Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
We are of very modest means, but we do what we can.
That's all everyone should do.
I have a very large bag, the kind you would put a boxed fan in at the store, and it was filled to the top with plastic bags from grocery shopping. I use them to line my trash cans. They fit perfectly. But the bag was overflowing. So I took them all out, folded them and gave them to the food bank. I kept just enough to get me through to the end of the month when I go shopping again. There were enough that the food bank could double them when packing up food for the recipients. What gave me the idea was seeing one of the volunteers folding the few bags they had. I mentioned that if it was bags they need I can give them plenty. "Please do. We really need them. Most people drop off food in boxes." Hmmm! Food for thought.
Tomorrow is food shopping day. I started out on this venture with donating just $5.00 of food a month. Two boxes of cereal and a two pound bag of rice. But prices have been rising. So starting this month I am upping it to $10.00 a month. That means I will be able to add one or two more items. I am going to send an email to the woman that runs the food bank. I want to add a bag of sugar. I usually buy sugared cereal since sugar doesn't have to be added. But it does bother me that I am contributing to one of the health problems of today's children. At least with a bag of sugar, the parent can control the amount.
Our food bank was started by one of the church members on her own with donations just from the members. Little by little, the word spread and people in the community started to donate also. Then the word went even further and the main food bank in Boston who get their food from the "Walk For Hunger" every year, heard about the church and now sends cases of donated amounts every month. Every year when the Post Office has their can drives, the mail people drop off what they pick up at the church also.
This church is really small. And I mean that in both senses. Size and membership. They only have 17 members that attend services every Sunday. The Sanctuary seats about 100 folks at the most. Yet this church does more community work than any two churches combined. They also have a clothing drive that donates to woman who are going to enter the working world and don't have the clothes for that interview. The church pays to have them cleaned. They collect warm coats for children every fall. Sweaters, mittens and scarfs are always welcome. Is there anything worse than a hungry, cold child?