Mobile Food Pantry

Alicia and I want to develop our children's hearts to love those who are more unfortunate than we are. Timothy gets emotional when he sees hurting people on TV, but we wanted to put him in a situation where he actually helps people in real life.

The Northern Illinois Food Bank has a mobile food pantry that I've wanted to be a part of for some time. It's a great ministry put on by a local church in our area. I didn't tell Timothy far in advance that we would participate. Instead, I told him when I got home from work, just before we left. Alicia also talked to him about how to interact with people without saying things that might offend them. That was important. We all know that, while good natured and well-meaning, children can sometimes be too honest, as it were. Anyway, we headed out after the briefing.

Timothy was a champ. He entertained a baby while I helped her mother with some food, helped me take groceries out to cars, pulled a small luggage dolly with food, and moved boxes to the staging area. The boy was on fire! He did get tired after a few hours, as one might expect, so we had to leave a little early. Still, it was a great first visit and we are both looking forward to going back to help in the future. Timothy even wants his little sister to come with us next time!

Here are some pictures of the event:

 

 Timothy ready to rock and roll!

 You can see the folks finishing up the setup and wagons are getting ready to haul food to cars. Notice the black pants and tan shirts of the Sailors in the crowd. Several volunteered to help!

 Timothy taking a bit of a break at one point. I think we had hauled 3 loads at this point.

 In these two pictures, Timothy is moving boxes from the main area to a little staging area we haulers had devised. He literally did whatever I asked him to do. He had a great attitude.

In all, it was a great night. Thank you, Gordon, for letting us be a part of it, and thank you Wendy for being so understanding of our rookie status. We can't wait to do it again!