Thomas Thompson
CFC Zone
FEMA
Cause Area
Archaeologist and Compliance Specialist
With many folks in my community being on the margins of either being able to afford housing or afford food, but many times not both, I have focused much of my mutual aid donation and volunteerism with foodbanks. The number of folks within this margin have increase in the past ten years. Many of these folks keep the structures integral to my community - like public schools - functioning. The foodbanks that I donate money and time to are local Feeding America affiliates including the Foodbank of Oklahoma and the Foodbank of Eastern Oklahoma. When I can, I volunteer at the local Eastern Oklahoma Foodbank distribution site.
I give to add to the collective action of supporting these important mutual aid and charitable organizations. This collective action through CFC also brings increased visibility to these important organizations and their missions. Last Holiday season, I helped to increase this visibility within my own professional cadre through promoting a holiday fundraising initiative. For this initiative, we voted on three CFC sponsored organizations to pledge monetary donations and volunteer hours and I tracked the total amounts during the month of December up until the end of 2022. The totals resulted in over $1200 raised and 9 days of volunteerism pledged for Feeding America, The Humane Society, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
This may sound a bit corny, but for me it's a pretty good feeling to work on site with other volunteers in completing the daily tasks for this kind of mission. The emotional pay is more or less immediate.
