Although some charitable activities do not change the world in fundamental ways, they give me great satisfaction because they are easy and inexpensive to do and deliver immediate benefit to people.  One recent example is my experience with the dozens of dead tennis balls in our garage.

Our two younger children play a lot of tennis and practice with used tennis balls.  However, eventually, the tennis balls cannot be used even for practice because they lose their bounce.  In the past, we would have thrown them away.

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On March 18, I spoke at a retirement party for one of the members of my executive assistant staff, Connie Telesco, an event that was truly one of the most special I have ever attended.

Retirement parties are a great tradition at Pitney Bowes.  They celebrate the career and life of the person honored in ways that recognize the person’s contributions to the company, enable friends and family to come together and strengthen relationships, and reinforce company values.    Connie’s party, through the superb leadership skills of my former executive assistant MaryJane McDonough, had all of those elements.

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When I was growing up, my parents were exceptionally frugal.  They acquired nothing until we needed it, and they acquired it in the least-costly way possible.  We received items others did not want and made good use of them.  I remember when a cousin of mine gave us a suit he was going to throw away because it had a tear in it.  My mother had the suit rewoven by one of her sisters, and I wore it for several more years.

We borrowed things and used them.  My dad used to repair televisions in his spare time.  Aside from getting a little bit of income, our family had the benefit of not having to fight over who watched what program because the televisions would stay with us a few extra days after they were repaired, usually because the person who had requested the repair could not get over to pick the television up until the weekend.

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As those who have read this blog know, I have been a stronger believer in attacking the obesity issue systemically, rather than expecting individuals to accept personal responsibility in an environment that is extremely hostile to healthy eating habits.

The best book I have read on this subject was published recently.  It is entitled Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s Making America Fat.  The co-authors are Hank Cardello, the CEO of 27degreesNorth, a North Carolina company, and Doug Garr, an author.  Cardello and Garr make several common-sense points:

• Expecting individuals to alter eating habits away from abundant, attractive “junk food” is a losing proposition. The best solution to the obesity problem is to make junk food healthier. There is a lot of innovation already in this space, and it needs to be accelerated and copied by all the food producers.
• To make junk food healthier, the food production companies, retail grocers, restaurants, and food service providers need to be able to sustain or grow profits in the process.
• Government’s best role is to convene the stakeholders who can make this happen, and to set goals, not to ban specific foods or ingredients.
• This transition to healthier foods is more likely to happen if it is done quietly, without a lot of fanfare. They describe a series of ideas in a brilliant chapter entitled “Stealth Health.”
• Food companies, grocers, and restaurants need to gravitate toward business models in which they make more money from selling smaller sizes and portions of everything. There is a potentially successful model in growing profit by selling less and charging more, but most food purveyors are simply afraid to try it.

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