This morning my four children and I went to a Salvation Army warehouse in Tulsa and prepared food baskets for needy families. The goal is to make 5000 of them. Last week we went to the same place and sorted thousands of cans and packaged food.

The group was small today. But there were still a lot of people. We would work from 9am to 12pm. Less people were there because of two big reasons. First, everyone knew a snow storm was forecast for the day. And then, last week in Oklahoma we had a history-making ice storm. It caused major electrical outages. Tulsa was one of the hardest hit. Just about everyone had lost electrical power. It has been a long week and thousands of people are still without.
Ginny, Benjamin and I helped hand out food to people pushing shopping carts filled with two food baskets. Benjamin started by handing out two cans of fruits for each basket. Ginny placed one yellow cake mix in. I put in a box of Stove Top stuffing in every one. Samuel was further down the line. He would put in a package of margarine. Jonathan was a shopping cart pusher. (I think he liked it. He had a constant smile.) As our time progressed we moved on to other new tasks. When I handed out the fruit cans, like everyone else around I climbed on top of the heavy duty box full of cans. At the start of our shift, everyone sat on top of their full can box. And then as time went by we would be standing, getting shorter, as the can supply inside our giant boxes diminished. My kids all pushed a cart except for Sam. I broke down boxes. It’s a simple but fun task. I love kicking and busting down an empty box.
People of all ages and sizes worked together today. A tiny (about 3 years old) boy had a blast busting down boxes with his dad. A mother with her daughter and neice handed out 10 pound bags of potatoes. Several gloved men were present to lift the full baskets. There were forklift drivers. Teenage girls were there volunteering from their school’s organization. A boy scout worked next to us. Older women pushed shopping carts. I loved all the variety of people.
The old warehouse was big and cold. But we had warm hearts and worked hard! Outside you could see the falling snow. It was definitely blowing chunks out there but they were a pretty sight to see.
We left at noon. It was a quiet drive. There were no sibling squabbles. We had worked hard enough to be tired. Benjamin couldn’t wait to get home. He loves snow. He has been wanting it to snow ever since it got cold this year. We’re supposed to get two or three inches. It is a wet snow which makes good for packing together. I don’t think the snow on the ground will last very long because the barely-frozen ground is also wet.