Advent Calendar Activity: Make a donation to the food bank.
I don't know how to write this. I don't know what to say. I had a very powerful experience today because of this activity and I hope you don't mind me sharing it with you. I don't mean to tell anyone what to do or how to do it, I just want to share what I did and what it did to me.
Today we needed to make a food bank donation so after the park I took August over to HEB where they are doing a food and toy drive. I gave myself a donation limit and with an empty cart went shopping for food bank only items. I decided to only buy items that I would want to receive and feel good about giving to my family and if you know me, you know we were in for a bumpy ride.
I tried to put myself in the shoes of a mom who needed to feed her two year old and husband. A mom that was trying to give good nutritious meals to her family on the tightest of budgets at Christmas time. What would I want to eat? What magic could I work with the simplest ingredients? What would I feed them on Christmas and how could I save up for a special holiday meal on an already tight budget?
I have a friend who has taken the Hunger Challenge for the past two years and her experience is always eye-opening (you can read about it here, start at the bottom). Basically, you try and eat off of the money you would be alloted from food stamps, about $4 per day per person. You end up buying things that pack a lot of nutritive punch, like peanut butter, or things that fill you up, like rice and pasta. Which means your budget for fresh fruits and vegetables is diminished, which means your dietary intake gets skewed towards processed foods that are cheap to buy, which means that your overall health, and especially the health of a young person, suffers tremendously and sets you up for all sorts of health problems from poor concentration to diabetes, which means that your work suffers or that you have a hard time learning in school. It stresses absolutely every facet of a person and a family. And as the mom, as the person who is generally the one buying and preparing the food, I imagine she would feel guilty, upset, scared and ashamed.
I imagined August not wanting to eat the meal I put down in front of him, of him refusing to eat the egg I prepared for him like so many kids do. One of the twelve eggs that I have for our family of three for the week. One of the only rich sources of protein I have in the house for him. Would I make him another breakfast or would I send him out to school hungry? Would I even have a banana for him to take instead?
I fell down the rabbit hole of despair in the tomato sauce aisle. I started sobbing in front of the pasta sauce because THIS JUST STINKS! It stinks that people have to live like this, it's a shame and a pity that at this time of year a mom needs to stress even more to give her family a special holiday. It's not fair that children go to bed hungry anywhere in this world. It's not fair that I have so much and can afford to eat for sport. It's not fair that the food I could 'afford' in my hypothetical world was filled with crap! It's not fair that the subsidized breakfast and lunch programs at schools get cut because there's no money!
I thought I wasn't going to tell you what to do, but I think I lied. Donate food. Go to the store, buy good food and give it to people in need. The food banks are in crisis, donations are down and kids are hungry. I set my donation budget at the store and the hardest thing was telling the cashier to stop. I told him to stop because I didn't have enough money budgeted to pay for what was left on the belt. I was embarrassed because technically I could pay for the rest but I can't fix the problem all by myself. I'm ashamed to even think that this is the first time I've contemplated being a mom in this situation in such a personal way, with my baby in the front of the carriage throwing things in the basket, putting them back, fighting to get good food, feeling so terrible.... So often I've given donations at the store, ripped off a coupon, bought a pre-packed bag of staple items, or gone through my own pantry, but this time I had to stop and think about it, and that's when it really shook me.
You don't have to give what you don't have, but if you have the means, consider donating one days worth of food to one person this holiday season to help ease their burden. Just $5 worth of food or cash will help.
2 comments:
Thanks for posting this. It truly can be a powerful experience to put yourself in the position of someone who has to deal with hunger every.single.day. And even while you're doing it you know it can't compare to the real thing. You made me cry and reminded me to give my yearly donation to the SF food bank. The hunger statistics since the recession are absolutely chilling and they make me really really angry.
thank you for sharing your personal experience - it was so real and moving to read, and yes, so inspiring. we will be donating to our food drives here. thank you for reminding me to do so... it feels sometimes too little, but it does make a big difference to one family, for sure!
i read this post on the night of our discussion of holiday traditions in different countries (advent calendar activity) and we decided to adopt 'boxing day' which is widely celebrated here, though people just go out shopping at the big boxing day sales, it was traditionally to give leftovers from the excess of the meals, etc. to those in need - we had just decided to celebrate boxing day as a family ongoing, by setting out a box that we'll put in things for donations (clothes and toys) ok i have no idea why i'm writing this long winded post, that's not really related, but i guess i was feeling some synergy! and feeling inspired :) thank you for the inspiration my friend from afar!
Post a Comment