Reply #7: I volunteer at a food pantry so I know hungry families

[riderinthestorm]

and there are so many it's overwhelming. You (me) desperately want to help ALL of them but the sheer numbers are terrible. If you want to personally help a family, go down to your local food pantry and find them.

If you "adopted" a family to help, you could literally transform their lives. My family grew very close to one family particularly who we ALL befriended. I helped them, they helped us. They are lifelong friends now - our youngest daughters are the same age and are very close.

It doesn't have to be anything formal. In my case, our "introduction" occurred as our youngest daughters played together as I worked distributing food, and they waited in line. Afterwards we talked and I invited them to "help" my family and I lay out a patio at our house on a Sunday afternoon. They all arrived to "help" and we spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to get this patio done (FWIW, I could have cared less about the patio, it was an excuse for them to come over and "help"). Of course afterwards I served dinner and we talked. Since we're a farm, we made them take a tank of gas from the farm tank.

The husband showed up the next evening to "finish the patio". He worked quietly and efficiently and actually did finish it beautifully which gave me a chance to give him a decent check for his work and another dinner for him (and his family to take home to them). And all of that spiraled into contract work with friends and neighbors who saw his work, which spiraled into a job with one of them.

And now they're doing great. They had a bad patch and now they're through it. I can't take any credit for it since it was their own hard work and determination that got them to the place they are, but sometimes someone, anyone, having faith in them during that bad patch can get them over the hump.

Take just one small step towards finding a hungry person or family and you will be richly rewarded. There are so many out there and it doesn't take much to change their lives. I would also stipulate that you actually DO know hungry people - they are just too proud to say it to you.