Well, we did it!

23 people - 14 charter school kids and 8 adults - came and picked fruit today for the food bank and to take home to their families. Several of the kids were special needs kids.

It was scary thinking about all these people coming over, most of them I'd never met before. But everything turned out great. When they arrived, it was raining pretty hard. But the kids piled out of the van, put on their yellow raincoats, introduced themselves with a hug, and went to work. The rain soon stopped, and my hapa (half) Hawaiian friend who arranged this said Pele (goddess of the volcano) was good to us to make the rain stop.

The kids picked citrus for the food bank, plus several containers full of rambutan to take home.

I never heard a single complaint, just oohs and ahs about all the fruit, and comments like, "oh, it's like being in heaven". My friend said many of the kids had never tasted rambutan before, because it's too expensive in the stores. And most had never tasted it fresh off the trees.

We couldn't weed because it was too muddy, but the kids' teacher said he would like to bring them back to weed another time. These were really great kids, and the adults were wonderful.

After work, we all joined hands for a circle and said a blessing. It started raining very hard then (Thank you Pele for waiting). A fold-up table came out of the van, we put it on the covered lanai, and piled the food onto it that they'd brought for the kids' lunch. I was told that a little old oriental lady had gotten up at 2:30 this morning to fix it fresh for the kids - nori wraps filled with white rice and spam, plus chocolate cake (oh well, at least they got the nori, and sometimes it's definitely the thought that counts).

Today's adventure came about as a wonderful community effort. We're all so lucky when we have a caring community, with people willing to sacrifice their time to make good things happen. This was a first for me, and it was great fun.

There are now 400 clients for just this one food bank (called The Poi Bowl), and at least 3 food banks within 15 miles of my home. A lot of hungry people.

Yes, I know. I'm very lucky.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2008 11:33PM by suncloud.

cool

Thanks Suncloud. I needed to feel good today.

I could picture you all out there. How lovely!

rambutan, hhuh?

never heard of it
sounds exotic
i feel deprived ( just kidding

seriously though, i was enjoying reading this post til i got to the SPAM part
then i just felt like

geeeez... it really ISS the thought that counts
cuz its gonna take a lot to neutralize that spamiardic spam

Beautiful post, Suncloud. You are doing wonderful work!

Yes, do tell: what's 'rambutan"?

Sharrhan:


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Sounds great Suncloud. Was that day along the lines of the initiative in England, where people go around collecting fruit from residential properties who don't want it, to go towards charities ?

I am about to embark on a lifestyle change myself, in the manner of dedicating most of my work hours to a community garden, for the sake of growing organic produce for myself and the community. I've been moving toward this for a fair while now, but it is only now all starting to realy happen. Go go community !

la_veronique,

Forgot to mention the coca cola to wash it down. Oh well.

Lightform, I don't know about the initiative in England, but it sounds like the same idea. My friend says she's going around to several farms and arranging for them to donate to the food bank. Then she gets the school kids to harvest and do some work on the farm, or else she goes and harvests by herself. I really admire her energy.

I think it's great that you'll be volunteering so much of your time on the community garden! Especially with all this global economic instability. Please keep us posted on your project!

A rambutan is round or oval, about 2-3 inches long, BRIGHT red, with kind of longish soft spikes all over it. Reminds me of a sea anemone. The outer peal is kind of hard. You tear it open, and on the inside is a whitish opaque fruit with the consistency of a grape, but more firm, and sweet - not tart. There's a pit about the size of a small almond. It's the same family as lychee (sapindaceae).

suncloud:

<<Forgot to mention the coca cola to wash it down. Oh well. >>

LOL

Nice story suncloud. My friend went to Hawaii and told me a lot of people were into spam there.

Kit