Can it be Halloween every day?

How ironic that a night about all that can chase and maim you (or worse) would actually be the proof you need of all that’s still right in the world?

This Halloween had all the elements of a world at peace and in harmony. Children laughing, strangers opening their doors to strangers, neighbors gathering in a park to share a sip and a bite. It was enough to make you ask “Why can’t it be like this every weekend?”

In their article What Halloween Can Teach Us About Civic Life written for Reimagining the Civic Commons, Ben Bryant and Chris DiStasi reflect on Halloween’s ability to turn “the everyday stage of neighborhood life into a collective exercise in connection.” They point out that whereas most public holidays are experienced privately amongst close friends and family, a few like Halloween are deliberately experienced together in community.

And so with Halloween’s true nature in mind and with SNAP benefits set to expire at midnight, it’s no surprise that neighbors would go above and beyond to help ensure that candy isn’t all that our community’s children have to eat this week by delivering a trailer’s worth of high-quality, healthy, nonperishable goods to four drop-off points in only four hours. Those in need of food were able to fill their bags real-time, taking whatever they needed, with the rest to be shared for distribution by community partners.

Whether you can see it or not, this is what the neighborhoods of NPU-T are all about, 365 days a year.