'Tis the season for giving! At least, the calendar says it is... but all the latest report indicate that charitable giving is on the decline now as the economic downturn forces us to tighten our purse strings more than in years past.

To try to combat that trend, Kraft Foods is teaming up with Feeding America, the largest hunger relief charity in the United States, to launch a new fleet of mobile pantries. Kraft is providing the charity with money to purchase 25 refrigerated trucks that will bring food to rural and urban areas where grocery stores and food pantries are difficult to reach. With three trips per week, the mobile pantries should be able to distribute the equivalent of 1.1 million meals per year.

This should set a spark under all of us as we prepare to shrink our holiday budget. We are still, after all, buying presents for our kids and pets. And while me may not feel we can afford to be as generous as usual when it comes to charities -- particularly food as prices keep going up -- we need to remember that there are people out there suffering from starvation. The donation of a couple cans of soup were easy to spare in past years, but it's not so now. Donations to food banks and soup kitchens is at a low point and demand is at a high, which is just a vicious circle as those who used to donate to the food kitchens are now turning to them for help instead, and charities across the country are struggling to keep up with demand.

In all, Kraft is putting $180 million into their efforts to combat hunger. If you have the means to help, think of your local food banks and soup kitchens this holiday season. These establishments can always use more volunteers to sort and serve food, and every donation helps, no matter how large or small.

Financial crisis and scams go together as well as peanut butter and jelly. These scams have been around longer than the Internet, which is hardly the first technology used by con artists. During the Great Depression the use of telegrams to pitch "investment" offers to wealthy Northerners exploded.

It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. Microsoft reports that email scams are on the rise as unscrupulous individuals try to capitalize on these uncertain times. Tim Cranton, an Internet Safety Expert at Microsoft, recently told Reuters that email scams are not only more sophisticated but they are also taking advantage of the public's fears surrounding bank closings and mortgage issues.

On top of these new scams which related to current events, there are also plenty of email scams which prey upon our desire to get rich quick. These scams often require users to pay a fee in order to claim the winnings of a foreign lottery. In case you didn't see where this is going; the winnings never arrive.

The common worry is that consumers, desperate for money to support themselves, will set aside good judgment and send what little money they do have to these scammers. Most of us don't think we would ever fall for an email scam but a recent survey from Microsoft found that 25% of competent computer users are worried that they will get taken by one of these well-crafted cons!

Keep this in mind as you gather for Thanksgiving in the coming weeks; make sure you tell your relatives to watch out for emails that seem too good to be true or purport to save them money on their mortgage. In fact you can click the "Email this" link below to send this article directly to your friends and family. Keep your money safe and don't respond to email solicitations that you have even the smallest doubt about. You can learn more about email scams and how to protect yourself at Microsoft's Security at Home section.

Vanity Fair reports that Cindy McCain's outfit for the Republican Convention cost around $300,000. Here is the breakdown of what she wore:

• Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
• Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
• Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
• Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000-$25,000
• Shoes, designer unknown: $600
• Total: between $299,100 and $313,100

Now I don't know about you, but that is about three times what my house cost. I understand that Ms. McCain has a lot of money but does she have to parade it all over her body? It becomes very difficult to believe that the McCains' know what is happening to the average American, when she is dripping money and he can't remember how many houses they own.

The truth is, John and Cindy, that a lot of us are cutting coupons, cutting back and working harder. We aren't buying designer shoes, we are purchasing food and clothing for our families. We have to budget our money carefully to just get by.

If you build it, they will come. But not necessarily.

A recent three-part report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that the building spree by Milwaukee Public Schools is a dismal failure.

The $102 million initiative to revamp buildings was supposed to get students into local neighborhood schools and improve education. Instead, newly furnished classrooms are used for storage, and half-empty buildings are sprinkled throughout the district. Many specialty teachers in the fields of science, art and music have been downsized in budget cuts while enrollment has continued to tumble.

Like many urban school districts, Milwaukee Public Schools works with some of the poorest children in the city. Many of the children literally do not have parents. They may be living with a grandparent, uncle, aunt or other relative. At the school where my husband works, more than 20 children are bused to school from a homeless shelter. Even those who are lucky enough to have a biological parent often have only one. At a recent open house at an elementary school of approximately 200 children, only six fathers showed up.

