Little Helping Hands

“Knock, knock.”

Trish, the St. Louis Area Foodbank volunteer coordinator, laughed as she tapped her knuckles on the door of my office.

“I have someone here who wants to make a donation,” she said with a smile.

I turned around in my chair and began to get up, but quickly realized I was already eye-to-eye with the donor — a sweet little girl of about 7. We’ll call her Charity.

Charity shyly handed me a heavy white envelope. Inside, nickels and dimes were Scotch-taped to loose-leaf paper.

A few weeks ago, when Charity learned she would be volunteering at the Foodbank, she started saving her hard-earned allowance.

By donating a portion of her allowance, Charity learned that caring and sacrifice go hand in hand — no matter what size the hands are.

All hard-working donors sacrifice a little to help their neighbors a lot, and they also trust in the Foodbank to make their sacrifice count.

Charity’s $1.25 enables the Foodbank to provide 5 meals to people in need. ($1=4 meals)

I didn’t perform cross multiplication for Charity to demonstrate the impact of her donation, but that is certainly something I do weekly to show how $1 can go a long way toward making a substantial difference.

Instead, I told Charity she had done something very nice, and then she gave me a hug.

    Patrick Delhougne is a development associate at the St. Louis Area Foodbank.

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