Helping Feed The Hungry

Teaching kids about people less fortunate than them is an important task that we as mothers must do. It teaches empathy, understanding and tolerance, not to mention responsibility!!

I know that I don't do this enough. We are a very typical middle-class family. My husband has a job where he makes enough money for me to stay home, but not enough money for us to provide a lot of luxuries. And to be honest, that is perfectly OKAY by me. To be completely honest, even if we did have lots and lots of money, my children still wouldn't get all of the stuff they think they need. I want them to grow up knowing the value of saving for items they want. I want them to understand that the money that their Daddy makes at work goes towards paying for our home, food, electric, water...nothing is free. And gifts are saved for special occasions. Very rarely do they get "treats" while out at the store. It's just a luxury that they don't need.

But on the other hand, when they do get these things, I want them to understand to be grateful that we are able to afford these things. Many families out there can't. Many families out there can't even afford housing or food.

This past winter a local shelter opened up. Our church bulletin put out a list of needs for this shelter. Number one, blankets. We had recently gotten a box of my mother in law's old blankets (why she thought we needed them, I couldn't tell ya) but I saw this as a perfect opportunity for the kids to learn about giving to others. So we spent an afternoon washing them up and putting them into a box for the woman who ran the shelter to pick up. I explained to the kids what we were doing and they seemed to get it.

But that was months ago, and I haven't done anything since to help people in our community. I really should try to do something weekly with the kids to give them more of an understanding. Yesterday, an opportunity arose for another learning experience with the kids, and I jumped on it! Of all things, the USPS is having a food drive called "Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive" where tomorrow, May 9th, you can put non-perishable food items in your mailbox for your mailman to pick up and deliver to local food pantries. Isn't this awesome!! And it's so EASY! No running out to deliver the items. I can spend time with the kids bagging up cans of soup, tuna, spaghetti sauce; things we have in our cupboards that we can afford to replace so that we can be responsible citizens for helping others in our community who can not afford even simple grocery store items.

The kids are very excited about the idea of putting the food in the mailbox. But they also are showing a huge amount of concern about it. I explained that the food goes to families that can't afford groceries. That there are many kids out there who have to go to bed hungry at night. This started an onslaught of questions:

"But if their bellies are growling because they're so hungry, I bet those kids can't sleep very well. Right, Mommy?" -Punk, 5

That's right baby, that's why it's so important that we take this opportunity to help these families.

"If we give all of our food to the mailman, then will we have to go to bed hungry?" -Twinkletoes, 3

No, we are helping them because we have enough money to buy more food for ourselves. You will not go hungry, and neither will the kids whose families we will be helping.

So, I highly encourage you to take some time with your kids today to pack up a bag of food, and talk about the responsibility we have in helping others. The way the economy is right now, who knows which one of us may be the family needing such food drives in the future, and I would hope that as our children grow they continue to give to those less fortunate, fulfilling the responsibility of a concerned citizen of our great country!