Food For Thought

I want this blog to identify ways that small everyday acts can impact the world. On some days it's about being polite, helping a family member or a random act of kindness. I also want to to explore volunteerism and other kind things I can do to impact the people I come in contact with.

The act should be simple, fun and an extension of who I am. When things are no longer fun, you may lose the ability to repeat them. I'm not saying it can't be challenging, that may be part of the fun, but it shouldn't be painful. Plus I lead a busy life, I have a job, I raise a small boy and I commute about two hours a day. I want to give back but I want to be realistic. So if I can do these things without having to drastically alter my lifestyle, I will probably replicate them often and build up momentum.

I'm a real "foodie" and I can spend many hours each day talking about food and cooking. A logical extension of this is finding the local food bank. The Morris County Interfaith Food Pantry is close to where I live and after researching it on the web, I found that they were in dire need of foodstuffs, more so than any other time of year. Since they included a list of the most needed items I decide that I would buy some groceries for the food pantry when I went food shopping for myself.

I arbitrarily picked $20.00 as my limit (I know, big spender) but solely to illustrate a point. I just don't think most people will miss $20.00 in their lives.

Here's what I purchased:

• Five boxes of San Georgio Pasta on sale ($5.00)
• Five cans of Chef Boyardee pasta on sale ($5.00)
• Five cans of Progresso Soup on sale ($5.00)
• Five cans of evaporated milk ($3.45) this made me sad because the top three got me through college but milk makes me think of small children doing without milk and starving
• Three boxes of Post cereal with a coupon ($3.99) - I let my son pick these out after explaining what we were doing and he picked, Fruity Pebbles, Alphabits and Cocoa Pebbles.
• One 16 oz. container of instant oatmeal. ($2.56)

Not so bad for $25.00 (I went over the budget but you get the idea).

I was shocked and a little sad to realize that I can blow through $25.00 on a good lunch or at Happy Hour on a Friday and I might be feeding a family for a week on this. I really won't miss the money (think of finding money in your jeans after taking them from the dryer, you really didn't miss it).

All in all I probably spent less than 30 minutes from concept to execution. That included finding the charity online, reading their food list, looking in the local flyer about sales, going shopping, calling the food bank and dropping the food off at the pantry.

So, it doesn't get much simpler than this. A small act of kindness to help others, it wasn't costly, it wasn't time consuming and some kid is going to get Fruity Pebbles for breakfast tomorrow.