If you didn’t give our editor the bird, there’s still time

Wow. As a certain former president once said, I seriously misunderestimated you guys.

When I set a goal of raising $10,000 for Redwood Empire Food Bank through my inaugural Give The Editor The Bird holiday food drive, I thought it would take weeks of nagging, wheedling and cajoling, whatever that is.

And truth be told, I was OK with that because it would give me weeks of column fodder.

But you guys stepped up big-time, and we blew past our goal in just three days, which means I’ll be ponying up $1,000 out of my own pocket.

Well, as that same certain former president once said, “Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”

So, after talking with the lovely and talented Rachelle Mesheau at the food bank, we’re upping the ante. Bigly.

Our goal is now $25,000. And because I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I wouldn’t do myself, I’m going to add another $1,000 from the money I get siphoning gas out of our company vehicles.

You can donate here or type in this link to your Google-browser thingy: refb.org/givethebird.

And wait, there’s more. My boss, the lovely and talented Eric Johnston, grand pooh-bah of Sonoma Media Investments — The Press Democrat’s parent company — is going to kick in a grand of his own, once he lets his even lovelier and more talented wife, Susan, know she’s not getting that diamond necklace for Christmas.

So, the bottom line is we have the opportunity to help our neighbors who otherwise may not be able to put food on the table for their families during the holidays.

As I mentioned in my initial column, the Give The Editor The Bird campaign is fashioned after the kinds of holiday turkey drives newspapers used to do back in the day, which is where the bird part comes in.

And while I suppose no one would turn you away if you showed up at the food bank with a turkey to donate, the fact is that because of the economies of scale, they have three times the purchasing power that we do as individuals. That means the food bank could actually buy three turkeys with the money you spend on one.

So, when you add it all up, the $28,000 we’ll raise if we meet our new goal will have the impact of, well, a lot. (Math is hard.)

Anyway, the issue of childhood hunger has long been a cause that’s important to me. Last year, Redwood Empire Food bank served more than 100,000 unique individuals, meaning that one-fourth of our county suffered from some form of food insecurity last year.

And as I said last week, a lot of those people are kids who go to bed hungry, wake up hungry and have a harder time learning, staying healthy and reaching their potential.

And kids who don’t reach their potential sometimes become newspaper editors, and lord knows I don’t need the competition.

So dig deep, give the editor the bird, and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

John D’Anna is the interim executive editor of The Press Democrat. Reach him at john.danna@pressdemocrat.com and follow him on whatever Twitter is called now at @azgreenday.