This December, we are proud to support organizations working on hunger relief in our local community, as well as nationally. Feeding America operates a network of 200 food banks in the United States. FOOD For Lane County works with more than 150 agencies in and around Eugene, Ore., where our company is headquartered. 

Although I often wax poetic about the years of raising my children, I often think about what it would be like now, having them home in the midst of this pandemic and how challenging it would be to be the source of their primary caretaker without the support and distraction of school and sports. I can’t really imagine it. 

Entering the fourth eerie morning of unearthly haze, the sun shines red – every color in nature tinged with grey. The fires in Oregon are close to home and the risk of living in the trees has never been quite this acute. Already entire communities along our most beautiful, clean country rivers are gone, reduced to ash. This of course has been going on for weeks and continues in California, but there is nothing like personal experience to bring you to your knees. 

I have never been much of a fan of Facebook, even long before there were longitudinal studies on the negative impact that social media wreaks on most people’s self-esteem. It seemed clear that the idealized versions of ourselves and our lives that we freely deposited into their platform were being controlled and curated for profit.