Semi-success

Well, I would call the little food-drive I tried in our neighborhood here on Base a semi-success. There wasn't an outpouring of canned goods. But there was a decent response. And I guess that would qualify as a semi-success.

I am sharing this on the blog not to toot my own horn. I am sharing it because I think it would be a fantastic idea for those of you reading to implement during the holidays or any time of the year. I got the idea from my parents' church. I didn't want to talk about how I did it until I saw whether how I did it worked.

I really wanted to come up with a way to teach my boys how to give during the holiday season. However, they are very little and serving at a soup kitchen just isn't feasible for us right now. So I came up with this idea with some help from my parents' church bulletin. I know my boys don't quite understand right now, but I figure that with each passing year, they'll understand more and more, and I can tell them that we started this when they were just one.

My friend Brittny helped. Together we passed out 75 fliers around the neighborhood. The fliers simply said that we were having a food-drive in support of one of the local shelters. If they wanted to participate, they could drop canned goods off at my house or, I'd pick them up on Tuesday, November 24 (today) between 9:30 and 11:30. All they had to do was put them in a bag or box outside the front of their house.

I think, in total, we had about 8 houses participate. Not too bad. My van is pretty stocked with cans. Any is better than none.

I also think there are ways to make the food drive more successful. Actually knocking on the doors to hand out the fliers and knocking to see if they have canned goods might be better. But then, we wouldn't be able to cover as many houses. So we opted for covering a lot of houses knowing the lack of personal contact might decrease the giving.

Honestly, the whole thing took me just a few hours. I really think that this is something that any of you could do in your neighborhood, tomorrow. If you are interested, feel free to leave a comment. I'd be happy to share with you the flier I used and any additional details. I'm sure this could be done in a variety of ways. I'm sure other people could come up with much better ideas.

But it was a semi-success nonetheless.

Thanks Brittny for the help! It was great to have a partner to keep me accountable and make sure I didn't back out at the last minute because I was lazy or intimidated or anything.