St. Louis Food Bank

On Monday the kids and I had the opportunity to help serve at the St. Louis Food Bank.  My friend Kristen and her children met us there.  It was such a rewarding experience for all of us.  The kids (and adults) had to sort items into various boxes (dry goods, canned goods, drinks, and condiments).  We made boxes full of various items to send out to families in need that afternoon.  Damaged boxes we had to examine the contents.  If it passed, we taped the box off; if not, it got thrown out.  Canned goods that were badly crushed we threw away.  War veterans had asked for specific items, so when we ran across those, our kids put those in the box for the war veterans.  Water had a box of its own since it was not a necessity for most of the families we were serving (Most had tap water).  Cookies and candy went into another box of their own, as these had little nutritional value.  After we taped off our boxes, the kids had to put sticker labels on them to verify the contents, dry good, canned goods, etc.  This was a lot for children to process and remember, but I was so impressed by how great a job all the children did.  The man in charge kept praising them and even gave them a tour of the warehouse afterwards.  At the end of the morning, they calculated the work we had done.  We processed 11,625 pounds of food that day and helped provide 9,490 meals for the hungry.