Donate Food

Salvation Army volunteers valiantly kept ringing their bells last week in an 11th-hour drive to fill their kettles before Christmas.With donations down by more than $15,000 compared with this time last year, Maj. Jess Duncan, the director of the Salvation Army in Annapolis, was working around-the-clock to drum up more support.He gave pep talks and called businesses to lobby for donations, saying that without a dramatic turn-around, he fears needy families could be left in the cold at the end of the holiday season.

Dr. Sinnarajah Raguraj was visiting friends in New York on Sunday, enjoying a leisurely breakfast, when he began to get frantic cell phone calls from all over the country. What was happening in Sri Lanka? Within hours, the Bel Air internist was back in Baltimore, working on a relief mission to his native country. Since then, he has been on the phone constantly, talking to friends and colleagues across the United States and the world, trying to help victims of the devastating tsunamis that killed more than 60,000 in South Asia.

Beth Shalom Congregation of Taylorsville has donated 1,680 pounds of food to Carroll County Food Sunday from its annual food drive between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The synagogue has also contributed to the food bank, as of Wednesday, an additional 220 pounds of food collected from a year-round food drive. The congregation donated 1,410 pounds of food during last year's High Holy Days. The food drive is tied to the traditional Yom Kippur observance, in which Jewish people fast from sundown to sundown.

The Domestic Violence Center of Howard County is experiencing a serious shortage of food for the women and children seeking safety in its five shelters. Food, money and grocery store gift certificates are needed.Especially needed are chicken, ground beef, pasta and sauce, hot dogs, lunch meats, sliced cheese, cereal, canned soups and vegetables, frozen orange juice, disposable diapers (large) and dessert mixes.Information: 997-0304.POLICE LOG* Long Reach: 6400 block of Waterloo Road: Someone destroyed a home's mailbox early last week.

Martin's Food Markets are asking shoppers to buy a little extra for the county's hungry.The grocery chain with outlets in Eldersburg and Westminster launched a food drive last week to fill the shelves at Carroll County Food Sunday, a 13-year-old organization that distributes the food to those with the greatest need."

Passover is seen traditionally as a holiday of the spring, not usually marked by snow. But Howard Kaplan and his wife, Roberta, of Baltimore, wouldn't let Monday's inclement conditions deter them from coming to the Pimlico Race Course to dispose of their leavened food. "Snow won't hold anybody up," she said. Baltimore-area families burned their chametz Monday morning in observation of Passover. The holiday commemorates God's freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Because the Jewish people had to leave Egypt quickly, they had to eat their bread before it had risen.

Benfield Elementary School added a fourth "R" to its curriculum of readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic yesterday. Relief.About 375 students at the Severna Park school made bag lunches for the homeless and donated them to Helping Hand Inc. in Annapolis."

The manager of Carroll County's largest food bank is trying to deal with declining cash donations while expecting an increase in demand as the result of proposed cuts in federal food programs.So Tom Canon, manager for Carroll County Food Sunday, invited his congressman, Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, to tour the organization's Westminster collection and distribution center yesterday in hopes of attracting some support.But he didn't get promises of funds."Your organization is filling the gap and all without government money," Mr. Bartlett, a 6th District Republican, said.

Derek Reese, owner of TBonz Grille & Pub in Ellicott City, plans to take 60 pounds of grilled meat Sunday to the annual Taste & Auction at Turf Valley Resort. He'll offer the filet mignon in bite-sized portions, alongside a salad of field greens, crumbled blue cheese, candied walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette, he said. Joe and Mary Barbera, owners of Aida Bistro & Wine Bar in Columbia, will serve a goat cheese antipasto roulade on grilled crostini. Alexias Sharoky of Trapeze in Maple Lawn will contribute 25 pounds of Cajun-spiced, seared tuna, served with a cucumber wasabi and sesame-ginger sauce.

Organizers of an annual state drive to collect food in schools announced yesterday a goal of 250,000 pounds of canned goods, honoring 10 schools that last year brought in large amounts for the poor. The kickoff of the "Kids Helping Kids" campaign, a large focus of the annual Harvest for the Hungry food drive in Maryland, came on World Food Day, as local hunger advocates sought to call attention to the continuing problem of food insecurity in prosperous times. Despite Maryland's economic health -- the state topped the rest of the nation in household median income in a recent U.S. Census Bureau survey -- 500,000 of its residents worry about where their next meal is coming from, said Bill Ewing, executive director of the Maryland Food Bank.