifelines that will enable more dinner conversations to be interrupted by someone saying, “Please pass the potatoes.”

We want to hear your story. Whether you’ve received food or been a donor, you can inspire action to help end hunger. Please visit this link to share your experience with us: https://airtable.com/shrpA5K6EDs1Tf3uu.