12 Days of Charity - Day 7

Glen Ed Food Pantry provides many services - much more than just providing food for those in need.  In August, I volunteered at their event to distribute school supplies to family's needing assistance.  Families registered their school age children in advance and the required school supplies were sorted and bagged for each child.   Hundreds of bookbags were displayed on tables so each child could choose theirs.  A new pair of shoes was also provided for each child.

The pantry receives most of their food donations through the annual Boy Scouts of America food drive.  One year I volunteered to help sort through all the food collected.  Boxes full of the Boy Scout bags were dropped off at the end of a long row of tables (there were about 20 rows of tables) we went through the bags and sorted the canned goods into boxes - corn in one, beans in another, etc.  It was overwhelming seeing the amount of food.  However, the food does not necessarily fulfill the needs throughout the whole year.  The food pantry needs donations all year long.

Our church has a large box where donations can be dropped off all year long.  Once there are several items in the box, one of the deacons will take the donations to the pantry.

It seems like every community has a food pantry.  If you are not already actively donating or volunteering at your local food pantry, why don't you start today?

My card today is one made recently when our family stampers (plus one) held a shoebox party.  Each person designed a card and brought the supplies for the others to make their card.  We had a great time and went home with 7 different cards.   This card was designed by Debbie (the plus one) - she is not a relative but sure feels like part of the family.  I love the striped paper in the background.