Yesterday the girls and I went to collect food for our local food pantry. Over the weekend, I had papered the neighborhood with fliers asking for extra food and sundry products. Just the basics, cans of soup, paper towel, soap – stuff you’d have on hand that our local food pantry is low on.

Leina was very curious about what we were doing. She couldn’t understand why people just didn’t go buy groceries at Safeway but she quickly caught on to the idea of sharing. We have extra so we share. This is a simple principle that she hears everytime we have a playgroup or go to a friend’s house. She was so excited to help me look for bags of food on front porches. At least at first.

It was actually sunny and clear yesterday as we headed down our first street. The girls ran ahead, checking each porch, eager to find our first donation. But then their excitment slowed as we passed house after house after house with no luck. We were half way through our designated route and still had not collected a single item. Nothing.

“Why?”, Leina asked me. Why were their no bags waiting for us? I fumbled for an answer. I didn’t want to tell her that people probably forgot, or were too busy, or just didn’t care. Four is a little young to have your faith in humanity rattled. So instead, I told her that maybe no one was sharing because they didn’t have any extra. Leina looked at me a moment, and then looked back at the street of house with their 3 car garages, manicured a lawns, and 3,ooo sq ft homes and didn’t quite buy it. “No mom,” she said, “I think they just don’t know how to share.”

Our hike covered about 100 houses and we picked up one donation. Yup. Just one bag of soup and paper towels. The other moms reported similar results. Some found not a single donation. Other loaded up a meager bag or two. Most of the donations we recovered were from members of the moms club itself. After a whole morning walking the streets, we had very little to show for our work. It actually really depressed me. I live in such a well off community. So many big homes and big cars. I just wish we had a few more helping hands. We sure could use them.