Giving Beyond the Holidays | Part 2

Last week I talked about how important it is to give even after all the holiday food drives are over. It's really important to Christian and I that we instill this spirit of giving in Izzy. I want her to know that there are some kids out there that don't have as much as she does and that we should help them out. 

After we realized we didn't have much in the way of canned goods to collect around the house, we headed to good ol' Walmart to pick up supplies.

 And you can't go to Walmart without having a dance party in the clothing section.

Check out Walmart bringing back the part of the 90's that no one really wanted to revive!

We wanted to focus on supplies for babies and young children for our donation and headed to the baby department.

We also grabbed up lots of soups and canned veggies for our donation.
After we checked out Izzy rounded out the giving by putting some change in the CHOP change bucket.

 And on the way home, we were rewarded for our good deeds by getting stuck for a half hour in traffic for what turned out to be a fender bender.

I decided to give our food donation to the Food Bank of Delaware.  

FBD services all of Delaware with donation drop off points throughout the state and two large warehouses on each end of the state. They have a lot of great food programs for people of all ages. I like FBD because they aren't just giving out food. They strive to educate adults and children about proper nutrition. They also offer programs that help low-income individuals learn skill sets that enable them to make a living wage.

Tonight we packed up our donation to FBD.

Funny coincidence, our donation weighed the exact same amount that Izzy currently weighs: 39.8 lbs.

And while we were at it we decided to round up some clothing to drop off at the local mission.

FBD has huge warehouses to store donations in Newark and Milford. I had never been to the actual warehouse before and I was very impressed! This place is absolutely HUGE.

 See this green door right here? 

 I bet you they have a video camera at this door. And if they don't, well they missed one hell of a YouTube moment with me today. There is a sensor that causes the door to roll up for easy access. Well it pretty much scared the pee out of me because I wasn't expecting it. I screamed and ran away. 

 Izzy asked if we were going to go shopping here. It's set up like a real grocery store!

 I was so impressed with the inside. There is food from floor to ceiling. I got a little vertigo looking up at the top shelves!

 

 I'll be back - coming through this door!

 Izzy too, when she is old enough :)

And this is just the sign of a nearby business. Its been there for ages and I still giggle like a 12 year old whenever I see it.

I hope you'll take some time to donate your food, time or money to the Food Bank of Delaware. The folks are really friendly and they need all the help they can get. Hopefully you will never find yourself in a position to need their help. But won't you feel good accepting their help if you know you contributed while you were able?

A snapshot of hunger in Delaware:

• The Food Bank of Delaware provides emergency food for an estimated 241,600 different people annually
• About 17,500 different people receive emergency food assistance in any given
  week
• 44% of the members of households served by The Food Bank of Delaware are
  children under 18 years old
• 6% of the members of households are children age 0 to 5 years
• 6% of the members of households are elderly
• About 19% of clients are non-Hispanic white, 71% are non-Hispanic black, 4%
  are Hispanic, and the rest are from other racial groups
• 43% of households include at least one employed adult
• 72% have incomes below the federal poverty level during the
  previous month
• 15% are homeless
• Among all client households served by emergency food programs of The Food Bank of Delaware, 72% are food insecure, according to the U.S. government’s official food security scale. This includes client households who have low food security and those who have very low food security
• 32% of the clients have very low food security
• Among households with children, 68% are food insecure and 30% are food insecure with very low food security
• 33% of clients served by The Food Bank of Delaware report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
• 21% had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage
• 32% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care
• 22% had to choose between paying for food and paying for transportation
• 19% had to choose between paying for food and paying for gas for a car

Source: Hunger in America 2010 Study

Click here to see findings from the 2010 Hunger Study.

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.  #CBias  #AbbottCFK

You can see more of our shopping trip by checking out my Google+ album!