When Communities Give Back

Summer time. That magical time of the year when kids get to play outside all day, go to bed late, get up late and just have too much fun. It means pools, beaches, cookouts, and sun.

Only. Sometimes it doesn't.

Y'all, do you realize for a lot of kids school days are the only days they can count on getting any food? What happens when it's the summer and they don't know if they're getting any food? This thought seriously breaks my heart.

I'm blessed to live in a community and in a neighborhood where there are people that help. Allow me to introduce you to F.I.S.H.

F.I.S.H. stands for Faith In Serving Humanity. They're an outreach program sponsored by local churches, and they do so much for the community. Some examples include helping needy families pay for their rent, utilities, or medicines. Setting up thrift stores to sell large ticket items like washers and dryers for less than $20. And what I want to focus on, feeding the community.

Each month, needy families are able to get F.I.S.H. Care. It's several weeks' worth of food at no cost to the family. The outreach program is funded solely on donations and volunteer work. They do this because they want to help the community. I'm not ashamed to say the care packages have helped us several times in the past few months. It's just really amazing to know there's help when you need it most.

And back to the school children. The ones that are in need. The ones that are wondering where their three square meals are coming from. F.I.S.H has not forgotten about them. Enter F.I.S.H. for Kid's!

This is a summer feeding program. Each weekday (Mon thru Fri) volunteers load up their cars with sack lunches to deliver to the children. These lunches include a sandwich or hotdog, a juice box, a fruit cup or applesauce, chips, and a granola bar. This way, at least once a day kids in need are getting a good healthy meal.

The way it works is the volunteers drive through various areas of the neighborhoods. They honk the car horns repeatedly to let families know they're outside. All they need is to see the children and no matter what, no questions asked, these kids get a free sack lunch. How amazing is that? It seriously warms my heart to know there are so many wonderful people willing to help, and willing to make sure the kids in their community have at least one good meal.

Giving back to these types of programs is super easy too. Most, like this one has a way to donate money online. But there's also tons of phone numbers and email addresses to reach out and ask how you can help. Interested in seeing if your community has something like this? Simple! Just go to a local church and ask. Last week I mentioned that we may have found a new Church family. It's true, and I'll get to that more later. This Church we've fallen in love with does not have anything like this currently, and when I mentioned it to them immediately planning began to get something started.

Kids are meant to be kids, y'all. Kids shouldn't have to worry about their next meal.
Because of people like this with such amazing hearts I am grateful. I have a grateful heart knowing I live in such an amazing community.

linking up with Emily 

Something else I'm grateful for?? Blogging Friends. This week I will be celebrating this blog's one year Anniversary. Emelia, Kerri, and I have teamed up with some amazing ladies to give YOU a gift for our blogiversaries!

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