The Food Pantry

James and I went to help out at Faith Baptist Church Food Pantry yesterday. We had a great time! The church takes in donated food for their food pantry but they also buy food from the NC Food Bank for 18 cents a pound. Folks from the church and from Lighthouse homeschool association help out once a month to bag all the groceries and get them ready for pick up by people in the late afternoon. The church actually supports many people who depend on them every month for food. More than half of them are elderly folks in the community. The remaining are families with children. We prepared about 384 bags of groceries! James was excited to "work". My favorite part of the whole experience was watching James meet new friends while we were there. He was eager to help out but a little small and this one young boy (age 8) took James under his wing. He said, "Hey James! Come with me! We need to put some cereal in the bags." James ran over and they started putting boxes of cereal in the bags. What's also exciting (for me) is that this little boy is also homeschooled and is a member of Lighthouse. That means we will see him again. :) His mom and I got along well too. It was just a great experience with a bunch of nice, caring people doing something good for the community. We are going to the grocery store today and we will be picking up some additional items to donate to the food pantry. The church always keeps additional bags of groceries for emergency needs and this month that has been depleted. The NC Food Bank didn't bring their regular truck because they have been busy with the NC State Fair. One day during the fair, people can bring canned goods and get in for free. I think the NC Food Bank was busy this week collecting all the canned goods from the fair. Nevertheless, I have already marked our calendar for November. I can't wait!

James is working so hard!