Why Donate? Suzanne Molino Singleton and Ken Singleton

Why donate? With only two words, this at first appears to be a simple question. However, after nearly 40 years of fighting hunger in Maryland, we’ve heard a wide range of responses, from a wide range of donors. Some simply reply “Why not donate?” Others offer a more complex response — that they experienced hunger as a child themselves, know someone who struggles with food insecurity, or just believe that food is a basic human right.

In this blog, Suzanne Molino Singleton and Ken Singleton share their response to the question “Why Donate?” with the Maryland Food Bank.

Writing impersonal checks to the Maryland Food Bank may not be the best way to fulfill our desire to serve the community, but it helps people to eat.

Why do we donate to the Maryland Food Bank? Because as parents, we have been blessed to be able to afford whatever groceries we choose to stock in our pantry and refrigerator. We have been able to raise four healthy children over the last 30+ years; and certainly, feeding them was a large part of that. Thankfully, our kids’ basic needs were met: they were nourished, clothed, sheltered, educated, and loved.

Is there a more basic need than food?

We are surrounded by people in our community who pop in and out of restaurants without a thought, choose a meal, feast on it, waste a bunch of food, pay the bill, and leave. We also have people in our community who show up at the Maryland Food Bank program sites to choose what limited groceries they will cart home to place in their pantries and refrigerators. What a far different experience than dining out. Choice versus survival.

Can you imagine not having daily dignities available to you in life? Can you imagine scraping by financially, and wondering how to feed your little girl, your teenage boy, yourself? People should never have to face these awful decisions. Never.

And so, our preferred way of giving is to Maryland-based organizations, like the Maryland Food Bank, to help families, especially parents with children, who want to better their own lives and create better futures for their children. We do not donate to national organizations because we want to know the dollars are going directly to underprivileged people here in our community. First we help each other locally, then nationally, and lastly, we help the world.

We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want, and wherever we want. That is the reason we donate to the Maryland Food Bank. People need to eat. Let’s feed them.

About the Authors

Ken and Suzanne Molino Singleton are longtime supporters of the Maryland Food Bank. Ken won the 1983 World Series with the Baltimore Orioles and is currently a baseball commentator. Suzanne is a writer, editor, and regularly publishes SNIPPETS, an inspirational blog.