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They're doing a ‘head count’ today here and across the nation to determine how many homeless people we have in our ‘great society’.

It’s called a ‘Point in Time’ count that the Department of Housing and Urban Development does every year to, in their words, “provide a snapshot of homelessness” in this, the greatest country on earth.

Last year’s total in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County came to just under 2,000 and included 171 families, 106 kids and nearly 300 people with, literally, no place to sleep but the ground.

Remember how your mother used to cajole you into cleaning your plate, reminding you of “those starving children in Africa”?

Want to hear some staggering statistics?

Last year, depending on which organization’s figures you examine, Americans threw away or allowed to rot in farm fields between 50 and 113 BILLION pounds of food.

This in a country where an estimated 40 million people go hungry every day and landfills are overflowing with food scraps.

By any reasonable measure, this is simply ridiculous. And there are things you can do about it. There are groups like the Society of Saint Andrew, Food Rescue, Ample Harvest, Feeding America and more that are struggling to get enough volunteers to do something about it.

Most people are familiar with the various food banks in local communities, like Second Harvest or Loaves and Fishes, but are pretty much oblivious to most organizations like those listed above, even though each of them has a presence in most cities.

There are programs where volunteers will go to farms – or even family or neighborhood gardens – and happily retrieve maturing fruits and vegetables to transport to food banks, Meals on Wheels and several other programs so that the garden surplus won’t be left to rot and people who need it will get fresh produce they will most assuredly put to good use.

Since the homeless and starving aren’t likely to have laptops or iPads or smart phones they can use to locate these resources, it’s left to those of us who are ‘connected’ to somehow get the word – and the goods – out to these folks.

I had a dear friend who, once a week, would go to several area grocery stores and pick up boxes of ‘expired’ produce and things like bread or dairy items that were at or close to their ‘sell by’ dates. He would then spend typically two or three days going to various food banks or to the homes of elderly shut-ins he knew and give them these life-sustaining supplies.

Bill Stewart didn’t do it for the accolades, but simply for the satisfaction of knowing one less person would go hungry that night. “It’s the least I can do,” he once told me. “I’m retired, I’ve got nothing else to do, so why not help somebody out?”

I’m sure that when Bill passed away a few years back, someone else picked up the gauntlet and kept his efforts going, but I also know that then – and, I’m sure, now – there were nowhere near enough volunteers to get the job done.

If you would like to help, you can start by looking on this amazing World Wide Web at sites like feedingamerica.org or loavesandfishes.org or foodpantries.org to determine any local contacts.

Today would be a good day to start.

Oh, and listen to your mother.

A personal update: I’m still more or less ‘part-time’ here until I sort out my current spate of physical problems, but I’d like to let you know that your prayers and well wishes are working. I’ve actually had some good news this week on what can be done about one of my major infirmities (long-time back pain), but I won’t say much else because I don’t want to jinx it, if you know what I mean. Thank you all for your kindness, comments and support!