Give More At The Grocery Store

Ever since I decided to Give More this year, I have been thinking about how I need to include Brook in this. She's only 2, but I think that she's old enough to understand the basic concept of giving things to people that need them as long as I can illustrate it in a simple way.

I was trying to think of some way I can start having her participate in giving. Sure we're always teaching her to share her toys and to give hugs and kisses, but I wanted to find something her and I could do together that would be a great life lesson.

I struggle with being generous and giving with my finances . . . call me a scrooge, but I'm being honest. It's hard for me to donate money without grumbling. I think if I had practiced it more as a child and a teen, it would be more natural for me now instead of like pulling teeth. I hope to change that in myself this year, and also to raise Brook in a way that she will be a naturally giving, generous person.

So we've incorporated a little giving into our weekly grocery shop.

Every week when I take Brook grocery shopping, we pick out 2 or 3 items to donate to the food bank. I usually choose a bulk box of pasta, or a bag of rice, sometimes canned vegetables. Brook chooses something "Fun" that is a rare treat around here like chocolate covered granola bars, fruit gummies, or flavored instant oatmeal.

I've found it works two-fold because if she sees a brightly colored, cartoon festooned box and starts up the "Mommy I want that!" chorus, I can talk to her about choosing that item as something to give to the boys and girls who don't have enough food to eat. She is thrilled to hug the box as we wheel around the store, and equally as thrilled to toss it into the donation bin at the end of the grocery tills. We talk about giving the food to some boy or girl whose Mommy doesn't have any yummy food to give them, so we can help by giving them this yummy treat. That way she feels like she "gets" some of those sugary items without actually taking them home and eating them, which makes me happy too.

I know donating sugary snacks and treats may not be the most healthful choices to be donating. I do. Which is why MY choices are always healthy, and she gets to choose 1 junky/kid food to give. My logic is that those foods tend to be status foods around the lunch table at school and on the playground. I remember when I was a kid being so jealous of the kids at school who had things like Gushers and Dunkaroos,

and on the rare occasion my mom would put them in my lunch how proud I was, and what a big production was made of pulling them out of my lunch box and enjoying them noisily in front of all the kids who only had homemade cookies as their treat.


Anyway . . .

I can still remember who the "poor" kids at my school were. And I mostly remember that because of the fact that they brought their lunches in a plastic grocery bag, and they usually had a sandwich and an apple while everyone else was eating granola bars, cookies, and cracker sandwiches filled with fake cheese. Their lunches were different than everyone else and in the lion's den that elementary school tends to be, those little differences were all it took for someone to be labelled "poor" or" uncool".

I know everyone needs good nutrition, but if I can give some little girl a pack of Dora gummies to take to school for the first time ever, so she can be proud to show off the contents of her lunch box, then that's what I'm going to do. And I'll throw in some green beans and pasta for mom :)