My Family, Milk and Giving Back this Holiday Season.

DISCLOSURE: This is a sponsored campaign between Dad or Alive and The Great American Milk Drive. The thoughts and opinions remain my own.

As some of you may have read back in June, I wrote an article entitled MILK: My Family and Giving Back. The campaign that I got behind then and the campaign that I’m getting behind now are of the same flesh. As part of that June post, I told you guys about how dairy farming played an integral part of my family composition.

My great-grandfather, Paul H. Wentz, was owner and operator of a small dairy farm in Milford Township, Pennsylvania, not far from where I was born and raised.

In an excerpt from that article, I explain a little bit about who he was:

Paul worked his farm over the course of three decades, helped mainly by his older sons, Willard and John. They helped feed and care for the cows, milked them, did the processing and even drove the truck and delivered from door to door. That is, until they were drafted to serve in World War 2.

With two of his sons fighting on the front lines, Jim was next to go. However, he was denied when his draft came up. He was called a ‘4W’, which I believe meant ‘for work’. Jim was the only son left and it was necessary that he stay at home and help his father run the family business.

From that point on, Jim was responsible for getting behind the wheel of the milk truck every morning before school. He and Jean went together, with my Nana running the bottles onto the front or side porches at each stop, in their wire baskets.

As we embrace the end of the 2015, we reflect on the ups, downs and hand that life has dealt us over the past 12 months. Some of us have experienced great success and reward, while others have, unfortunately, been met with some ugly times, tragedy or a stroke of bad circumstance.

When December came around, my great-grandfather would personally visit every family on his route, and if they held any type of balance with him, he erased it – it was his way of thanking them for being his loyal customers, as well as trying to give them a little bit of a helping hand.

With that in mind, coupled with the idea that it’s often better to give than to receive during the holidays, for the month of December I’ve partnered with The Great American Milk Drive a national program that helps deliver milk to kids and families in need through Feeding America. More than 46 million Americans (including 12 million children) rely on Feeding America member food banks and, believe it or not, milk is one of the most requested yet least donated items year-round, but even more so during the holidays – when the food banks are much busier.

This month, I’m hosting the Dad or Alive Milk Drive in support of The Great American Milk Drive and I’m hoping that I can inspire some of you to donate a little something. The idea is that, your donation will help deliver milk to the Feeding America food bank that serves your community in the form of vouchers. You’ll be helping someone in your immediate community that is struggling.

Not only does the dairy aspect of this campaign tug on a special heart-string of mine, but I’m incorporating my kids in this effort to emphasize the idea of giving to those less fortunate. I also want them to understand how important something as simple as milk is for growing bodies, where it comes from and the process by which it ends up on our tables.

Next week, I’ll be sharing our experience of visiting Rocky Point Dairy Farm and Creamery, a 1500-acre local farm. The owner, Chuck Fry, was kind enough to invite my family to take a special behind-the-scenes tour.

And towards the middle of the month, I’ll share a visit to a local food pantry, whose sole purpose is to distribute food to those in need. It’s not often that we get to see exactly how these locations are helping our communities.

Please take a minute and check out my Dad or Alive Milk Drive page on Crowdrise and consider giving a few dollars to the cause that will help millions across the country.

Maybe you could skip that $5 latte tomorrow before work and instead, send a gallon of milk to someone in your community that really needs it.

Wishing you all the best this season and I sincerely thank you for your help.