Marijuana leads to cure for food pantry shortages

California marijuana dispensaries and patients area back in the news for another innovative initiative to help the communities they serve in a multitude of ways.  Nancy Black and Phil Hicks, owners of the Granny Purps dispensary in Soquel provided an opportunity for patients in the area to get some free pot and in turn, the dispensary received 11,000 pounds, of food that is.   People helping people is where it starts.  This is not the first time the two have done something like this.

“We had experience with Second Harvest because my husband is a retired chiropractor, and we used to collect donations from his patients at his office,” Black said. “We used to do some sort of incentive to encourage people to donate, and so we decided to do the same thing here to get momentum.“

Just goes to show that patients and marijuana dispensary owners are just like the other people in your community.  I am glad to see the media outlets like the San Francisco Chronicle and United Press International allowing some space for positive pot news.   Obviously Second Harvest Food Bank accepts donations from many individuals and business throughout the world and had no problem associating themselves with the marijuana shops or patients, and good thing.

Second Harvest spokesman Danny Keith said Granny Purps, which only has eight employees, contributed the amount of food that would normally come from a business with 30 to 40 employees.

Good for them and this is something our local chapter had discussed at one time.  Not giving away joints obviously, but ways to give back the community, help others, improve public relations and of course, make some news.  Food drives area easy and effective, perhaps in 2011 our chapter will incorporate a food drive into one of our existing events like the Free April 20th Concert in the Park or the free fishing clinic and pot luck picnic we host in coordination with The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.