by Ashley Goforth

How’s that New Year’s Resolution going? It’s July now, meaning we are halfway through 2010. Have you made good on anything you vowed to do more of (or less of) in 2010? At the beginning of 2010, we talked to a few of our staff members about their New Year’s resolutions. Now we want to help you reach your goals. In the hopes that come December you will have made good on one of those resolutions, we’ve gathered a few helpful ways to make a change in your life and the lives of your fellow New Yorkers based on popular resolutions:

Get Fit: After you’ve done your best to Change One Thing, you may be looking to add a bit more exercise to your routine. Perfect! We’ve got stairs, we’ve got lifting, constant motion and a bit of walking when you sign up to volunteer at our Community Kitchen & Food Pantry of West Harlem. Or grab a group from work and head up to our Bronx warehouse to repack donated bulk items. Either way, you’ll be moving and burning calories and helping the 1 in 5 New Yorkers who rely on the Food Bank.

Spend More Time with Family: It’s hard to juggle work, school, family and friends all at once, there’s no question about it. Maybe this year you’ve resolved to spend a little more face time with the ones you love. Spending a couple hours a month helping our programs on the front lines of poverty puts life into perspective for many of our volunteers. It also gives you a chance to team up with your fellow volunteers! The Food Bank has more than 1,000 network members throughout the five boroughs that can always use volunteers. Check out our Food Program Locator for a program near you and resolve, with your loved ones, to give back to your community.

Quit ----- [insert vice]: Say your vice costs about $10 a week to maintain. Or say you spend $50 a week sipping away at another vice. Here’s what the cost of that vice means to the Food Bank: $10/wk = 200 meals a month. $50/wk = 1,000 meals. Having trouble quitting? Donate a month’s worth of your vices as a commitment to help yourself, and help others. Keep your donation receipt near you to remind yourself that not only are you working hard to follow your resolution, you’ve also helped us provide much needed meals to New Yorkers in need.

Eat More Vegetables: Lead by example on this one. Sign up to volunteer for one of our CookShop programs. It will be nigh impossible to NOT eat healthy with all the excitement from the students, the inspiring teachers and the lush fruits, vegetables and legumes in each lesson. CookShop is in more than 700 public school and after school classrooms, and during the school year teachers need our help! The Food Bank trains volunteers to go into the classrooms and support nutrition education.

Stick to Your Budget: Plan ahead! Instead of a yearly donation, why don’t you set up automatic monthly donations? Just make a donation online and check the box that says "Yes, automatically repeat this gift every month." Then, donating to the Food Bank doesn’t have to go on your to do list each holiday season! A successful budget is one that prepares for everything! Like your tickets to the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival, benefitting the Food Bank and Share Our Strength...

Remember: “The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short.” Samuel Johnson