Eye Opening Experience

Last night I went with the youth of my neighborhood to do a service project.

We sorted food at the Food Bank for a couple of hours.

I love doing service. It's such a rewarding experience personally, but to see 40 goofy kids getting into it, getting dirty, and working hard is even better. A little instance of, "there is still hope for the future of America".

It was however, an eye opening experience for me last night. We've always tried hard to donate food to the food bank whether on our own, during the holoidays, or with scouting food drives. We have, I'm sure, been the traditional type of food donaters - giving stuff we haven't used yet and might not to the food bank for distribution.

Last night we sorted all kinds of food products. I've never seen so much tomato soup and canned tuna in one place in my life. Do people really eat that stuff?

I saw cans of food that had expired 30 years ago. We sorted expired baby food. And some cans were so dented and damaged and dusty that there is no way I would ever eat the contents,even if it was cleaned up a bit.

The food bank wants all kinds of stuff - they take household items, toilet paper and other toiletries, "ethnic foods" (i.e. refried beans, water chestnuts and taco sauce) and baking goods.

As I was sorting I started thinking that if there were ever a time I needed to get food from the food bank, what would I get and what would I eat. Nothing that was sorted last night is anything that my family and I would eat on our own. Desperate times call for desperate mesures I suppose.

From now on though, whenever I have the opportunity to make a donation - I'm giving prize items. Cake mixes, muffin mixes, toilet paper, coloring books and crayons, and anything else I can think of that's tasty or necessary.

You should think about it too. What have you donated in the past? How can you make those donations more meaningful in the future?