The staple foods shared each day remain a vital resource for neighbors and pantry partners, helping keep food in circulation and people nourished. Our community has shown time and again that it cares deeply for one another, coming together to support neighbors with dignity and kindness.
But without a few essential ingredients, like oil to cook with, salt and pepper to season with, or condiments to bring meals together, those staple foods can be harder to turn into dishes that are satisfying, nutritious, and enjoyable.
As AmeriCorps members serving in the community, we work each day alongside neighbors and pantry partners through healthy-eating programs, emergency food distribution, and nutrition education. We see firsthand how important staple foods are and how much a small addition like cooking oil, spices, or condiments can mean in making a meal feel complete.
AmeriCorps Week (March 8–15) is a time to recognize those who serve and to come together in service ourselves. This year, we invite the community to participate by donating oils, spices, and condiments or by making a monetary gift to support neighbors across Dayton and the surrounding region.
Together, we can help ensure that every shared box of food holds not only the basics, but the ingredients that bring meals and community to life. To donate, please go to thefoodbankdayton.org and make sure to select the Oils, Spices & Condiments drive.
Thank you for your support.
Sam Stanley
AmeriCorps
We must protect our precious environment
Stephen Moore’s “From the Right” column in Saturday’s newspaper titled “Climate Change was little more than a $16T scandal” would be laughable if it weren’t so misguided and dangerous.
His “$16T scandal” pales in what the cost likely already is and what will be for the destruction to the environment caused by the ever-increasing ferocity of weather patterns around the globe. For those who believe what Moore is saying, I dare you to travel to the Solomon Islands, and in particular to the Island of Tuvalu, and talk with the people there where the rising oceans are eating away their habitat; I dare you to travel to Arctic Village in Alaska and talk with the people there where the tundra is thawing and changing their way of life; I dare you to travel to the coastal villages of Bangladesh where two-thirds of the country is less than 15 feet above sea level and talk with the people there where the increasing intensity of cyclones and rising seas are threatening their livelihood and lives.
And consider the growing intensity and destruction of wildfires in the US, and the increasing intensity and destruction of hurricanes, torrential rains, and winter storms across the country. Add up all the costs of destruction and lives lost around the world in the past 30 years due to these events and Moore’s figure of $16T will pale.
In 1991, I was the representative for my denomination to an international Christian conference attended by 900 delegates from around the world. Already at that time, the Pacific Islanders there were begging those of us from the North to do something about climate change.
Prior to the conference, our family hosted in our home the delegate to the conference from the Pacific island of Tuvalu mentioned above. The Pacific Islanders were already in 1991 seeing the effects of the warming oceans from the thinning of the ozone layer due to greenhouse gases and the melting of the glaciers around the world. Hot water has more mass than cold water, and the Pacific Ocean is heating up. Such a change affects weather patterns all around the globe.
Up until recently, the United States has not felt its effects. However, that is changing, and anyone who cares about the future of their children and grandchildren would be wise to do all they can to support measures to protect our precious environment and reverse the damage that is being perpetuated by climate deniers such as Moore and our current Administration.
Peggy Miller
Englewood
How to deal with Haitians
Here is a thought: Give all of the TPS Haitians in and around the state to immediately file for a visa, or permit, or some other document that allows them to stay for a specific amount of time.
It should be enough time for them to petition for citizenship or whatever immigration status is more enduring that “temporary protected status”. Temporary is not permanent, and should have an end date firmly attached, not just implied. Those that get permission can stay. The rest get a one-way ticket out of the country.
By the way, I do not care how long any of them have been here, they should not be afforded the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Founders.
Robert Leugers
Delta, Ohio
Scouting helps create responsible young people
I am writing in support of Scouting America and the positive impact it has on my life and on young people in our community. I am proud to be a member of Troop 979, where I have learned leadership, respect, and responsibility.
Through Scouting, I have learned about nature and life, built my confidence, and discovered how to handle challenges on my own. My troop leaders are caring, kind, and supportive, and they truly want to help us succeed in Scouting and in life.
In Scouting, we are like a family. We encourage one another, work together, and grow stronger as a team. This support makes a lasting difference. I believe Scouting helps create responsible and confident young people, and I hope our community continues to support it. Sincerely, Scout in Troop 979.
Kadyn Stevens
Hamilton
Rubio’s picture of American history is shocking
At the February 2026 Munich Security Conference Secretary of State Marco Rubio painted a picture of American history, faith and culture that is shocking. While embracing historical ties between the United States and Europe, he ignored the influences on U.S. development from around the world.
The Secretary asserted “We are part of one civilization – Western civilization.” We are? What about African, MesoAmerican and multiple Asian civilizations that enrich us, not to mention our linkage to North American indigenous peoples. Rubio proceeded to assert that our bonds with Europe are forged by centuries of shared Christian faith. Yes, but the U.S. is a plural nation populated by Jews, Muslims and Asian religious sects as well as the religious practices of indigenous peoples.
He claims “[m]ass migration” is a “crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West.” No proof and an utter rejection of the enormous contributions of waves of migrants arriving in the U.S. particularly since the mid-1800s. Rubio paints a dangerous imperial vision, arguing that our alliance with Europe should include “a unified effort to compete for market share in the economies of the Global South.”
Finally and most ominously Rubio argues for a foreign policy that will “rebuke and deter the forces of civilizational erasure that today menace both America and Europe alike.” The secretary is sending out a chilling message that non-white and non-Christian migrants do not enrich our civilization, but dilute it. It is difficult not to see his argument as yet another version of the far right’s “great replacement theory” that instills fear that white males will/are being replaced.
If we do not speak out against such a narrow vision of our country this address may mark an inflection point in a march toward a nation where white so-called “Christian” domination gains significant ground. Secretary of State Rubio’s speech can be found at bit.ly/4aKv4NM
Kathleen Gmeiner
Miami Twp.
Why so much hate for our President?
Why do you publish anti-Trump rhetoric in this newspaper. The AP hates Trump and their bias is so obvious in their pro-Democratic articles.
While historically, the media has leaned to the left for so many years, the objective purpose of unbiased political reporting is a distant memory.
70 million people voted for Donald Trump and you have alienated us from reading the biased and sometimes, articles of plain hate for the President of the United States.
Walter Cronkite and Lowell Thomas have turned over in their graves.
Daniel Meckstroth
New Carlisle