The Spirit of the Season

This week for home-school my boys are doing a food drive!

There have been times when we have needed to go to the local food shelf and they have always been very good to us. Now it's our time to give back.

My kids were looking under the tree at their presents and fighting like kids do about who has more presents. My husband decided to use that learning moment to bring up others that have no food and no presents for christmas. After he kept going on and on, I had a light bulb go off!

We should do a food drive! One of my friends Natalie, has done this before. And so I thought what a great idea. But then we've never had the time to do it, until the boys have become home-schoolers! So we created a flyer based off of the flyer my friend sent me.

Not only does it show the spirit of Christmas, it also shows my kids that you can always give back. When you need help and you receive help and then giving back when your able.

They dropped empty paper bags with this flyer attached to it on tuesday.

Bayport Neighborhood

2011 Food Drive

Dear Neighbors,

In the spirit of the holiday season, we are gathering food for the Valley Outreach Food Shelf in
Stillwater. Winter break with students home from school can be difficult for some families to feed
their students that normally qualify for free or reduced lunches at school. Valley Outreach serves
400 families per month more than 36,000 pounds of canned goods, fresh produce and dairy
products. About 50% of the individuals served each month are children, 20% are elderly, 10% are physically or mentally challenged, and the rest are adults who are either employed – sometimes at more than one job – or unemployed and unable to find work as a result of the economic recession. Those who are employed typically work at low-wage position(s) with little or no employee benefits and are unable to make ends meet..

Please add non-perishable items to this grocery bag and place it at your front door with the flyer
facing the street. We’ll pick it up on Friday, December 23, 2011 between 4:00-5:00 PM. We cannot accept glass containers, perishable items or home-canned foods.

Want to do more? Funds go farther! Financial donations go far to serve our neighbors in need.
Through our food bank partners, Emergency Food-Shelf Network and Second Harvest Heartland, we are able to purchase between 6 to 9 times more food per dollar than can be purchased through retail grocery stores. We spend an average of $6,000 each month to purchase food and other inventory to keep our shelves stocked.

Thank you in advance for participating! Please let us know if you have any questions!
Sincerely,

Gideon, Gabriel, Dominique and Dominique
Dandk75@juno.com

We will see what happens! This is the first year that I really feel good about the holidays coming and not stressed about having enough money for gifts for everyone. This has been good for all of us!

I'll post pic's of the collection and when we weigh it!

Merry Christmas!