Dinner for Six

I recently saw a great story about a family who wanted to spend more quality together and chose to do so by putting together food bags for kids who are hungry. It's called Kids Against Hunger.

The bags have a combination of rice, crushed soy, dehydrated vegetables and vitamins/flavoring "secret sauce" powder. When boiled up it will feed six children.

A 32-pound box contains 36 packets that make a total of 216 meals and costs approximately $50.

So here is how to make this a budget philanthropy project:

Make dinner and invite five of your friends over. Tell 'em to bring ten bucks each.  You feed them one meal, they feed six kids 36 times.

Do it once a month and that's almost 2,600 meals that you and your friends have provided hungry kids.  It only costs you ten bucks a month.

The Terror of Kindness

Check out this wonderful post:  Terror of Kindness

It's some thoughtful speculation on why we hesitate to do more acts of kindness when they are so cheap and easy to do.

It's brilliant. Go see.

Couple Builds Bikes for Disabled Kids

I saw this on the news tonight.  What a wonderful story!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Family/therapy-couple-fashions-tricycles-children-disabilities/story?id=14282607

What About Now?

Watch this video. If it doesn't make you want to do something today to make a difference in the world, nothing will.  Thanks to Matt Shifley for posting about his mom on Facebook and inspiring this post.  She must have really been something.

Go do something good in your world today.  Do it for Matt's mom so she can live forever.  Do it for yourself.  Just go do it because it's the right thing. Before you go to sleep tonight ask yourself, "Did I change something for the better today?"

The Fifth Meal

We have a way of feeding people that doesn't involve taking food to the foodbank.  We love donating to the foodbank and do it occasionally, but in this economy as self-employed people there is not a lot of excess grocery money to go around at our house.

So, here is what we do instead.

When we make our normal evening meal we try to make enough that we can create what's called "The Fifth Meal" (we're a family of four).  We package it up in a cool food saver tray that has compartments and a lid and voila... a whole meal we can share with someone.

Typically we share these with seniors because they are lighter eaters.  It might be 2-3 ounces of a meat main dish and a serving spoon full of veggies and another bit of side-dish.  It's not a grand meal, but it's solid and great for people on a fixed income.  We get to know people around us who are on a fixed income and find it's a real treat for them to have their lunch brought to them the next day or to have a big hunk sliced off the end of the banana bread or whatever.

Little things like that can help your neighbor feel cared for and break up their ordinary food routine.

Don't let your leftovers sit in the fridge and go bad -- create a Fifth Meal and share it with someone who could use something to eat.

Photo by: Stephen Depolo

Helen's Pajama Party

I love this group! I just found out about them today, but already I am madly in love with their mission which is to provide women in domestic violence shelters with brand new comfy jammies.

Helen's Pajama Party is based out of Iowa and their mission is to provide all women's shelters in Iowa with brand new comfy PJs for the women who are sheltered there.  The goal is to gather about 3000 sets of pajamas per year in various sizes.

Would you consider having a pajama drive or a pajama party?  Wouldn't that be a fun thing to do with your girlfriends?

Check out the web site and see what you can do to help!

What I've Been Doing for Two Weeks

Some months ago I wrote a blurb about CASA for this blog.  I've always thought it was a great organization and had been trying to talk my mother into starting to volunteer for them now that she is retired. I know her particular skill set would be great for what one needs to accomplish.

Finally I got her to do it!  And it turns out she loves it and is great at it.  So, now my mom is a child advocate and my sister-in-law does their outreach and another sister-in-law used to volunteer and I have several friends who volunteer and just by a natural progression I decided I'd go ahead and get certified.

SO... I have been sitting in the certification class for a week and have another half of a week to go.  I wonder about the sanity of the decision since I'm raising two kids (with my husband) and we're running our own business. But then I think about the kids that need a voice and I can't ignore that.

It's remarkable to think what can be done if we all band together to help stop the cycle of abuse and neglect. I sat in court for three hours last Wednesday and listened to various testimony of people -- child protective service workers who testified the parents aren't doing what they need to do to get their kids back, parents who say they are doing all they can, listening to drug test results, police reports, advocate reports, lawyers who try to turn their client's lemons into lemonade...

One of the days in class we discussed domestic violence. We listened to a 911 call from a little girl named Lisa. I have a fairly tough exterior and most of the time remain in great control of my emotional self, but this one really got to me.  As I sat listening I wondered if I cried because it was just horrible or if it was because I still struggle with the repercussions of my niece being stabbed by her husband  I could not separate the two and I'm not sure if the depth of my sorrow was for little Lisa (and all the other little Lisas in the world) or if it was for my own family and our loss.

Not that it matters. My perspective has certainly changed since I've had children and crimes against children seem way worse now than they ever have because I put myself and my kids in the place of the people in the stories I hear. And I want to be a good example for the two boys I'm raising.  I tell them they should make the world better than it was when they arrived to it and I ask myself constantly if I'm doing that myself.

How many lives must we make better to counteract those who are selfish or careless or violent? It would be nice if there was a formula, but there's not. So my plan is to just keep trucking and do the best I can do in my own small way, one person at a time. If you'll do it with me that will be two of us and if you bring a friend that's three times the good.

(If you have time to be an advocate for a child who is a victim of abuse and neglect, please check out CASA and see if it would be a good fit for you!)