CRISSA NELSON | features editor

Food donations are extremely low from years past—people are forgetting to spread the good cheer.

Before the turkey could even be digested, avid shoppers across America began plotting and planning their strategy for the following day.

Over one hundred million Americans were said to have hit the malls on the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday—“black” to mourn the death of true values and the birth of our material consumerism.

By four o’clock a.m. lines had formed outside Kohl’s, awaiting the can’t-live-without bargains inside, while others were already finished with their first and even second bargain achievements at shops that took the “day after thanksgiving shopping” seriously by opening at midnight, pausing only long enough to refuel at the nearby Starbucks before checking the next purchase off the list.

What is supposed to be the season of good cheer somehow got crossed with the season of good buys.

By the looks of the shopping malls, high housing prices and gas costs have caused consumers to only cut one thing out of their budget this holiday season—spreading the cheer.

This year marked record low thanksgiving dinner food donations for those in need. As the holiday season is now entirely underway, food banks have reported the emptiest shelves in 20 years.

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has recorded a decrease of over two million pounds of food donations this year and over 10 million pounds less than 2002.

“This year we’re looking at distributing right around 35.5 million pounds of food when last year at this point we already had 38 million pounds,” Darren Hoffeman of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank said.

The food bank has tried to purchase food to make up for the shortage and still supply to the agencies who depend on the distribution.

471,000 households in LA County live 300 percent below the Federal Poverty Level, according to the Los Angeles County Public Health Hunger Report 2007, a 17 percent increase over the past two years.

Azusa is a part of San Bernardino County, which has the third largest food insecure adult population of all California counties and the number continues to grow, according to the San Bernardino County Hunger Report 2007.

A compiled report stated that 302,387 people in the San Bernardino County were living below the federal poverty level in 2003.

This means that hundreds of thousands of people in our area struggle to buy food for themselves and their families. They rely on help from the federal government and donations from those who don’t have to worry about where the next meal will come from.

So when looking to cut back, donations should be the last to go.

Many of these families also rely on the two meals available for kids of low-income families at school. San Bernardino also reported that 215,228 public school students receive two free and reduced meals every school day. Since 1999, that number has increased an average of 6,667 every year. When school is out for winter break, those two meals are extremely costly and for many, impossible to compensate.

The holidays are not a season of good cheer for those who are hungry. While everyone is feeling the burden of raised prices and higher living costs, those of us who still hit the malls with Starbucks in hand and Christmas wish lists, must seriously consider the necessities we take for granted and the necessities we can help provide for others. The holidays are the season of good cheer—but only when it is spread.