“Wow!” That was the headline from the email I received from All Faiths Food Bank earlier today letting me know that as of about noon today, MC Reality readers — here at this blog, at the Pelican Press, and at Creative Loafing — dug deep into their already economy-affected wallets and pockets and still found room to send donations to the food bank to help those in need.

Amount raised? A fabulous $1,611.23!!!! Add that amount to the drives since 2007, and that means Reality Readers have donated an incredibly generous total of $10,484!

Want to know how many Thanksgiving dinners that amount could supply to families of four or five — including turkey and all the yummy trimmings? — 134!! One hundred and thirty-four!

Want to know how many individual meals that amount can buy for the hungry in our community now as a result of your generosity? — If I’m doing my math right — it’s a staggering 2,557 meals!

(All Faith’s website says 159 individual meals can be provided with just $100, so I extrapolated from that; someone correct me if my math is wrong — hey, I’m a writer, not a math genius!.)

They haven’t had time to get the names to me for the drawing, but believe me, as soon as they do — I’ll report the drawing results right here at MC Reality online!

I don’t know how to thank you all — each and every one of you — for pitching in for the third year in a row to this little drive of mine. A couple of people have said to me “Oh, wow, you did a great job with the drive this year!” But I know it wasn’t me — it was all of you … making a difference.

Thank you.