Confessions of a Teacher, a Want-To-Be-Home Designer and NASCAR Better-Half: What A Difference a Dollar Can Make!

So I must admit, I treat myself once a week to some kind of greasy, fattening, delicious breakfast before work. When I roll through the Starbucks drive-thru, I leave with my hot chocolate and cinnamon swirl coffee cake. If I hit up the Chick-fila , I’ll leave with my chicken mini meal complete with hash browns and orange juice. At either restaurant, I’ll drop anywhere from $3-5 bucks each time. Now, that $3-5 buck breakfast is not a necessity by any means. I choose to indulge because I feel like I “deserve” it, like I worked hard enough to “earn” myself a little fattening goodie, a guilty pleasure, if you will. As I check my account balance each month, it seems that I tend to spend roughly $25.00 on “fun” food. That’s roughly **GASP** $300.00 a year! Try as I might, sometimes that McDonald’s jingle “Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba I’m lovin’ it” just pulls me in!

I connect my personal choices for breakfast “treats” each week to the choices that my students get when they get off the bus, van or when they arrive by car each week to school. From August-June students in my school system have access to free-or-reduced breakfasts and lunches. It’s amazing to see how many students participate in these programs. I offer my kiddos time in the mornings to have a healthy snack as we work on our math lessons or reading lessons. I feel that each year, more and more students will bring their breakfasts from the cafeteria in the mornings as their “snack”. This is alarming, because it leads me to believe that students aren’t being fed at home before school. It also causes me to wonder, “Are they getting the necessary meals that they need at night?” I think the scariest thing of all is what these particular kids do to get their meals in the summer. How do these children eat when school is out for the summer? Two meals that are usually prepared for them aren't as available in the summertime, unless parents can provide their children transportation to locations that prepare summer meals.

In response to this issue, a friend of mine and Cruz’s, Ray Wright, has spearheaded a campaign to combat against childhood hunger. Ray is a pit crew coach, and member for RCRRacing in Welcome, NC. Although I don’t know what Ray’s day looks like from the time he arrives to work until the time that he leaves, I do know that he spends a great amount of his own time promoting Pit Stops for Poverty (PSFP)on Facebook, on Twitter and at the track each weekend. Alongside Ray is Cruz. He has taken the initiative to help out with Pit Stops for Poverty digging through his closet, finding old crew shirts, gloves and other pit crew items to sale to raise money. He helps Ray on the Pit Stops for Poverty Twitter and Vine accounts. Together, they have really worked to organize a wonderful project to provide needy children with meals. For those of you who watch NASCAR every week, it’s not just the drivers that make the sport what it is. It’s the pit crews and the race crews who work the behind-the-scene magic as well. On top of all of their current responsibilities, many of the RCR Racing pit crew and race crew members have taken their time to sale some of their old gear at the track to raise money. They have tweeted and re-tweeted Pit Stops for Poverty tweets, promoting this organization’s excellent message to virtually anyone in the world. They have gone above and beyond the call of “duty” if you will, and have put their own money into this great cause.

Well, because I'm a past math teacher, I have to throw in a tiny math lesson. If you go back to my **GASP** roughly $300.00 per year that I tend to spend on breakfast "treats" I could have been giving just half of that to organizations like Pit Stops for Poverty. If I donated $150 over the course of the year, I could provide funding for 1,050 meals for needy children. How in the world would $150 make that many meals? Well according to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, only $1 can provide enough funding to prepare 7 meals. Take my $150 and multiply it by 7 and you have 1,050 meals!

Not only do race fans have the ability to donate, but anyone can! I know some folks aren’t into the NASCAR, but would still like to donate, you can access the link to Pit Stops for Poverty below and check out the details on childhood hunger statistics, interviews/videos of Ray Wright discussing Pit Stops for Poverty(PSFP) and how one dollar can truly make a difference!

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC: http://www.hungernwnc.org/

Twitter handle @stops4poverty

Vine: Pitstops for Poverty

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pit-Stops-for-Poverty/465490813538304?fref=ts