Hello! We are always looking for more ways to keep our kids involved beyond the monthly food pick up. If you have any suggestions, please share them!

One thing that I will add to the pot of ideas is having kids come up with their own grocery list. Every other week, each of my kids creates a list of 5 things that they would like to buy at the grocery store to donate to the food shelf. They use their "guess and go" spelling now, and when they were younger and I helped them with the list, we used that time to think about what words started with, etc. so it touched on developing writing skills as well! They take their lists to the store with a pen, and while I am going up and down the isles doing my shopping for our family, they fulfill the items on their lists. It has been exciting to see their lists evolve. They give great thought to nutrition, quantity and product shelf-life. Doing this has also been a great opportunity for powerful conversation with our kids. It is amazing to see the ownership they take for the food they are donating, right down to bagging their own items, carrying the bags that contain their items, and deliving it to the food shelf.

I want to share a story about a woman who understands what community is:

Katrina is a single mom who has always been self-sufficient, and has worked from home as a data entry professional for three years. Working from home has enabled her to be at home with her son, three-year-old Jimmy, and simultaneously avoid the financial strain of daycare costs. It is her personal priority to help her family, and so Katrina chooses to take care of her four-year-old niece while her sister works.

Katrina found herself in financial straits when she had an accident on the Fourth of July, followed by emergency surgery. She was forced to take a temporary leave from her job as a result of the surgery, and as finances waned, Katrina needed help.

Katrina is in need of temporary support from the food shelf in order to feed her son and herself. As she heals from her surgery, she will begin physical therapy, and will start to regain strength and the ability to perform her job once again. Within a few weeks, she expects she will be back on her feet, working full-time, and caring for both her son and her niece. Significantly, she has also determined that she herself will become a food shelf volunteer.

Katrina's accident and surgery are a sad misfortune; the rest of the story seems to me to be a perfect picture of how a caring community functions: 1.) a member of the community has a need; 2.) that need is met with dignity and sensitivity, and then 3.) the cycle comes full circle as she who has experienced the care of community commits to contribute to it herself by caring for others.

None of us ever know where the next year, the next month, even the next week will find us in that cycle. Any one of us may one day find ourselves in need of the assistance of a food shelf, and if we do, God bless those who are committed to caring and providing for us. When we're on the other side of the circle, let us be--each and every one of us--those who are giving, caring, providing, and sharing, so that the circle not be broken.