The children have been working at a local food bank for about 2 years now and really enjoy it. We sing the "Workin' for Jesus" song as we fill orders and stock shelves. The families that are serviced are given an assortment of juices, PB&J, cereals (hot & cold), pasta/rice, canned goods, frozen meat, eggs and then coupons for fresh meat and milk. Sometimes people may donate some personal needs items that are set up on a table for families to get while they are waiting for their food. Jordan "mans" this table most times with the instruction that people can only have 1 item. This was very hard for her.
A few months ago, a family with many people came in and they had a large order. The mother of the large family picked up a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap. The staff person told her, "Only 1 item" and you could see the mother literally weighing the items back and forth trying to decide which they needed most. It broke Jordan's heart and she began whispering to me, "Why should people have to choose between soap and toilet paper? I wanna start my own personal needs closet where people won't have to choose!"
And so an idea was born and we started planning, Entertaining Angels Personal Needs Closet. We approached the Pastor at our new church with a draft flier of our idea and he said he would get back to us. He scheduled a meeting with us for yesterday and Jordan typed up the agenda for the meeting. She had some really great ideas for the system of referral and service and he was impressed. He even made a donation right there towards the purchase of the prepaid cell phone that would be used as the closet's phone number. I was a proud mamma with how she ran the meeting. We plan to start off very small at first. We are excited!
5 comments:
If you would be willing to give me your address, I would like to make a donation to Jordan for the closet. You could send me the info to sherirouse at gmail dot com if you are so inclined.
That's wonderful. You must be so proud. I remember back when I was a caseworker and someone asked me how she could buy things like that and I didn't know what to tell her.
What a great daughter you have!
I too would like to make contribution to the Jordan closet..and I think if I tell my Mo she too would like to com=ntribut...I believe i will start tomorrow...Meijer has TP on sale buy 1 get one free.
THAT IS SO COOL! You GO Jordan!
And she is dead on..... people should never have to choose between toilet paper and soap.
I am SO impressed! I have some things I want to bring to you.
Do you ever shop at that Kroger on Holmes? It always kills me to see that shelf there, with all the things that people discovered they couldn't afford and had to leave behind.
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