Charles’ Full Story
In the late 1980s, my partner, Lyle, was diagnosed with HIV and soon developed AIDS. I am eternally grateful for the volunteers who came to comfort him by bringing meals and reading the science fiction novels he loved. It gave me respite. What they did was extraordinary because they did not have to do it. It was done out of love and a sense of responsibility.
Lyle died at the beginning of 1990. In those years, the time between diagnosis and death was usually short. Many others, sometimes family and sometimes friends, did the same things I did as a caregiver in the early days of the AIDS crisis.
In fact, those who founded Food & Friends were such individuals. Those volunteers are a big part of the reason why I began volunteering with Food & Friends after I moved here, and why I make a monthly donation as a member of their Bread & Butter Club. I hope you’ll consider becoming a monthly donor, too.
When I am outside of Food & Friends, the world is not always a place that is as kind, compassionate, and courteous as when I am volunteering within those doors. On my delivery routes in Prince George’s County, the people I deliver to always say how much they appreciate what we are doing at Food & Friends.
What I do is less important than what staff and volunteers do to prepare the meals and put them together for us to deliver. Whenever a client thanks me, I tell them it is a pleasure, and it is an honor. I sincerely mean that.
They are why I keep coming back to volunteer at Food & Friends and am committed to making a monthly donation to support this essential work. It is about showing our neighbors gratitude, love, and compassion. We are neighbors helping neighbors.
That’s what makes your monthly gift so powerful. Please join me as a Bread & Butter Club monthly donor today!
With tremendous thanks,
Charles W. Walton
Food & Friends Bread & Butter Club Monthly Donor
P.S. Your monthly donation will mean everything to the clients I see each week as a volunteer delivery driver.