Advent is Soon Upon Us

I spent some time today at the food pantry, like I do every Thursday. There was a lot of talk about how close it is to Thanksgiving and a few people dropped by to give us certificates for turkeys or to inquire about providing special help for Thanksgiving. We're giving out a list of items for a Thanksgiving dinner and asking donors to fill a bag with everything on the list. Then the bags will be given to the clients along with a turkey as an add-on to what they are regularly able to pick up. It's a good plan.

Soon we'll be hearing about Reverse Advent Calendars, pictured to the left. Basically, it's a good idea, but the person who developed this one pretty obviously doesn't have a lot of experience with food pantries. There are two things I notice: 

First, on the last days of the calendar, canned vegetables are suggested. My personal feeling is that canned carrots should not exist and please don't get me started on canned mixed vegetables. I don't believe I could give people food that I wouldn't serve my own family. 

Second, "on Christmas Eve donate the contents to a food bank." The food bank is almost certainly NOT going to be open to receive donations on Christmas Eve. And if they were, getting the donations processed would be a challenge.

Third (oh, I said two things): Everything suggested on this list is an item that a person can purchase at the grocery store using their SNAP (Food Stamps) benefits, if they need to. Those benefits can only be used for food. Pantries are crying for toilet paper, diapers, feminine products, laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, cleaning products, toothpaste -- these things are expensive, and people on assistance must use real money to buy them at the store.

My suggestion would be, if you want to do a "food a day during Advent," would be not to wait until December 1 but to start on the day after Thanksgiving. Or, what the heck, start now! Twenty-four days would finish the box before Christmas Eve. And you could get it to the food bank before your life gets crazy-busy.  If you need a guideline, there's a different Reverse Advent Calendar pictured below. It contains some better, healthier choices for foods, and also lists some of those hard-to-acquire non-food items. And there are no canned carrots.