Sunday, January 5, 2014

Go Big or Go Home

Dear Little M,

So much for Mommy's New Year's resolution to calm the f down and relax.  On the plus side, I lasted 4 whole days, which is at least 2 days above my lifetime median.  Though others may deem this pathetic, I prefer progress.  Baby steps.

I was pondering the best and most effective way to go about my daily good deeds and decided that I needed a goal....a big one.  I thought about the things that we've done together over the years, and by far my favorite is collecting food for and volunteering at Philabundance.  I love that you regularly ask me to take you to the food bank and I love that you always ask, without fail, to buy things for the food bank whenever we are at the grocery story.  Over the years, you've provided a meaningful assist to the food drives that I've participated in (alongside my tireless and equally persistent partners-in- crime....the lovely ladies A and D).

Your dad already knew that we were scheming when I asked to go to ShopRite for the Can-Can sale. I have a special kind of distaste for ShopRite, which probably has everything to do with the 8,000 hours of my childhood that I spent in that blasted store with my mom, who loved to comparison shop as your uncle and I played Sack-the-Serfs (or equivalent) in the aisles.  Frankly, I'm surprised that I'm not on their lifetime ban list given a few rather unfortunate incidents involving a failed game of catch and spaghetti sauce in the Laurel Hill and Absecon stores.

Anyway, I was allowed to go to ShopRite, but I've already been cautioned that I should "not do anything crazy" and should limit my participation to (and I quote) "something small" since I "need another commitment like a need a hole in the head."  Which, you know, is true.

I'm guessing that the prior drives have resulted in just shy of 5,000 pounds of donated food.   With that in mind, I think a good collection goal 2014 is 20,000 pounds.  Hey, we have 360 days to go, right?  Totally not crazy, right?

To reach this not-at-all insane, totally modest goal, I'm going to need a lot of helpers....and you and I will need to be very creative.  In addition to the annual food drive at work (my poor, poor, poor coworkers),  we're going to need to plan some special events.

**by special, I mean parties:)  This is good.  We are good at planning parties. 

We're going to need help from people in spreading the word, in learning how to extreme coupon (tips welcome), in learning how to put one of those goal-tracker thingies on this here blog.  I need help from folks who are good at organizing fun things.   I think we can do this.

I think that chasing this goal over the year is a good thing; primarily because people need food every single day- not just at Thanksgiving and not just at Christmas.   Every single day.  You already know that we're lucky that we never have had to worry about having food to eat.  We've not yet had to make the decision between paying the electric bill or paying for groceries.  We are so fortunate to have so much goodness and in abundance.  With this good fortune comes responsibility.  As a parent, I'm so fortunate that you already know this.

We're already on the board, too.   37 pounds of food collected!  It's a drop in the bucket at this point, but it's a start.  We have to start somewhere.

We also have our first pledged donor...a beautiful 5 year old little girl who has pledged $1 from her allowance each week to buy food.  5 of the 37 pounds collected to date came from this beautiful little girl.  I can't even begin to express how proud I am of you, Madeline.   You pledged on your own.  Even if you weren't my daughter, I'm pretty sure I'd want to keep you around forever.  Your kindness and generosity are well beyond your years.

Hopefully, others will join in our crazy little project.  Even if they don't, I could not be any more excited about the progress that we will make together over the next year.   Let's do this!

Love,

Mama Nicole (so much for anonymity...)

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