Day 53 - Feed My Starving Children

Monday night we have Family Home Evening. We usually have a short lesson about a scripture story or gospel principle, followed by an activity. We get an opportunity to teach our children of Gods love and get to spend time as a family. Tonight, we excluded the younger ones to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.

Feed My Starving Children is a great organization that sends food to hungry children in poor countries. They operate through donations and volunteers. 90% of donations are used to buy supplies for Manna Rice Packs; a combination of vitamins, vegetables, soy, and rice. Each box of assembled packs feeds a child for 7 months. Volunteers are young as 5-years-old can help assemble these packs by scooping ingredients into bags. Older volunteers can help weigh, seal, and box the packs. If you are allergic to soy or need to sit, you can help label. There is a job for everyone. We are lucky enough to have a permanent packing facility near our home, but there are mobile packing sites as well. Check their website for more information.

Service Opportunities for Kids

It is hard to find places that let kids volunteer, but there are some opportunities out there. Here are some resources and ideas:

• Feed My Starving Children-kids as young as 5 can volunteer (with an adult)
• JustServe.org-Service opportunities in your community. You can search by age range.
• Volunteermatch.org - You can search by age range AND interests
• Make-a-Wish - our school has a donation drive for them every year and through that, we found out about a service opportunity to help fulfill a wish by building a playground. The kids weren't too helpful, but they could carry pieces and hold things for people. If you email or call, I'm sure they could find a wish your family could help fulfill for a child in your community.
• Drives and Donations-this is the easiest for kids but I feel like this is what they always get stuck with. Have them raise money through a bake sale or lemonade stand to donate to a cause (we do a door-to-door bake sale in our neighborhood for Make-A-Wish) or go door-to-door (with parents of course) collecting food or goods to donate.
• Visit a retirement home-my kids are kind of shy, so we don't do this, but I should. Old people love to see children and have someone to talk to.
• Random Acts of Kindness - make a list (or find one online) and start crossing them off. Do at least one a day.
• Pick up trash-go to a park, a parking lot,  the beach. There is trash everywhere.
• Make Fleece blankets and scarves to donate-fleece scarves and blankets are super easy and always in need.