Our annual food drive has come to an end for this year and tomorrow morning we will be dropping off all the food at the food pantry.  This year our food drive certainly had its ups and downs but in the end we are staying focused on why we do this year after year.  We are proud of what it teaches our kids, we are happy to share our blessings with the less fortunate, and we are incredibly grateful to and inspired by the auction winners and all of you who donated!  At our final count, we had ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN items that we will be bringing to the food pantry in the morning!  THANK YOU so much to everyone who contributed to that 1127!

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  –Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl, 1952

As our kids get older, I love seeing how much of their heart they put into this food drive.  They are excited to be involved and they are proud to know that they are making a difference.  I hope the joy they feel from doing good stays with them and motivates them throughout their lives.  Even when it seems so much easier to give up, or to do less, I want my kids (my oldest son in particular) to learn the important lesson that the harder you work and the more of yourself that you give, the more you get back.  But what you get back is a joy that comes from knowing you are doing God’s work, and that is a pure and lasting joy!

We again want to express how grateful we are to all of the auction winners for their generous and caring hearts!  They truly inspire me.  Pictures from their mini sessions will be coming to the blog soon.  In the meantime, here are pictures of all the food we collected!

“For I Was Hungry and You Fed Me.” -Matthew 25:35

To get an idea of how much food is in the picture below, the word “For” has 264 cans!