First, I want to apologize for slacking in the blogging sphere. Life has been intensely busy for us…especially for me. I have been in my studies of pursuing my Doula certification! I am so excited about it. I have had such a fascination with natural birth ever since I had a natural water birth with my son. I feel called to help other women who are pursuing the same kind of birth. I am a massage therapist already and am eager to add Doula training to that!
Anyways, I would like to share something that has been on my mind for years but wondering if there, actually, is a solution to the problem.
Let’s talk about food pantries…
Food pantries give food to the homeless and needy. They are set up by churches and non-profit organizations and we donate to them. We clean out all our old canned food, you know the “pre-Paleo” food that we don’t eat anymore, and give it to our church’s food pantry. I am so torn by this. Would you feed your kids food from a food pantry? I know we all would if we were starving and homeless. But I mean RIGHT NOW…if you had the choice, would you feed your kids that food?
I’m sorry…but they are getting our leftovers. I just feel it is wrong. They are getting junk food, processed garbage, and nothing to nourish their tired bodies. I just think we could do better than this! Couldn’t we? Isn’t there something more we could do to get REAL, whole food to the homeless and needy?
Are there any projects set up that do this? I am searching and searching and haven’t found any. This weighs my heart heavily. My passion and dream would be to one day have a community vegetable garden and real food pantry. I would work with local farms and local hobby farmers that have the same heart and would be willing to donate fresh eggs, meat, milk, veggies, and fruit. I would also buy beans and rice in bulk and separate them in gallon-sized baggies for each person.
However, I realize that when you are used to just opening a can and heating it up, then some education might need to happen. So, I plan on writing out meal plans and instructions to go in each bag!
Can you do this too? Talk with you pastor or find a needy family. Prepare a bag of fresh food with a simple meal plan included and give it to a single, working mother! Let’s try to help the needy a little bit better by not serving them our leftovers and unused, almost expired canned goods! I know we can do better!!!