Okay Wednesday, I will conquer you! After this next cup of coffee.....
I have decided to start volunteering at the local food bank in my neighborhood, if they will have me. We have noticed too that we are not living paycheck to paycheck anymore, there is a teensy bit of cush there. So we have decided to donate it to the food bank as well.
I am not saying this to toot any horns or anything. My husband and I both grew up in homes where dinner was not always available. More so for Mr. L than myself, I would magically show up at Grannies house for dinner if we had bare cupboards. She always had food. Mr. L lived away from family who would have done the same for him. His family would get the basket containing the whole turkey dinner for thanksgiving or Christmas from the church. His mom would make that humble meal last for weeks, stretched it out for as long as she could.
Now we find ourselves in a place where we no longer need the help from the food banks, and we want to ensure that other families like ours have food in the cupboards.
It was painful as a child to be so hungry because my body wanted to grow, but there was no fuel for it to do so. It is the responsibility to the community to make sure we all help each other out. When Mr. L and I were kids our parents worked, hard, but for little pay. There are SO many people supporting families on minimum wage. Also each morning I hear of thousands of local jobs being let go, SO many people losing their jobs. Sure they get unemployment, but it is up to 70% of the last years income. Mr. L lost his job quite a few years ago, he worked as a machinist for an airplane parts manufacturer. We lived off of his unemployment for almost two years, paying for our groceries with credit cards. It is tough. Makes you feel like a failure when you work so hard all you can do after work is sleep and you can barely make ends meet.
I know how that feels, and I know how grateful you feel for food banks and helpful community services.
So to all of you out there that can hear this and are in a place to do so, contact local food banks and see what you can do. A donation of cash (lots of times food banks can get discounts at grocery stores so that $10 can be more like $30!) find out what kinds of food they lack, volunteer one day a month to drive around town to do pick ups and deliveries, giant bags of dog and cat food. When you go grocery shopping buy an extra can of this and an extra box of that. Every little bit helps in this time of record job losses.
For all of you that are out of a job, I am praying for you.
The environment is tough right now people, look at your community to see what you can do.
To do:
*get ready to go to the food bank, EEK! now!
*dishes
*laundry
*get all soap stuff together
I am not saying this to toot any horns or anything. My husband and I both grew up in homes where dinner was not always available. More so for Mr. L than myself, I would magically show up at Grannies house for dinner if we had bare cupboards. She always had food. Mr. L lived away from family who would have done the same for him. His family would get the basket containing the whole turkey dinner for thanksgiving or Christmas from the church. His mom would make that humble meal last for weeks, stretched it out for as long as she could.
Now we find ourselves in a place where we no longer need the help from the food banks, and we want to ensure that other families like ours have food in the cupboards.
It was painful as a child to be so hungry because my body wanted to grow, but there was no fuel for it to do so. It is the responsibility to the community to make sure we all help each other out. When Mr. L and I were kids our parents worked, hard, but for little pay. There are SO many people supporting families on minimum wage. Also each morning I hear of thousands of local jobs being let go, SO many people losing their jobs. Sure they get unemployment, but it is up to 70% of the last years income. Mr. L lost his job quite a few years ago, he worked as a machinist for an airplane parts manufacturer. We lived off of his unemployment for almost two years, paying for our groceries with credit cards. It is tough. Makes you feel like a failure when you work so hard all you can do after work is sleep and you can barely make ends meet.
I know how that feels, and I know how grateful you feel for food banks and helpful community services.
So to all of you out there that can hear this and are in a place to do so, contact local food banks and see what you can do. A donation of cash (lots of times food banks can get discounts at grocery stores so that $10 can be more like $30!) find out what kinds of food they lack, volunteer one day a month to drive around town to do pick ups and deliveries, giant bags of dog and cat food. When you go grocery shopping buy an extra can of this and an extra box of that. Every little bit helps in this time of record job losses.
For all of you that are out of a job, I am praying for you.
The environment is tough right now people, look at your community to see what you can do.
To do:
*get ready to go to the food bank, EEK! now!
*dishes
*laundry
*get all soap stuff together
Comments
Funny you should run this, I have posted about Philabundance.org recently and I give to them every year before Thanksgiving. This year I heard their food banks are WAY low which makes me sad. I am giving a little more this year I think, and in the recent newsletter I got from them, they said they need volunteers. A couple of the locations are pretty close to me (one where my last apartment was, even) and I was thinking about volunteering. I think I will contact the volunteer coordinator and see what I can schedule. It sucks (for everyone) because this is such a busy time of year (and traffic makes life miserable) and time is short but I know I can find time to help out a little. I have been meaning to get involved volunteering for something meaningful for a while now. thanks for the nudge.
Good for you and have fun!
What goes around comes around & pay it forward are both good principle to live by you never know who you may be helping, it is the act of helping it’s self which is good! Even though we have a very good benefit system here, we still have food donation boxes that I give to when I can at the local supermarket I wish I had time but I’m stretched rather thin as it is at the moment but one day I hope to be able to give more than just tins!
We were always lucky enough to have just enough food, but I know my foster brothers family didn’t and we would often help them out when we could (this was before he became my foster brother, it’s complicated) Seeya hugya *G*
Ps love the photos as usual your having such blue skies at the moment I’m jealous!