Back in January, I wrote about the idea of returning to a few basic ideals to refocus my energy. One of the ideas was to seek out ways to become more of an advocate for causes that I think are truly important in my life. It pains me deeply to think that there are people in our communities that need food but have difficulty providing it for their families.
To serve this cause, my family and I have been volunteering once a month for the last four months at the Dublin Food Pantry. We go in on Friday nights and help restock shelves, clean, tear down boxes, pretty much the "behind the scenes" work. Due to the age of my son, the volunteering policy prevented us from being there when clients came in to select their food. I was very fine with this because I am not sure if I could effectively handle the awkwardness of maybe seeing a family I know come in to collect food.
The Dublin Food Pantry seems small beacuse it is tucked into the basement of Dublin Community Church, but it regularly provides about a week's worth of food for a great deal of families. The Dublin Food Pantry has served over 600 families in the last year and has over 200 regular (meaning one visit a month) clients. I am not realy sure if this is a big number, but it seems like way too many people need this organization to make ends meet.
When we go in to volunteer, all four of us become unbelieveably focused on the tasks we are asked to do. I can stand in a halway and break down boxes for recycling for 20 straight minutes and not get bored. My daughter Ellie, who is a great kid but has a healthy disdain for doing extra work, will stack cans of soup without any complaint. My son Hank actually loves vacuuming the floors when we are getting ready to leave. My wife Julie beams with joy when she is organizing juice boxes (well she beams with joy when she is organizing anything, but it seems more joyful at this time). We volunteer at the Dublin Food Pantry and like it, because we are doing something that is selfless. But when I think about our volunteering deeply, we are helping ourselves a great deal.
I am quite certain that we are actually another family that is being served by the Dublin Food Pantry. For a few hours a month the four of us are together doing something that is helping us to forge tighter bonds. We are doing something that is helping us all understand how fortunate we are. We are doing something that is helping us show that one of the biggest gifts in life is to do good for others.
It may seem strange to say this, but I think that we should be thanking the Dublin Food Pantry for letting us volunteer instead of them thanking us for showing up.
Later,
Tony
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