I gave a talk last weekend at Ecumenical Christian Ministries and one of my points was on being irrationally generous. It's awesome to talk about. It's another thing to see it.
Two of the most amazing things have happened today. I am finding myself so full of gratitude (and needing a break from coding the new Just Food website) that I absolutely had to write about it.
My day started out by one of our team members coming to me saying that one of our Senior Commodity folks had passed away. He had been having health complications and his wife was unsure of his health when she picked up their commodities earlier last week. He passed away on Wednesday. On the obituary, it said that in lieu of flowers, to please donate money so the family could bury him.
Heart wrenching stuff. And that sucks, you know? We pride ourselves on getting to know people here. We want to know their families, their kids, their faces. Not having enough to eat is bad enough. Having to go somewhere where people treat you badly because you're poor is something I'm hell bent on us not doing. People matter here. Customer service matters. When our clients feel like they're mistreated, we talk to them, and we fix it. They matter. Which is why (this is the second person in the last 10 months that this has happened) this sucks so bad. I didn't KNOW this guy, but I knew him. I saw him every month. I knew his smile, his laugh and his troubles in life.
Not the best way to start off a Friday...BUT! A nobody (because they do not want to be identified) called this morning. One of our donors (who has given just as much time as money), contacted me this morning, as they knew this person through their help on Senior Commodity day. They said they wanted to take care of all of the rest of the expenses. I was blown away. "Nobody should have to not have an opportunity to bury their husband," they said. So, we called the funeral home, let the donor know that they could go down and take care of this anonymously at the funeral home.
No one will write a story, or it won't be shared on any newscast. The family won't even know who it was. But this donor changed somebody's life today.
See, it isn't JUST food that happens here.
Around 10:30am, as I'm coding away and still high on what had just happened, our client intake coordinator came back and said she had someone that wanted to donate some money. I am always eager to talk to these people. She came back and I recognized her as a client. She has volunteered here many times doing data entry. She's extremely smart, a former social worker, who has mountains of medical bills and after the bills are paid, doesn't have a lot leftover for food. We had all of our team in my office (they followed her in and started to pick up on what was happening). She pulled out her wallet and pulled out a $20 bill. TWENTY dollars. Now, it may not seem like that's a lot to you, but to someone who's social security is less than $1500 a month to pay all the bills, medicine, etc...this is a HUGE sacrifice. "We had some leftover this month and I've always told you that if we do, we'll give it here. It's the least we could do," she says.
We said thank you, told her that we wanted to see her volunteering around here some more, to which she said that she would when she felt better. And then she walked out.
LJWorld wasn't here for the monetary exchange of hands presentation. 6News was capturing more important stories that citizens in the community are concerned with. But this. This was our big news today. These are the stories that change our world.
I had two other people in my office. One started bawling. The other wouldn't stop grinning from ear to ear. I was shocked. This is how I can tell that we're doing right. When the people who so generously receive our services start helping to provide for others to have those services.
These are the stories we tell. These are the things we get on the rooftops to yell to everyone who is within earshot.
After all, it isn't JUST food...
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