It is clear that what these children need are parents, not just buildings. And if they do not have parents involved in their education, someone else better be available. Instead of facilities and expensive buildings, the money would have been better spent with additional staffing in the classroom, mentors for individual development, and tutors for special help. The $102 million could have purchased a lot of services for these children and their families.

The inspiration for this post came from an article discussing the plight of those on food stamps, in light of the increased cost of groceries. The poster child for not making it on food stamps? A woman with a 4-month-old baby getting $280 a month in food stamps.

I had to do a double take when I saw that. $280 a month for one adult and a baby, and that's not enough? The story gets even better. Mom gets free lunch at her job. At $280 a month, we're talking over $9 a day for food, compliments of the taxpayers. And she doesn't even need to feed herself lunch on that! But woe is her.... By the end of the month she must eat (gasp) canned ravioli and peanut butter and jelly to get by! That's considered a hardship?

Another woman is single, and gets $135 a month in food stamps. That lasts her only two weeks, which averages out to almost $10 a day for food. I look at these numbers and wonder what they're buying. I am not a budget-conscious grocery shopper. But I still spend far less than $9 or $10 a day on my groceries. And if I was down on my luck and on food stamps? You better believe I'd find a way to stretch that money as far as possible.

A piece in today's USA Today looks a lady who has a master's in psychology and then left the field to try her hand at real estate. Now she's on food stamps.

In the midst of a sinking real estate market and stagnant economy, food and gas prices have soared. That combination has led to a surge in the number of Americans relying on the government to put food on the table. And it's not the people you'd expect. According to the article, "They are real estate agents and homebuilders hit by the housing slump, seniors on Social Security, parents of students whose free breakfast and lunch programs don't solve the problem of dinner. Increasingly in recent months, they have signed up for food stamps and shown up at food pantries, trying to make ends meet."

Demand at food banks is up more than 15%, with an increasing number of clients working full-time jobs.

But it's about to get worse: as schools around the country let out for the summer, many kids who were relying on school-provided breakfasts and lunches will find themselves in a precarious position.

Many charities exist that purportedly raise money to feed hungry children. But the best way -- that involves the smallest amount of money going to advertising and bureaucracy -- is to donate to your local food pantry.

Just when I was about ready to give up on them people in Washington, they went and did somethin' nice fur me. Yep, the gubmint is cuttin me a check fur nothin'. It's like gettin' a present just fur bein' a citizen. Kinda makes you proud to be American again, don't it? Bein' that I'm luckier than a lot of people and I don't have to spend my check on stuff like food or life saving medicine, I been thinkin' about what I'm a'gonna do with dat money when I git it. So far I come up with a couple pretty cool ideas. At least they're pretty cool if ya ask me.

First, I'm a'gonna git a new mirror for my truck. Dat one on the shotgun side had a nasty run-in with a mailbox. The good news is that it stayed fixed to the truck like where it's s'posed to be. The mailbox didn't come out so good. Ole Cooter at the gayrage tells me he can fix me up with a new mirror for about $70. I spected it'd cost me more like twice as much. He says they's bringin' them mirrors in reeeel cheap like from China. Guess I'm gonna stimulate China some.

The second thing I'm buyin' will be a new lawn mower. I gots two of 'em already but one's 'bout 20 years old. That's the one with the handle held on by hose clamps from where it broke a couple years ago. It gots heating duct for a grass chute that I screwed on there when the real one rusted off. I'll prolly keep the old mower cuz, shucks, it still works, and I'm gotten kinda fond of it after all them years. If'n I does buy a new one I think I'm a'gonna git real fancy and git one of them ones that drives itself going forward and you just walk behind it with your hands on it.

I'm gonna hafta do these things really quick like though, cuz I hear we gots some trouble comin' down the pike. It's lookin' like that Barack Obama feller is gonna git hisself voted to be da prezeedent. It's not that I gots anything against the feller wantin' to be in the big office, he gots a right to do that. But it's lookin like his $845 billion United Nations Poverty Tax is gonna git jammed down our American throats reeeel quick and quiet like. I'm guessin we won't be seein too many more free gubmint checks after that.