Nov 27, 2018 | Dawn Riley | 851 views
Minor Atom team visits The Inn of The Good Shepherd
Our Minor Atom Boys made a special visit to The Inn of The Good Shepherd.
The toys the boys donated yesterday may be used for the Birthday bags they have for families that may not be able to afford to give their kid a gift. The Inn will put together a bag with cake mix, icing, a book and a gift so a child can still enjoy a birthday.
The kids learned a lot about the food bank at the Inn. People in the community that are in need and qualify can come to the Inn and shop for groceries based on a point system. If you are a single person you have 25 points. For each additional person in your family to get 5 points each. So a family of 4 would get 40 points. Food on the shelves is marked with how many points the items are. The Inn does not put points in items like milk and eggs as they want people to have these options and not have to choose between having healthy foods or getting a bunch of canned goods to feed the family the rest of the month. Essentially 40 points will get you enough groceries ideally for a week BUT people can only use the food bank every 3 weeks. The Inn has volunteers that can help people shop and pick items that can make the most use out of their points so they can try to stretch the points and groceries as much as they can for the 3 weeks. The boys were put to work helping stock the shelves for when it opened up Monday morning. Myles told the boys that 1850 people use the food bank monthly and they need approx 40,000 pounds of food a month for the food bank so that is why donations and food drives are so important. They seem to get an over abundance of canned tomatoes,canned pineapples and canned beans They really appreciate donations of peanut butter, cereal and also toiletry items.
The Inn also supplies winter jackets, hats, and mitts to families in need this time of year and they gave 650 backpacks out to school aged children this past Sept filled with supplies that age appropriate for their grade level. The boys toured the basement downstairs where the food comes in and is sorted into boxes before being brought upstairs. Also in the basement is where the donations such as coats are sorted. They got to see another room upstairs called the Genesis Room where people in need can pick out the coats and shoes and other clothing items.
This was a wonderful life lesson for the Boys. To understand that we have less fortunate in our community that sometimes need a helping hand. And how proud they must feel knowing they will make a young Boy or Girl very happy when they receive the gift they donated!
Well done Boys! We are all very proud of you!