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The Hungry Harps household was long overdue to participate in one of Champion for Kid’s Simple Service Projects. During the last few months of my pregnancy and a couple months after we had the twins – I was a little housebound. Looking back – we hadn’t donated since September, far too long! However, I was now ready to get out and start giving back to our community this month.
Champions for Kids is an awesome organization that gives people, like me and you, different ideas each for month for how to help the less fortunate children in their local communities. In the past we have put together donations of books, winter care kits, sports equipment and cereal (yes, a big donation of just cereal!!) – this month’s project was to give food to a local food bank. The reason being is this: when school lets out for summer, millions of children from low-income families are without school-provided breakfasts, lunches and after school snacks. The demand for food banks is so high that they often run out of food during this crucial time.
This is what happened last year in our local community. The food bank completely ran out of food. How devastating is that? My husband and I knew right away that we would be giving our donation to the Orangevale Food Bank. A little bit about Orangevale Food Bank from their website:
“As an organization, we hope to make a positive impact in the Orangevale community by providing basic food and resources to families. But we also expect to facilitate participation from people within our community to help improve the lives of families in need through community outreach events, volunteering, food and clothing drives, and connecting people through a common purpose.”
How beautiful is that? These are the type of people this world needs more of!
We decided to host our own little food drive, so I headed to Walmart (check out my shopping trip here on Google+) to buy food for our guests and something for us to contribute to the donation. Although I hadn’t seen them yet, I wanted to buy some Odwalla Bars for Kids to donate. When I found them and checked them out – I was sold! They each contain 11 to 12 grams of organic whole-grains. (I am a huge fan of organic!!) Plus, they are a good source of fiber (12% DV) and calcium (30% DV). I bought 10 boxes of them – leaving a few boxes for other customers too. :) Although my Walmart only had the Banana Dunk and Chocolate Chip Kick flavors, there is also a Strawberry Score.
This is how the invitation to our food drive went – “come over and bring food (non-perishable) that is suitable for children and I will give you a biscuits & gravy breakfast.” Yes, I will totally use bribery for a good cause. I even threw in eggs and orange juice to sweeten the deal. :)
We had a total of 9 people (including ourselves) participate in this donation and was able to collect: 10 boxes of Odwalla Bars for Kids, 3 boxes cereal, 2 packs of boxed juices, 4 peanut butters, 6 cans of tuna, 5 macaroni & cheeses, 10 soups/pastas and 13 cans of fruit.
Also, I had mentioned to our guests that this was a project being sponsored by Champions for Kids & Odwalla and one of them brought a bunch of individual Odwalla bars – very cool!
The Orangevale Food Bank is only open on Thursdays to accept donations – for all other times, they have set donation centers around town. We opted for the one at the Rec & Parks office. It made me sad to see trash inside the barrel – people are so quick to throw their garbage into the donation bin, but not so quick to put donation items in it.
We explained to our sons (ages 2 & 4) on the way to make the donation and also on the way home that all the food was for kids who are less fortunate than we are. Kids who don’t get ice cream & special trips to the quick mart for slushies, kids who don’t have an endless supply of bananas sitting on the counter or even milk to drink with dinner. It’s important to me that they learn to help others who have less than them . Even if it’s just once a month and a little bit – it’s better than never giving anything.
For more information on Champions for Kids or on how you can help in your local communities, connect with them through their
website: http://championsforkids.org/odwalla or
twitter: https://twitter.com/odwalla
For more information on Odwalla and their products, connect with them through their
website: http://www.odwalla.com/ or
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Odwalla
See how @hungryharps is helping to fight summer hunger with @odwalla and @champions4kids! goo.gl/8ALs0 #Odwalla4Kids #cbias
— Jess Harp (@HungryHarps) May 21, 2013
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