Food Bank

We decided to end Spring Break with a little service project. Hudson's Karate school hosted a service event at the Food Bank. Hadley was excited to attend as well. They split the kids into age groups where the little ones (ages 4-7) would learn about the gardens and the workings of the food bank and the older ones (ages 8 and up) would sort food and stuff backpacks. Unfortunately, with only one of me and Hadley not knowing anyone, she was kindof forced to come with the little ones. This however, has never been an issue for her as she always loves to help out! Hudson could hardly wait to dig in and get started. 

We started with a play where the tour guide explained the process of the food bank and how the food ended up making it to the needy. He asked for volunteers and Hudson was quick to raise his hand. This still shocks me because 2 years ago I would have never expected our shy boy to so easily stand in front of a crowd and make people laugh. He was a truck in the play and he was hilarious. He would make beeping noises as he was backing up and he would make car noises as he was going forward. He had everyone laughing. 

Afterwards we were taken out to the gardens where we first learned about compost. You can tell how good it smelled by Hudson holding his nose and Hadley's disgusted face. I was so interested to see that when you stick a thermometer into a compost pile it reads 100 degrees  (even though it was 42 degrees out) because of all the bacteria!

Gotta love playing in a nasty compost bag and rubbing it all over your sweatshirt!

Next we got a little cold relief when we went into the greenhouse to learn about worms and the plants they grow. All the kids got to hold a handful of worms as they were taught many facts about them. I've already forgotten most of them but Hudson was totally enthralled and will probably remember for the rest of his life. Hadley put one worm in her hand and that was plenty. She's my girl for sure!

Back outside to the cold in their open greenhouse. He we learned about the many vegetables they grow and actually provide the food pantries. I was amazed about work and need for volunteers to make this whole operation run. Hudson had many questions about all the vegetables including, "what is this big plant I am standing by?"

We ended our day with a tour of the indoor facility. It looked much like a SAMs with rows and rows of boxes of food. It was so impressive and incredibly clean. Then it made me terribly sad when they said if no more donations were to every come in, the amount of food in this building would last 18-21 days! I can't even imagine there are that many hungry people in the state of Oklahoma. We also learned of the backpack program the Food Bank started. This all began because of a little boy that passed out in the breakfast line on Monday at school. After some questioning they found that he had not eaten a single thing since he left school on Friday. They now have backpacks full of food for those kids so that they will have meals over the weekend.

This trip was very eye-opening for our kids. Hadley cried at the backpack story and Hudson even learned about what it would be like to be hungry. It is something they have never even had to think about before. I can't wait until we can go back and volunteer again soon (especially when both are old enough to do some actual work).