Birthday Wish (feed the hungry)

When I was in junior high school, 7th grade, I remember we had a food drive to donate can food and other goods. I had money saved up from allowance and I remember asking my aunt (she was my guardian at that time) to take me to the grocery and help me pick out food. I would have thought she would be opposed to the idea and just have me grab a few cans from home. She helped me pick out the best food for the best price and I remember her pitching in more than my allowance to help me.

Instead of taking the school bus next morning, she dropped me off at school because I had multiple bags of grocery bags. At school, I had to ask some of my friends to help me unload the goodies and drop it off to our homeroom. Then, I remember I wanted to win for having the most donation for our team, but as I was seeing all the food being stacked, I had this feeling of joy. I had one of those moments where I was thinking, “those food are just not a source of winning, people will be eating this.” From there, I remember I wanted to give more cans, not because I wanted to win, but because this is real, there are people that are hungry. So once i got home a took more cans from home and brought it the next day. haha

For my birthday this year I asked all my close friends to just give me canned/packed food instead of gifts or bday dinners. I have to thank Nestor though, he got me a Holga camera and treated me out for brunch. All my close friends helped me gain a good amount of food to donate. It wasn’t really a food drive where I asked random ppl, I wanted this to be more intimate to the people who cared for me by giving me goods as gifts and to support me in this. I sure do have a lot of good friends by seeing the pic below. Even though some of my friends had questions on why I was doing this, all went out of their way to help out. Dropping food at my house, seeing me, reminding me that I was doing a great thing. All of those felt good, but in my heart, it was them friends of mine that made it possible. Yes, I could have just spent my own money in all the goods, but it was more fun seeing my close ones donate with me. There are people out there who are hungry everyday, all year long. It so happens that my bday is close to all the Holidays, that it made it even sweeter for the timing. The worst is after the Holiday, when people doesn’t donate as much.

From now on, I will do this for the rest of my life, every birthday. It was a joy for me even though those food weren’t for me, I felt like they were the best present I can receive. All glory of this process is to God. He has blessed me with so much even thought at times I forget. I was blessed with great friends that helped me with this whole thing. I couldn’t ask for more.