To the editor:

This is a plea for your help. In this region of the world, one in 10, nearly 100,000 households, face an issue where access to adequate food is a worry.

More than one half of families with food insecurity have at least one person in the household who works full-time. One third of families led by a single female face serious problems securing food for the family. Finally for these families, one member goes hungry so that other family members can eat. Do you go hungry? Probably not. I don’t and am thankful to have never been in such a situation.

But hunger happens and is happening here in Kansas, bread basket of the world. We can rationalize hunger in North Korea, Sudan and other often-mentioned hungry regions around the world. For it to be happening in Kansas and locally in Lawrence, requires a need to respond.

This Saturday, March 13, is the annual food drive sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Co., Valpak and others, encouraging donations to food banks around the country. On Saturday, members of the National Association of Letter Carriers and Rural Carriers will be collecting nonperishable food items donated by postal patrons and left by their mail boxes for pickup.

Please help! Make a note to yourself on your next trip to the store to pick up soup, rice, pasta, cereal, tuna, peanut butter or other food items for those in need. When you get to the guilty pleasure aisle, pick up something for yourself as well as the food banks. You probably won’t feel so guilty when you share with those less fortunate. Thank you!

Alan Hickey,

Lawrence