Goodwill in the Grocery Store

We're all guilty of using Facebook for fun --checking out photos, reading profiles and stalking exes. But a recent story from MercuryNews.com shows that you should never underestimate the site's power. A Silicon Valley food bank recently received a donation of almost $10,000, and it all started from a little status update on Facebook.

The story began August 11th when California resident Jenni Ware was shopping at Trader Joe's and realized she forgot her wallet. An embarrassing scene was avoided when a stranger behind her in line, Carolee Hazard, gave Ware the $207 to pay the bill. The two exchanged addresses, and Ware mailed $300 to Hazard to cover the bill and say thank you.

Ware wasn't quite sure what she should do with the additional $93, so of course, she posed the question to her friends on Facebook. Many folks commented and suggested she give the money to charity -- a local food bank to continue to pay it forward.

Ware took the advice and donated the $93 -- plus an additional $93 -- to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. On her example, Ware's friends -- and friends-of-friends, and friends-of-friends-of-friends -- followed suit. Soon, all kinds of people, both adults and kids, were donating what they could.

The viral campaign became so successful that Ware formed the "93 Dollar Club"on Facebook, a site where users can read Ware's story, comment and check out links where they can donate to food banks near them. According to MercuryNews.com: "Commenters say they are reading -- and giving -- from Iran, Israel, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Australia, Hungary, Sri Lanka and beyond."

So far the donations have raised almost $10,000 for the local food bank. We're guessing that the tidy sum will certainly come in handy: Last year, Second Harvest of Santa Clara and San Mateo donated about 34.6 million pounds of food, helping out about 176,000 people each month.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.