Giving Back to Your Community

What a busy, yet rewarding week this has been! Our family participated in our church's annual Neighborhood Bible Club. It's like traditional VBS, but hosted in homes throughout the county, verses at the church. Our focus was "Reaching our community through kindness". We wrapped up our week of activities-- crafts, games, snacks, and songs, and turned those lessons into action, by hosting a Community Food Drive at a local grocery store! Our goal was to fill one shopping cart, to benefit the Central Virginia Food Bank (which is in urgent need of supplies). In just two hours, the kids were able to collect four shopping carts worth of food! Our hearts were blessed over and over again as we watched people, young and old, drops bags of food into the carts. Every time the kids got a donation they squealed with delight, knowing their efforts were paying off. Even the people donating the food were excited to give to a cause that is greatly in need in our community right now. Okay, so there was one person out of the hundreds who told the kids they should not be out there collecting food through the church, because not everyone believes in God. Obviously that individual missed the purpose of our presence, as it was solely to collect food for the needy. That comment leaves me shaking my head in awe, that anyone would put down our efforts to help the community, just because we were a group from a church. All I can do is pray for hardened people like that. With that said, I was blown away by the amount of young adults and teenagers that came out with food, when it was clear they didn't have the money to feed themselves. Amazing acts of generosity!

Want to help your community? Simple! Get a few neighbors together to organize a bag drop at the homes within your neighborhood. Include a flyer telling them what items are accepted (typically dry pantry items), who the food drive will benefit, and a scheduled pick up date. Then take the donations to your local food bank or organization in need! Be sure to get the kids involved, so they can learn lessons in giving!