American Food

Every Wednesday night, our church transforms to a place of help for people who need it. The Harvest Food Pantry is staffed by volunteers, and tonight our small group signed up to take a turn pitching in.

I volunteered once before, and I enjoyed the experience, so I was looking forward to trying it again, though I couldn't help wondering what a super preggie like myself could actually do to be useful. Carting cans and boxes was out of the question, as was guiding patrons through the line to receive the food, since I wouldn't be able to help them carry their bags.

What does this have to do with OUR dinner? Well, since I was trying to get there between 5 and 6 to help set up--yes, giving myself that giant window was foolish and did mean that I actually arrived at 5:55--and since Koji had karate until 4:30 and since we had to pick up the babysitter, Susanna, and then get home and get settled, well, there wasn't a whole lot of time left for preparing or even thinking about dinner.

That's why the kids had
*shells and cheese from an Aldi box, with diced ham and peas added
*clementines
*fudge pops

The perfect food pantry job for me turned out to be sitting at the end of the line and facilitating the paper work that allows patrons with children under 18 in their home to qualify for extra canned goods. I felt a little silly doing it, but when the evening was winding up, one of the regular volunteers came to me and said that the line ran much more smoothly than usual because I was there. So. Even super preggies can be helpful!

As for my dinner, it was
*1/5th of a sausage and beef sandwich and
*pizza from Gulliver's

I'm not sure that I actually like Gulliver's, but I was with Ross, Rebecca, Brian and Karlene, so excellent company made up for whatever was lacking in the restaurant.

You may be wondering what Aogu had for dinner? Good question! He stopped in at the food pantry and helped for about an hour, then had to head home and finish up some work ahead of a deadline. By the time I got home, he had already eaten? Or maybe I even served him something but I honestly cannot remember what it was!