In a small town, when someone’s sick, casseroles show up. Know where you’d want to be when it’s you.

Some places have a working habit of showing up. Nobody organises the food; it simply arrives, because enough people decided long ago that this is what you do when a household is struggling. That is not sentiment so much as infrastructure, built slowly out of small obligations people keep. It only exists where people have been doing it for each other for years.

Think about where you would want to be if things went badly for your family. If that is where you already live, start contributing to it now. Taking something round to a neighbour having a hard week is how you join.