I swore it wouldn't be like last year. I had waited too long after being inspired to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day by answering Barack and Michelle Obama's call to make it a day of service. All the options in my area were full.
So this year, I planned ahead and volunteered at a food bank for the first time. It was quite the experience. A warehouse full of mounds of food donated by discount stores needed to be labeled, so that's what I did -- along with a few church groups and a healthcare company who does this annually.
As I taped labels onto banged up boxes of cereal, crackers, cookies and some obscene overflow of Miracle Whip, I got a little emotional.
I love food so much that it's very sad to imagine life without it. It's a luxury to be able to discover a new dish. Many do not even have the basics -- so that even a banged-up box of oatmeal would be a welcome gift. So I hope to make this a regular thing. Maybe not the religious-oriented organization that I tried this time, but somewhere. Just some small step, even a most imperfect one might make some small difference. If nothing else, then in my own awareness of not taking things for granted.
Happy Birthday, Dr. King.
I'm sure you'd want us to help those we can, as many of us carry Haiti in our hearts right now.
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