Birthday Bags

I want to share something that happened today here at the food bank that is really special. John, Kim and their son Jared came in to drop off more birthday gift bags. This is their second contribution of approximately 50 bags. What is a birthday gift bag? Well let me tell you…..this family wanted to do something a little different to help make birthdays a special day for the children in the families of those who receive emergency food boxes from us. As a family project they purchase and assemble brightly colored bags containing things like crayons, coloring books, jacks, puzzles, small dolls, toy trucks, toy cars and more. When we are made aware of a situation where a recipient of one of food boxes has a child who is soon to celebrate a birthday, we include one of the Birthday bags of goodies. It helps brighten the day a lot of kids to get these special bags on their birthday. It also helps Jarrod learn a very important ”life lesson” of doing something special for someone who can’t do it for themselves. Jarrod wins, the children of the families we work with win, Jarrod’s parents win and St Mary’s wins because we are able to help Jarrod make the connection to those less fortunate. What a wonderful scenario……..we need more and more families like these folks helping us make life a little easier for our neighbors.