There are only two seasons in America — one from now to New Year’s Day and then the rest of the year.
It’s party time, folks and it begins with Halloween, moves through Thanksgiving and Christmas, and ends with the start of the new year.
Let’s live a little as we dust off those old costumes this week, trick up the front yard, make sure our children and our pets have new costumes to wear and send holiday cards to friends inviting them to “scary” parties.
Halloween is here. Millions will celebrate as ghosts and goblins. The National Retail Foundation estimates we will spend $10.6 billion this year on all things Halloween, or nearly one-half billion more than last year’s celebration and another $490 million will go to costumes for our pets.
All this, says the organization, signals a “resumption of normal Halloween activities” after years of COVID-19 disruptions. So enjoy the party. Eat, drink and have a good time. Live a little.
But some of us will go to bed on Halloween without the benefit of that second piece of cake or another drink. There are, according to the US Department of Agriculture, some 34 million people — including nine million children — with food insecurity. That’s a nonthreatening way of saying people in this country go to bed hungry. This presence is the uninvited guest at the table in too many homes every holiday season.
That is why, for the last decade, residents of Park Forest and surrounding communities take part in a Haunts Against Hunger campaign, seeking nonperishable food donations which go to food pantries for distribution.
We have gone down this road before, telling the story of the Schaefer family — Chuck, Kim and their children — and of its effort to collect food for more than a decade. It began with homemade decorations in their front yard and a large can nearby, one in which viewers can drop off food for distribution through food pantries.
It may seem like a mere drop in a bottomless bucket, but it helps.
When we first told the Schaefer’s story more than a decade ago, we said the family understood hunger is not something that always happens to others. Kim told us “there were times we had to go to a pantry. What we have is what we’ve got and we’re no better than most, but we want to do something.”
For years, the Schaefer’s ran a haunted house with a can or box of food as the entry fee. It was once held in a church and later in a small space in the downtown area. This year, the food drive has expanded from their front lawn at 210 Nashua St., to five other homes in the Park Forest: 306 Seneca Ave., 101 Monee Road, 321 Sangamon St., and 182 Westwood Drive.
There is also a front yard display at 24759 S. Chestnut Lane in Crete and a massive spectacle of eerie creatures at 24066 Cicero Ave., in Monee.
All food items collected at these sites through October will be distributed to the food pantries at both Rich and Monee townships as well as Immanuel Lutheran Church in Richton Park.
The need is there. When Park Forest Mayor Jon Vanderbilt holds his first fundraiser of the election season this Thursday at the reopened Bixby’s Restaurant, you can donate $20 or drop off five food items, which then will be divided between the Rich, Monee and Bloom township pantries.
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“We see a rise in the numbers who need food and with winter coming, the lines will just get longer,” Vanderbilt says.
So when you stock up on last-minute items for the party or for the trick-or-treaters, buy a few cans or boxes for others and drop them off at one of these sites. If you really need to buy a costume for your pet you may also be able to squeeze a dollar or two for the local food pantry.
We are told the poor will always be with us, and that may include your next door neighbor or the person who waits upon you and works two jobs to earn money for groceries and rent.
We need to put our money nearer our heart.
Happy Halloween.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.