May 2010

I’ve looked for ways to volunteer with my kids in our community for years.  It’s a really difficult prospect logistically because kids are a liability frankly, you can’t take them with you if you’re building a house for Habitat For Humanity.  It’s something that has really bothered me, this dearth of volunteering opportunities with children, because I’m anxious to teach my kids about service, selflessness, give them a chance to look outside their own luxurious lives for a minute and help someone else.

I haven’t had any luck really finding volunteer opportunities up to this point, and when I wanted to volunteer at our closest local food bank {which is an hour away} as part of my ConAgra Feeding America campaign, I was told the cutoff for the family volunteer day is 6 years old.  Charming is 5.

However, there was a loophole.  Of sorts.  When the Food Bank delivers food to elderly and house bound families it’s delivered in a brown cardboard box.  The Food Bank allows volunteer groups to decorate the boxes so when they’re delivered there’s a little extra cheer added to the equation.

It was the perfect solution.  I drove to Salt Lake City, picked up 25 cardboard boxes, and brought them home for my kids and a group of neighborhood girls I teach in church to decorate to their hearts’ content.  The girls each brought a bag of food to donate with them to my house and while they decorated the boxes with stickers, markers, and stamps we talked about the importance of service in our lives.  We talked about the fact that kids they know are going hungry and that we have the chance to do something about it.

The whole experience was really moving actually, and the boxes the kids decorated were fabulous.  Thoughtful.  Heartfelt.

Everyone wins.  And I hope when the families get their boxes of food, filled with a little sustenance for their lives, the decorated giraffe stickers and sparkly hearts will make them feel a little bit of love.

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