Day 325: Donated Food To The Greater Chicago Food Depository

 
As the holidays start to approach, so starts my usual holiday blues.  Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving and Christmas as much as anyone else, but it also makes me think.  It makes me think about all of the people out there who are struggling financially, emotionally, etc. and how I don't have the power to help them all.  One thing that really strikes me is that on days like Thanksgiving, when we destroy copious amounts of food, there are many others out there that are simply looking for something...anything to eat. 

My wife is pretty diligent about her grocery shopping.  On Sundays, she plans exactly what we are going to be eating for the whole week, writes it on her chalkboard menu, and goes and buys the exact groceries she will need.  When he have family get-togethers like Thanksgiving, she becomes uber prepared and buys all of the items she needs well in advance.  Well I started thinking about what I wanted to do on different days this week, and one thing that I have wanted to do all year was donate food to a local food depository.  My wife has done all of our grocery shopping for everything that we are going to make for Thanksgiving, so our pantry is all stocked.  So when I asked my wife if we could donate many of the Thanksgiving staples (cranberry sauce, pumpkin, corn) and other foods, I was expecting a wee little bit of push back.  Not because she didn't want to give up those items, but because my wife is a planner to the utmost degree (anyone out there married to a teacher can understand what I mean).  However, I was definitely wrong because my wife was more than willing to give up those items.  So today, for my random act of kindness, my family donated food to the Greater Chicago Food Depository near our house.  Hopefully another family out there can forget about having to worry about putting food on the table and just enjoy one another's company.   For those in Chicago, if you would like to donate to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, you can find the nearest location here.