Food Drives

I don't know if this only happens in my area, but the week of Halloween always seems to bring out kids collecting can goods for food pantries. I actually look forward to this. I like clearing out the cans that seem to collect dust. I also much prefer this to other fundraisers where I am asked to spend $14 for a roll of wrapping paper I could pick up for a buck fifty.

This year, the first group was a handful of girl scouts on a scavenger hunt. They were panting and out of breath trying to hurry. I think we made their day. A month or so ago dh was at our parish as they were cleaning out the pantry. They had the absolute biggest can of spaghetti sauce I had ever seen. Dh, being unable to pass up something free, brought it home. It took up half a shelf in my pantry and, really, the jar was more appropriate for a dinner of 50 rather than our family of 5. So the girl scouts got the spaghetti sauce. I now have half a shelf in my pantry too. It was a win-win situation.

The next group introduced themselves as the local high school National Honor Society. You know top of their class, smartest kids around. I was in the NHS when I was in high school as well, so I was happy to retrieve 4 large cans and clear more space in my pantry. I bring them out to the two young girls at my porch who then exchange funny glances and look back at me and say, "How do you think we should carry these?" Apparently, we were the first house they had solicited and they had not thought about how they would actually carry the cans they wanted to collect from our neighborhood. Remember, this is the National Honor Society. I went in to retrieve the sturdiest bag I could find. After thanking me one girl turns to the other and says, "you think anyone else thought about how to carry this stuff?" The group of 10 year old girls scouts were smart enough to bring a wagon, I guess it is a good thing I gave them the spaghetti sauce.