100-Item Challenge plus: Readers inspire with donations to food banks across Louisiana (2024)

Two months ago, I announced the 100-Item Challenge, asking readers to donate to their local food banks. The challenge was designed to help food banks across Louisiana prepare for summer, a time when donations typically decrease and need increases — and there’s still time to get in on the fun.

My request came on the heels of Louisiana food banks experiencing a 40% increase in the number of people in need in the last quarter of 2023. Things were looking pretty dire for the growing number of hungry folks in Louisiana.

The challenge is for an individual or group to donate 100 items, specifically:

• 10 cans of tuna
• 10 jars of peanut butter
• 10 bags of dry beans
• 10 cans of canned meat
• 10 cans of vegetables
• 10 cans of chili
• 10 cans of soup
• 10 bags or boxes of pasta
• 10 cans of tomato sauce
• 10 boxes of cornbread mix.

When I wrote the March 24 column, I said that challenges like this work because most people are more than willing to help, but they need someone to say, “Let’s do this.”

I challenged people to be that person.

And boy have people delivered — literally. People have delivered food to food banks across Louisiana and other states, as well. From book clubs to Sunday school classes to exercise groups, they’ve done so for a variety of reasons.

For example, Karen Rewerts in Mandeville, along with her sister in Arkansas, used the 100-item challenge to honor their father’s 92nd birthday in April.

“We both delivered at least 50 items to our local food banks, and Dad was very touched and grateful by our donations,” Rewerts wrote.

Tom Burkhart wrote me that he had the idea for the Baton Rouge pickleball community to get in on the challenge.

Other people, including Lisa Hostetler and Kathleen Freeman helped organize what turned out to be an enormous success for the pickleball community to go above and beyond in meeting the challenge.

According to the Baton Rouge Food Bank, they collected 1,899 pounds of food items over a two-week period, which translates to providing 1,583 meals for those in need.

The Threadhead Cultural Foundation took on the 100-Item Challenge.

“We are a nonprofit that provides grants to musicians and artists who promote NOLA and Louisiana culture,” Cindy and Dave Ciullo of New Orleans wrote. “We collected 291 items at our annual Threadhead Party on the Tuesday between Jazzfest weekends.”

They plan to make it an annual event.

Cindy and George Murphy challenged the third grade Sunday school class she teaches at Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge to bring one of the items every week for the next 10 weeks, with an adult class stepping up to fill in the gaps to meet the 100 items.

Bessie Senette, director of ministerial services at Volunteers of America, wrote to say that she and her team accepted the challenge to help resupply food banks.

“We are reaching for 1,000 meals — not 100. We have five regional offices participating. Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria and Shreveport. Thank you for the inspiration,” she wrote.

Vanessa Nauls got her aqua fit class from the Manship YMCA has joined the challenge — and the women rose to the occasion.

Along the way, I learned from Emily Slazer, director of food sourcing at Second Harvest Food Bank, that the 100 items in the challenge add up to about 82 pounds. The truth is we can’t track how many pounds of food have been donated, but Mike Manning, president and CEO at the Baton Rouge Food Bank, says the donations have been significant — and they went beyond food.

In response to the 100-Item Challenge, St. James Place in Baton Rouge organized a drive to donate cash to the Baton Rouge Food Bank.

“And several other organizations, including senior citizen groups, were inspired to organize a food drive,” Manning said. “These donations will be a tremendous help for the increased need we face during the summer months.”

Sandra Golembiewski, in Norco, also made a monetary donation to the St Charles Community Center Food Bank.

Good people have sent in more photos and details than we have room to print in a single week — so I’ll spread the joy and try to get them all in during the coming weeks. Meanwhile, there’s still time to donate.

To the people out there who said, “Let’s do this,” and then went on to make it happen — here’s looking at you. From little things, big things grow. We can’t fix the world in one fell swoop, but we can be kind. We can be generous. We can be thoughtful. We can be the one to say, “Let’s do this.”

We can also be the one to say, “You’re right. I’m on board,” and then proceed to help build the momentum to make the thing happen.

And the person after that.

Creating positive change takes a long line of people deciding over and over again to do the right thing.