This was my first time (but not my last) volunteering last night at the San Francisco Food Bank. Our group was in charge of boxing up carrots. According to “Henry” at the SF Food Bank, each box that we filled with carrots was enough to feed 8 families or more. I am not going to lie, I took one look at the bins filled with carrots that looked to be about 36” length x 36” width x 36” height, maybe bigger and I was a little intimidated—Ok, I freaked out!!! Before my ego could react, my higher self stepped up and took over—I went to work. We would grab an empty box and filled them up with carrots according to how Henry trained us. I stopped thinking and acted fast -- I kept filling up boxes with my fellow volunteers and we cleared out 1 bin at time. After we filled up the boxes, we handed them to the next station of volunteers to finalize these boxes by arranging and wrapping them on the pallets—readying them for shipment to their final destination, St. Anthony’s Church. We finished in record time and boxed up 11,000 pounds of carrots! GREAT JOB TEAM!
I didn’t mind the manual labor because I was doing something to help the community and it felt good. As I was gathering and boxing the carrots, the thought came into mind that my (paternal) grandparents, first generation immigrants came to the United States and worked at a factory/warehouse doing the same thing for pay. I thought to myself, I am doing this as a volunteer; my grandparents were doing this for pay to put food on the table. Then, I recalled from my memory bank, that my parents worked at factories thru out Salinas, California and took on 2nd jobs like cleaning houses to make a better life for me AND they never complained. I thought, WOW--at that moment, I was more grateful than ever for my grandparents and my parents who have paved the way for me and my son so we wouldn’t have to follow in their footsteps and labor the way they did. We would have it easy – we do have it easy. We are the example of the American Dream.
My grandparents and parents have instilled in me and I passed it on to my son that we’re all here to help and take care of each other regardless of whether or not we’re blood-related. I believe in positive thinking; however I’m also an “action” person. I will only believe it when I see it; in other words, actions speak louder than words. Look, I do what I can to help out the community. If I can’t physically be there to help out, I make a donation or send food and/or clothing and prayers to the community. If you have a heart, how can you sit back and watch your brothers and sisters not have enough to eat and/or suffer in pain? RIGHT – YOU CAN’T. So what are you going to do about it? Prayers/Positive Thinking + Action = Manifestation.
Please see the link below if you would like to volunteer at either of the foodbanks:
http://www.sffoodbank.org/volunteer (SF)
http://www.accfb.org/volunteer.html (Alameda County)
To make a donation to The Red Cross for Disaster Relief or one of their other causes, please click on the link below:
https://www.redcross.org/donate
Till next time – I bid you all continued Love, Light and Compassion.
~Maria
I didn’t mind the manual labor because I was doing something to help the community and it felt good. As I was gathering and boxing the carrots, the thought came into mind that my (paternal) grandparents, first generation immigrants came to the United States and worked at a factory/warehouse doing the same thing for pay. I thought to myself, I am doing this as a volunteer; my grandparents were doing this for pay to put food on the table. Then, I recalled from my memory bank, that my parents worked at factories thru out Salinas, California and took on 2nd jobs like cleaning houses to make a better life for me AND they never complained. I thought, WOW--at that moment, I was more grateful than ever for my grandparents and my parents who have paved the way for me and my son so we wouldn’t have to follow in their footsteps and labor the way they did. We would have it easy – we do have it easy. We are the example of the American Dream.
My grandparents and parents have instilled in me and I passed it on to my son that we’re all here to help and take care of each other regardless of whether or not we’re blood-related. I believe in positive thinking; however I’m also an “action” person. I will only believe it when I see it; in other words, actions speak louder than words. Look, I do what I can to help out the community. If I can’t physically be there to help out, I make a donation or send food and/or clothing and prayers to the community. If you have a heart, how can you sit back and watch your brothers and sisters not have enough to eat and/or suffer in pain? RIGHT – YOU CAN’T. So what are you going to do about it? Prayers/Positive Thinking + Action = Manifestation.
Please see the link below if you would like to volunteer at either of the foodbanks:
http://www.sffoodbank.org/volunteer (SF)
http://www.accfb.org/volunteer.html (Alameda County)
To make a donation to The Red Cross for Disaster Relief or one of their other causes, please click on the link below:
https://www.redcross.org/donate
Till next time – I bid you all continued Love, Light and Compassion.
~Maria
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