Please Give So Others Can Eat

Friday May 15, 2020 | Filed under:

Sadly, the coronavirus crisis has meant economic disaster for families across our country – including many in our own industry. Even as some states begin to slowly reopen, this disaster will continue for months, leaving the most vulnerable among us short of the most basic human need: food.

To help, I’m kicking off the industry-wide, #ASIcares matching fund drive to raise money for local food banks and pantries. Almost immediately after announcing the fund drive in a livestream video, I received the first donation – and they’ve kept coming. I’m very, very grateful, but not surprised. We’re a caring, charitable industry, filled with people who have demonstrated their generosity and kindness time and again.

To stretch your donations even further during the #ASIcares drive, for every $1 donated by distributors, suppliers and decorators, ASI will match that dollar with its own $1 contribution. Your $5 turns into $10, and your $100 turns into $200.

Here’s how it works:

  • Donate to any food bank that’s a 501(c)(3) organization in the U.S., or the equivalent in other countries.
  • Cash contributions made between May 12 and June 30 will count toward the ASI match, which is capped at $50,000.
  • Monetary donations only, for good reason. Food banks prefer money over food or perishables because they buy wholesale and can choose exactly what food is needed most and get it into the hands of people with the greatest need.
  • The ASI match contribution will be made to the nonprofit Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries across the country.
  • I encourage you to donate to your local food bank. You can look up your community resources by zip through Feeding America, or donate directly to that organization.
  • IMPT: Don’t forget to email your receipt to foodbankdrive@asicentral.com so we can count your donation toward our match.

I’m sure you’ve seen the miles-long lines of cars on the news, filled with people heading to food banks in hopes of a getting a few supplies to feed themselves or their families. Many leave empty-handed, after hours of waiting, because the food banks and pantries run out of food.

Even before the pandemic, millions of children went to bed hungry every night. I can’t fathom the number now, and food banks are seeing this stress and exceptional need, with no one immune, from schoolkids who used to rely on school lunches to the elderly and disabled among us.

Unemployment and other programs help – but for far too many, it’s not enough, especially with government programs stretched to the max and websites crashing under the onslaught of applications.

No one asked for this unprecedented crisis. It’s no one’s fault. But when it struck, thousands of people immediately sprang into action to help, including many in our industry who rushed to make critically needed PPE supplies.

Rightly, we’re calling them heroes. And now, many of them need our help.

This is very personal to me because I know what it’s like to go to sleep hungry. When I was in grade school in Indiana, my disabled mom and I lived on food stamps. We also benefited from the generosity of neighbors – our own 1970s version of food banks.

So, now I’m calling on you to do whatever you can to help YOUR neighbors. Every donation, no matter how small, helps.

As an added thank-you for your generosity, donor names will be added to the Bess Cohn Humanitarian Society and acknowledged during ASI’s annual Counselor Awards. Bess Cohn, mother of ASI Chairman Norman Cohn, was wonderfully charitable, helping friends and neighbors in need throughout her life, especially by providing food to the community.

It’s in her spirit of generosity that we’re starting this fund drive.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Stay safe, stay healthy. I miss all of you and hope I get to see you in person soon.