My Giving Heart

Needy people all over the U.S. are eating rutabagas, cream of mushroom soup and navy beans. This morning I caught my 11 year old son raiding our pantry for the Canned Food Drive at school. His efforts were not totally altruistic; there was a competition. It was actually the Auburn/Alabama canned food drive. Which students could bring more canned goods-those who are Auburn fans or those who are Alabama fans?



I remember when I was growing up helping my mother collect cans from our pantry to take to school for "the needy people." We certainly didn't have a lot of money, but we considered ourselves a fortunate family. We had food, clothing and shelter. We didn't have everything we wanted, but we did have what we needed.



My parents were very giving people and raised me to be the same, but there is something about collecting cans from my pantry that brings out the greedy child in me. I give money to charities. We also choose a family for Christmas and buy presents for them, but when it comes to the cans in my pantry I have this "that's mine" reaction.



As my youngest began to place cans in the grocery bag I caught myself saying, "No, that is my 0 points Progresso soup-I eat that all the time-and, no, we need that Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup-you know flu season is coming. Wait! Don't take the tomato sauce-I may need that for something-anyway, needy people don't want that! Let's see-o.k. you can take the Sunshine brand Rutabagas, and the Hummas Tahina(chick pea dip) that I picked up from the Arabic grocery, take the Navy Beans-sometimes I just can't pass up 6 cans for $2.00-even if we really don't eat them-that is such a great price. You can also take some cream of mushroom soup-I bought a bunch of those in case I got in the mood to make a cassarole."

He finally collected about 10 cans for his "team" and for the needy people-of course. I was so glad that the tradition of canned food drives lives on in the lives of my children. Even if secretly I am glad we cleaned out the pantry of those orphaned cans. If I had been asked to donate money to buy canned goods-I could have easily written the check. But, try taking my good soup and I don't feel so charitable.