Giving Back

Two years ago I moved into a new neighborhood; a real back in time neighborhood. A place where the kids ride their bikes on the streets after school; a place where if you need a cup of sugar, you can go next door; a place where everyone pretty much knows everyone else and we always wave hello or stop to have a quick chat.

There are 2 general groups here; the young families with growing kids and the empty nesters, who enjoy having more time on their hands. I fall into the later group. Within my group, we have a social club of ladies called “The Salty Dames”. Yes, you might say we are “salty” in many ways but we also derived our name from donating Saltine crackers to the local food bank. We would meet once a month and do an activity such as dolphin watching or exploring new places around Charleston, SC, but we’d always bring Saltine crackers to donate. The Salty Dames are truly a fun bunch of women. We would find laughter and fun in everything we would do. In the summer we’d meet at the pool and do water aerobics, which basically was just an excuse to get together and talk. Finding friends later in life brings great joy.

Then the pandemic hit. Life as everyone around the world knew stopped in so many forms. People were staying in and staying away to be safe. The Salty Dames could not meet as a group. Not only did that hurt us personally; because we could not enjoy our pastimes, we were not collecting our monthly Saltines.

Sitting at home during the quarantine, I was watching the news and saw how so many lives were being hurt by this pandemic. People were losing their jobs, they couldn’t make their rent or mortgage payment. I watched in horror at how many cars were in line at food banks and how easy it was for someone who could feed their family fine yesterday suddenly lost that ability to provide the basics. It hit me then that Saltine crackers were no longer the solution. I needed to do more. I had the ability to help and give back. I was blessed that I had food on my table and was able to continue the lifestyle I was used to but life changes can happen and do happen at anytime.

I had a solution to help others in my community and thanks to social media, I reached out first to the Salty Dames and asked for food donations for our local food bank. It was greatly received and the first month I collected quite a number of bags to deliver. Then another Dame asked to join me and we made it a monthly venture. We then began to reach out to our entire neighborhood and asked for food donations. The amounts grew every month. People were happy to help and wanted to be a part of the greater good. I would post on our neighborhood site a few times a month to let everyone know when the next donation would be. I would post pictures of the car being filled to the roof with bags of food. I would write thank yous after the deliveries to let our neighborhood know how important their good deed was and we would always walk away feeling like we had definitely helped at least one family.

As a matter of fact just today, my fellow Dame and I did a donation drop off. The Outreach director happened to be there at that time and took our picture with the amount of food on the scale. It weighed 212 lbs. He also took us on a tour of the facility and let us know how grateful he was for our help.

From Saltine crackers to over 200 lbs of groceries delivered, I truly feel grateful myself that I have the ability to help those who need it. This is my mission going forward. It will not stop after the pandemic, people will always need a helping hand. And I hope I will always have one to give.