Food for Others: Teaching the Little Ones What My Nana Taught Me

As a little girl, I would sit at my Nana's kitchen table and watch (and sometimes help) as she made bologna and cheese sandwiches for the homeless served at the Pine Street Inn.  I always marveled at how carefully she spread the mustard onto the bread, how gently she packed each sandwich into its baggie, for people she didn't even know.

Recently, I remembered the students of Union Mill Elementary in Clifton who prepare sandwiches for the homeless under the guidance of PTA volunteer, Kate Trussell.   I emailed Food for Others to see if they accepted donations of sandwiches from smaller groups, like my family, to distribute to their homeless patrons.  It seemed like a nice way to carry on the service tradition my Nana had taught me years ago and a wonderful opportunity to teach my own children the importance of sharing with those who need a helping hand.

Nikki Clifford, the Volunteer and Operations Manager for Food for Others, informed me that while they are currently phasing out sandwich donations, they are now encouraging donors to give to their Power Pack Program.  Many area children have little to eat over the weekend, relying on sustenance from meals at their schools during the week.  The Power Pack Program provides a gallon Ziploc bag to children, filled with drinks, snacks, and easy-to-prepare meals to eat over the weekend.  

So we decided we'd do it.  We gathered supplies like juice boxes, fruit cups, oatmeal packets, and cups of macaroni and cheese.  I guided them through the assembly of each Power Pack: 2 drinks, 2 snacks, 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners.  The Bigger One caught on quickly, and while the Littler One needed more help, I watched as he carefully placed each item into the bags alongside his brother.  They reminded me of how Nana taught me to pack the Pine Street Inn sandwiches, not so long ago.

The Little Ones weren't really sure where the food was going.  I explained that these were especially for our "Power Pack friends", children who might not have enough to eat on the weekends.  We were going to give them these Power Packs because it's nice to share with people who need our help.  This explanation seemed to satisfy them; I guess children don't need the statistics on homelessness or poverty to understand that sharing and helping are good things to do.

The next day, we dropped off our ten Power Packs to Food for Others, located in the Merrifield area.   Since we did not actually meet any of our "Power Pack friends", I think the LOs were a little confused.  But they observed everything quietly, watching as a staff member took the box of Power Packs into the warehouse and handed us a receipt.

Then we decided to schedule more Power Pack assemblies, with friends and family.  Let's do this with more people, I told them.

Like today, when we met up at the Kings Park Library with longtime friends to pack more bags (and maybe sneak in some playtime while we were at it).  We were excited to team up with SuperNOVAmommy's family as well as other close friends.

We tried to maintain some organization by sorting the items: breakfasts, lunches, dinners, drinks, then snacks.  Our library meet-up was a little chaotic at times and I think my Little Ones were eager to finish the assembly so they could play with their buddies.  However, we made 14 full Power Packs to donate and once again, it was really neat to see how seriously the kids took their roles in this endeavor.  We also have 8 additional bags that just need lunches and dinners, as well as tons of additional snacks and juices and oatmeal packets just waiting to be packed.

Our plan is to buy more supplies and meet up again each month to continue our little service project.  We're excited to make some Power Packs with our cousins, too, during April vacation.

We're making a very small impact, considering that Food for Others estimates there are 90, 183 people living in poverty in Northern Virginia, 30% of whom are children.  I also think about the poor and hungry throughout our world.  World Hunger relays staggering statistics about the number of individuals suffering from hunger and the effects that poor nutrition has on our world's children.

My own babies don't understand any of this.  These concepts are too abstract; they've never experienced true hunger or lacked for anything in their young lives.  But they've got beautiful hearts and minds and they know that it's right to help others.

And that's where we're starting. I believe our little project is pointing us in the right direction and will continue to lead us where we need to go.  I want to teach my children the saying, "Love grows by giving."  To me, this means we need to plant those seeds of love wherever we can, whenever we can, however we can and hope they will continue to grow until we can one day live in a world where no child is hungry.

Maybe I'm planting a seed right now.  If you're interested in making Power Packs for Food for Others to distribute to children in need, learn more here.  As manager Nikki Clifford emphasized, "Please note that if you bring in 10 items or 100 on the needed food list, it's more than we have now and it's 1 or 10 kids more than the number we can feed now."  If everyone who reads this post chose to help one child by making a Power Pack, that's a lot of children and a whole lot of love.  Of course, there are other ways to help and the Food for Others website can provide these details.

My Nana has always taught me the importance of appreciating what we have and helping those who have less.  My children teach me daily how to love, how to give, how to grow.  I think I still have a lot of learning left to do...

Read more about today's Power Pack Party when you check out SuperNOVAMommy's blog post.