Eddie and I took off work this afternoon to volunteer at the
Peninsula Food Bank. We signed up to do the service as part of Disney's "
Give a Day. Get a Day" program. We were originally supposed to help out with stuffing backpacks that are given to young school kids to take home over the weekend that contain nutritious food and snacks. (Our area has many children that only eat the school meals and so the weekends are a time when they might not get to eat.) The backpacks had already been stuffed when we got there so we worked to put together large food orders from churches that distribute meals weekly. We worked with two Foodbank employees and another family (Mom, Dad and twin 7-year old boys) that was also participating in the Disney program. The orders were HUGE and had to be stacked on multiple palettes. Some of the food items were cases of canned pork, spaghetti sauce, powdered milk and soup. Once we put these orders together and then helped with an assembly line that put together take home bags that were full of a variety of food items (cereal, applesauce, rice, etc.).
My thoughts as a result of this experience:
1) I am very thankful for what I have.
2) This thankfulness turned into guilt for volunteering in order to get Disney tickets when the people who utilize this facility do not have the means to feed themselves or their families.
3) I should volunteer more often.
4 comments:
We do this program at the school where I work. Our volunteers are amazing and its such a relief to see our kids go home with food every weekend.
I am so proud of you! I love the foodbank! On another thought, our Governor has proposed eliminating school breakfast. More kids set up for failure! It's such a shame!
My church does the "backpack buddies" thing too for the schools in the Sterling Park area. I've been worried about the kids during this snow period, because I don't know that they were sent home with enough to be out of school as long as they were.
They do the weekend food backpacks up here too (at least at Rolling Ridge). My mom told me there is one little girl who twice returned her empty backpack on Monday covered in bugs and filth. She gets her weekend food in a plastic bag now. It just breaks my heart that there are children living in such conditions. Thank you for volunteering.
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