The United Way of Southern West Virginia is all about people living UNITED in an effort to help others.

A good opportunity to practice this is through the United Way “Food for Thought” drive scheduled Friday, Oct. 30 at the John W. Eye/Big Sandy Superstore.

United Way Director Margaret Ann O’Neal and Kathy Saint John from 103CIR will be on the roof at the Superstore beginning at 6 a.m. to receive non-perishable food items for the many food pantries in our five-county area.

The request for food is much greater this year because of the economy, and our food pantries are almost depleted.

My wife and I received an e-mail last week from Ying Wei and Roger Mulready, a caring couple in our neighborhood.

The e-mail was addressed to approximately 35 families.

In the e-mail, we were asked to check our shelves and pantries for non-perishable food items and bring them to a central location in our neighborhood.

The Mulreadys would pick up the donated items from this location on a certain date and deliver them to the John W. Eye/Big Sandy Superstore for the United Way “Food for Thought” drive.

Ying Wei and Roger have taken it on themselves to gather food to feed the hungry in southern West Virginia and chose to do this through the United Way.

They requested that everyone receiving the e-mail send it to their friends and ask them to also donate food to this drive.

This is a great example of asking people to live UNITED. You can do the same in your neighborhood.

The need is especially great this year.

You can take your non-perishable food to one location and help the hungry in five counties.

This is possible through the United Way Food for Thought drive.

The United Way is involved in many different endeavors to help the less fortunate in our region.

The food drive is one example of working together to assist others.

There are other projects such as donating diapers and other baby necessities to the United Way Baby Pantry.

Call the United Way office at 304-253-2111 to find out how you can help.

We cannot emphasize enough that the need this year is greater than ever, our goal is higher and another county has been added to our territory.

We need your help.

Don’t sit back and depend on someone else to make this campaign a success. Get involved and let us all live UNITED.

The 2009-10 financial campaign is the back bone of the UNITED effort to assist families in need in our five-county area.

Twenty-nine agencies in southern West Virginia depend on these funds to deliver assistance to 90,000 individuals.

Give to this effort through your work place, through pay roll deductions or by mailing a donation to the United Way of Southern West Virginia at P.O. Box 5456, Beckley, WV 25801.

Roy Shrewsbury, vice chair of the campaign, and I encourage you to give financially, to donate food and to assist in our other efforts to improve the lives of others.

Join us in living UNITED.

— Bill Baker is executive director of the Jobs Foundation and the chair of the 2009-2010 United Way of Southern West Virginia fundraising campaign.