Making a Difference with Children in Tow

Tomorrow morning the children and I will walk into Brookshire’s grocery store and walk out with a cart full of bread, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, pound cakes and muffins. We won’t pay for any of it, and we won’t take it home to eat it, either -- no matter how much Jack begs for "just one cookie, Mama!"

Every month, as a part of a team, we pick up the day old bread on behalf of the Bread of Life ministry at a local church. After sorting the food and bagging it in the back of the Subaru, we take a lovely drive through horse country to Linda’s house. The children help me unload our stash and sort it into the large garage that is home to most of our town’s day old bread. It is stored there until volunteers come to pick it up and distribute it to the local soup kitchen, adult daycare center and various other organizations throughout town that feed people.

Helping others is very important to our family, and we talk about it a lot, but a while back I realized that my talk isn’t worth much. We can talk to the children about helping others, but it is certainly not the same as involving them in the process. It can be very difficult to find ways to involve your children in helping others. But with some thoughtfulness and intentionality, it can be done. Here are some ideas:

• Call local bakeries or grocery stores and see if an organization comes to pick up their day old bread. Find out who that organization is and try to get involved.
• We have friends who go to a nursing home and help throw parties for the residents. Many people in nursing homes don't get visitors and many of them love children. This is a beautiful way to share the wonder of childhood with the older, forgotten members of our society.
• Sponsoring a child is another great way to help your child understand that they are very fortunate, and even though they are young, they can have a lot to give. Through organizations like World Vision and Compassion you can actually become involved in the life of a child through writing letters. Our friends Steven and Amy are hard at work in Africa and need sponsors for the orphanage they are helping in Zimbabwe. The situation there is much more desperate than here, and it just takes a little to give so much. There are many opportunities like these out there, and many are just $30 a month.
• Saving quarters to buy animals for children in other countries is another way that your small children can make a big difference. Heifer is a great organization and has a lot of ways to help people out of poverty. Our children at church bring quarters every week, and when they have enough, they vote on which kind of animal to buy. Through the small offering of these children, many lives have been changed.

While it can be difficult to find volunteer opportunities with young children, there are some great books out there, so you can at least start talking to them at a young age. Here are some books on poverty and helping others that we like:

    The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
    The Berenstain Bears Think of Those in Need by Stan & Jan Berenstain
    Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier

I would love to hear from any of you out there who have found ways to help get your children involved in issues of poverty. Children truly are our future and our best hope for a better tomorrow. That future starts right now as they watch everything we do in our own lives.