My Latest Fun with Coupons

The Food Bank- when I was there though, the shelves were MUCH emptier!

I am so excited about my latest new experience with couponing! This past Tues. I went to the local moms group that I attend. It was the first meeting of the season so we just had a welcome brunch and then had time to just connect with each other again. For about 15 minutes though, one of the ladies from the Conestoga Valley Food Bank shared with us what they do, their needs and their vision. I was really impressed.

Not only do they help quite a lot of local families get through hard financial times by giving them needed food and grocery items, they also have a real heart for caring for these people. Instead of having the people line up to get their food and household items, they set up appointments for each individual/family and then a volunteer meets with them, helping them get the items they need and also giving them a chance to talk if they wish. Lots of times they are able to care for these people by listening to them and praying with them. I was so blessed by the ministry that the Conestoga Valley Food Bank is doing!

But my ears really perked up when Beth mentioned that they can always use volunteers to do different things, one of which was shopping for the items they give away. I've been wishing I could volunteer somewhere but with a 3 yr. old it's pretty hard to be able to do that very easily. (I have family that would babysit but they live about 30 min. away.)

To make a long story short, I am now going to do shopping for the food bank, watching for low prices on the foods and household items that they need and using my coupons to get them ultra cheap. The great thing is that I can do this on my own time and really, it won't even take up much of my time because I'll simply do this while I'm already doing my regular couponing/shopping! And obviously, they'll reimburse me for my purchases too. It just feels like the perfect fit.

So why am I sharing this with you? For two reasons. For one, if you live locally and have items that you get for free (or very inexpensively) and would like to give them to the food bank, I'll gladly work with you to make that happen. Also, I'm guessing that other food banks would love to have someone do this same type of thing for them and I thought it might be something that some of you all would enjoy doing.

For you locals that would be interested in donating items to the food bank, they will take pretty much anything. Items like cereal, canned fruit and veggies, pasta, Hamburger Helper, toothpaste, shampoo and soap are things that they give out to each person. However, if someone donates other items they happily pass those along too!