I recently wrote about Abbott Snack Packs – a project that I am involved in this month with Champions for Kids.
Before I set about doing a SIMPLE service project with my kids, I shared these statistics:
Fighting Childhood Hunger:
- More than 16 million children under the age of eighteen in the United States are food insecure—unable to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.
- Even more heartbreaking is the fact that more than three million children under the age of five are food insecure.
- The developing immune systems of young children ages 0 – 5 make them especially vulnerable to nutritional deprivation and as a result, the ability to learn, grow, and fight infections is adversely affected.
- While having enough food is important, the nutritional quality of that food is equally important. Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents ages 2 – 19 are obese, and 1 of 7 low-income, preschool-aged children is obese.
(Sources: Feeding America; Center For Disease Control)
How can we help?
There are so many things that we can do to help, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or pricey. It really is easy to help children in need IN YOUR AREA, and I would love to invite you to join me in making a small but REAL difference.
Our Abbott Snack Packs
When the kids were off school last Monday, I took three of them with me to Walmart to shop for our snack packs. My goal was not only to put together some nutritious foods and snacks to donate to children in need in our area, but also to involve my own kids in giving back to people in our community.
Over the years, we have been the recipients of many wonderful gifts, from friends and strangers, and I want my own kids to have the experience of feeling how wonderful it is to GIVE.
Our shopping trip was enjoyable, though I was reminded many times how much more difficult it is to shop with kids than it is to shop without them… Although I was pleased with everything I found and added to my cart, I was never able to find Zone perfect bars, another fabulous Abbott product. (believe me, we did plenty of walking through the store). You can see our entire shopping trip (and all of our detours) on my #AbbottCFK Google + album.
I was able to use a coupon for the PediaSure Sidekicks, which was a huge help, and all this food (which can feed a toddler for quite a while) came in right around $30. Want a coupon for $3.00 off any PediaSure product? I figured I’d share.
In the end, we came home with quite a package to deliver to our local religious organization for women. I know that Kristen will find the perfect friends to share this snack pack with.
Our most important detour
Interestingly, our Walmart shopping trip for snack packs proved to be quite the learning experience. As I was standing with 3 of my kids looking at items to add to our cart, a woman walked up to us. She claimed that she was really sick and had come to Walmart to get medicine, leaving her 4 children at home, but her car had run out of gas. All she had was 60 cents. She asked to borrow some money, swearing that she would return it (though I’m not sure how that would work).
I only had a $20 in my purse, but I felt like I should help her, more for my kids’ sake than hers (yes, I have heard plenty of stories like hers and take them with a grain of salt). We trudged through the store, all four of us following our new friend, to find somewhere that we could break a $20. Surprisingly, the only way we could make change was to buy a soda at McDonalds (so she got a soda from us as well as some cash).
I don’t know what she ended up doing with the money that we gave her, and even my young kids were suspicious of her intentions, but she taught us a powerful lesson that day: Sometimes we don’t know the specific needs of our neighbors, but even a simple snack pack or a little bit of change can make a difference to someone.
Check out the ideas for Simple Service Projects at Champions for Kids. What will you pledge to do?
Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #cbias. All opinions are my own.
© 2012, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
How amazing that you were able to teach your children about the beauty of giving back twice in one shopping trip. I love that!
What a wonderful act of kindness on your part!