Better yet, how about:

0. Go to the SF Food Bank’s website and donating, say, $15.85 to the Food Bank, or better yet starting a monthly giving program (say, $10/month). Encourage your friends to do the same.

That’s what I did. Then I skipped steps 1-3 entirely.

Because now, no matter what the pols in Congress end up agreeing on, the Food Bank will still have my part of that money in the bank. If everyone puts their time into begging for busy Congress types to remember the line item for one city’s food bank in a massive annual budget that’s perpetually running huge deficits, then you’re going to hear about this same funding crisis every year when the Feds once again consider cutting funding. On the other hand, if the people themselves are funding these programs, instead of trying to finagle the government into doing it for them, the base of support will be much more stable, and much more resilient, since it won’t depend on the ever-shifting whims of a very small group of powerful people.