Gleaner's Food Bank

On Friday afternoon my girls and I went to Gleaner's Food Bank up in Pontiac with some friends from our Women's group at church (Relief Society). It was such a WONDERFUL experience. One that I know we will be doing a lot more. The greatest part of the whole thing was that all children were welcome. I had a few trepidations on my drive up there as to if really my kids were going to be able to help or if they would just be in the way. Our guide was soooo good with the kids, explaining everything in detail. She made sure that the kids really were hands-on helpers and they all loved it. Well, they all loved it for the most part. After about an hour of working Elisabeth made it well known to everyone there as she yelled across the room that she 1.) did not want to do anything else 2.) wanted to eat some of the food and 3.) she wanted to go home! Wow that was embarrassing. Here I am trying to teach my children the importance of happily serving and my middle child yells out a statement like that. Everyone in the room busted up laughing at her blatant honesty. As everyone laughed I am sure that my face turned red. But I must say that in Elisabeth's defense, despite her tiredness , she dug deep and pulled out a smile and continued to work for another hour more. She did great and so did Madeleine! My heart was full as I saw them working so hard. I was one proud mama!

What did we do there, you might ask? Our group sorted a mass load of items from boxes and we made 180 food bags for school kids. The idea with the food bags are that children get fed school lunches during the school week, but what do they eat on the weekends? We made these bags so that every Friday a child in need is sent home with a bag filled with enough food to feed and sustain them throughout the weekend, until school resumes on Monday. The sad thing is what was sent home in the bags.

A Food Bag for an entire weekend for 1 child:

1 box of cereal

2 juice box size boxes of milk

1 can of corn

1 can of fruit cocktail

1 can of chili

And that is it!!! I was shocked and felt completely humbled and grateful for my many blessings. I feel so very fortunate that I am able to feed my childrenhomemade meals that are full of nutrition. I guess we could whine and complain about our role as a mother and having to cook meal after meal, day in and day out, BUT I think we all should feel lucky that we "have to" . I will no longer look at it as a "have to" but as being a blessing. It is a blessing that my children HAVE food to eat. I will continue to cook not only because I simply love it but now I will do it because I GET TOO!