kids feeding kids

“We don’t have anything to eat!”, say my two kids…

Even though the cupboards have food in them, they insist there isn’t anything to eat. We may not have any {insert favorite junk food here}, but there is plenty of food to eat in the house. My children are very lucky to have never had to go to bed hungry for lack of food. Or stand in a food line each week. I remember doing this for a short time as a kid. (Government cheese…yum!) But with the recession and people losing their jobs, times have changed. More and more people are looking to their local food banks to supplement their grocery list.

Last weekend Alex and I dropped off food at the food bank for their Thanksgiving drive. And for the last two weeks I have been helping with Alex’s Brownie Troop organizing a food drive and field trip to the local food bank.

The Arvada Community Food Bank’s Feed the Future Backpack Program is the program we have chosen to support. It’s a program I have supported for the last few years. The program is meant to provide children who are on the School Free and Reduced Lunch program some extra meals to see them through the weekend when they otherwise would go hungry. Each Friday, the program provides two breakfast and two lunch items, two snacks, and a dinner item. This program feeds over 1,000 kids from 11 area Arvada schools and they are about to add a 12th school to their support area.

The Brownie Troop collected a lot of good food choices for kids in need…128 pounds worth! It’s kids feeding kids. Alex went around to neighbors and asked for donations too…this is a very proud mama, bragging. We took the field trip today and dropped off the food the girls collected. I could see that the girls “got it”. This is the perfect time of year to really drive home to them the importance of thinking of others. And to really be thankful for what you have. As we listened during the tour of the food bank I realized I had overlooked donating baby food and dog/cat food. Why didn’t I think of that?

Seriously, in this great country, it is shameful that people do go hungry and have to make a choice between paying the heat bill or buying food for the week. I encourage you to clean out your cupboards and donate items to your local food bank. Even if it is a few canned goods…every bit will help someone in need. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Go. Do. Now.