We'll be heading down to Colorado Springs on Thursday for the Pikes Peak Writers Conference (and my 69th birthday dinner with cousins). So instead of writing blog posts on Tuesday and Friday, as I normally do, this week I decided to "blog ahead."

Two articles in our local paper got my attention recently. One I'll pair with an article and also with an accompanying editorial comment from the Annals of Internal Medicine, but that can wait till Wednesday as I've not yet fully digested (no pun intended) the dietary advice from the three sources.

Today I wanted to mention a local initiative from the Food Bank for Larimer County, one of our favorite non-profits. I've worked volunteer shifts there when I belonged to a Rotary Club and my wife and I always give the Food Bank one of our larger yearly donations when we start figuring out what we can manage to give to charities.

The organization's director, Amy Pezzani, said in the paper that the Food Bank had 32,000 more visits in 2009 than in 2008. One fifth of our kids in the county are receiving food through schools, food stamps or the Food bank itself.

Yet data collected by other groups says that in that same time period, more than half of our Larimer County residents fall into the overweight and obese groups and one fourth of our students in the K-12 category (I didn't see any statistics for Colorado State University students).

Now the Food Bank has combined their need for more food with our region's excess weight issue. A national TV show gave the local folk the idea of a "Pound for Pound Challenge and Pezzani and her crew have gotten over 700 local residents to pledge to lose nearly 20 pounds each by July. So far, they were up to a 13,000-pound pledge and they're aiming at 50,000 pounds.

Each participant joins the challenge by registering online with a local ZIP code and gives the Food Bank a small donation equivalent to the number of pounds they plan to lose. Pezzani said the 50,000 pound goal would be the the equivalent of two truckloads of food. At the time the article was written, Colorado was ranked 12th in the country in the contest with 135,000 pounds being pledged and Larimer County was third in the state.

Talk about a win-win situation. This idea should be publicized even more widely than it already has. Spread the word.

Fascinating article and accompanying editorial in our local paper today. It seems that General Mills and other big businesses have pledged $0.14 to food banks across the country for every pound lost by their area residents. What a double win that could be: here the Food Bank for Larimer County has noted a huge increase in the number of visits by those in need of food help; up 32,000 from 2008 to 2009. Twenty percent of the kids in the county get food assistance either through the schools or food stamps.

At the same time, although Colorado is a "relatively lean" state, more than half of the people who live in my county fall into the overweight and obese categories (that includes one fourth of the students in our school district). We face a quandary in these difficult financial time; it's cheaper to buy unhealthy food choices than healthy ones.

So our Food Bank has over 13,000 area folk who've pledged 13,000 pounds so far and is aiming at 50,000 pounds in pledges. If they succeed, they'll get $7,000 from the corporate sponsors of the "pound for Pound Challenge," be able to feed more of our our-income residents and, at the same time, help those who pledge to become healthier.

It's hard to think of a better "twofer" than that. Wherever you live, I'd suggest seeing if your area food bank is participating. Join in on this wonderful plan to help others and yourself.