In this edition of The Herald you will find the annual fundraising letter from FACES and a pre-addressed envelope. When you finish reading this, write a check before you forget and help FACES continue fighting hunger in this community. Or, better yet, stop reading now and go write the check.

Everyone, that is, but one Farmville business that will remain nameless though very definitely not FACE-less. This huge-hearted giver does not need to write a single check to FACES because this business sends a monthly check to the food pantry organization that feeds so many.

According to FACES president William Shear, a Farmville business has been dedicating the proceeds of its Friday work one day a month to FACES.

“This is the biggest single gift we get each year,” Mr. Shear told us in an email.

What a brilliantly compassionate gift.

Perhaps other Farmville businesses might consider a similar approach.

Unlike the scraps and leftovers many of us scrape off our plates into the trashcan, any donation to FACES will not be wasted, not thrown away. Every $10 donated to FACES has the power to purchase approximately 60 pounds of food from the Central Virginia Food Bank for distribution in this community.

FACES and its volunteers have been packing and distributing, in just a year, more than 28,000 bags containing more than 280,000 pounds of food.

More than 143 tons of food.

That is a huge amount of food.

But there is a gaping degree of hunger.

Approximately 500 families have been fed by FACES each week.

Those of us who are not one of them may offer a prayer of thanksgiving.

When we finish praying, perhaps we will turn those words to deeds and become the answer to someone else's prayer of thanksgiving.

By making a donation to FACES.

(If you misplace the envelope in today's Herald, donations can be mailed to FACES, P.O. Box 644, Farmville, VA 23901)

-JKW-