Little Miss Three and I visited the local Ralph Reeder Food Shelf this week, making a modest contribution to a critical neighborhood resource. Hunger was a surprisingly difficult concept to help my pre-preschooler grasp.

DGT’s Executive Director Jenny Friendman offers a helpful “Developmental Timetable for Child Volunteers” in her book The Busy Family’s Guide to Volunteering. Little Miss Three is developmentally in the “preschool” category on this list, so I’m confident that stocking the food shelf can be a meaningful activity for her.

I tried earnestly to help her understand. While we shopped for groceries together, I explained that since our list was short, we could spend time picking out some things for families who can’t buy everything they need right now. Then I  asked her a few leading questions. I started with the question I use (modified of course)  nearly every time we embark on a new DGT project.

How do you think you might feel if we didn’t have enough money to buy groceries for our family?

She put her pudgy little hand in mine when she answered, “I would just say, ‘Mama, I love you,’ and you would buy me some more food and I would say ‘Thank you’ and eat it.” Then she grinned and added, “can I get a cookie?” Her world is so simple.

I didn’t give up, of course. As we filled a few extra grocery bags with some of our favorite foods, we talked about feeling hungry. We talked about who might help us if we couldn’t buy all of our groceries. We talked about the many people we have watched go in and out of the food shelf while we pick up our Meals On Wheels deliveries next door (both are located in a nearby school).

In the end, it was a rewarding way to spend a morning. Little Miss Three had a job to do at the grocery store, picking out food for other kids, so she was more content there than ever. When we dropped off our small donation, she was eager to talk to the volunteers.

She even wanted to help put our contributions up on the shelves. Unfortunately, when I asked if children were allowed to volunteer or accompany volunteers at the food shelf, we were given a confusing, and mostly negative answer. I just may follow up.

This evening, when we asked everyone who they helped that day, Little Miss Three answered happily, “I helped other kids have dinner.” It’s a small start on a big issue.

Tags: Improving Lives

About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her family of five. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

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