Shopping with your community in mind…Meet Kim

Meet Kim

1. My name is Kim Black, and I live in Irving, Texas with my wonderful husband Byron and two awesome kiddos Sophie, age 8, and Spencer, age 5. I’m not sure that I EVER used a grocery store coupon until I became a stay-at-home mom when my daughter Sophie was born in 2002. I really think about coupon use as a financial contribution to my family-all I have to do is spend an hour or so a week, and I can literally ‘make/save’ all this money!! I also participate in some market research studies for cash. I LOVE having the opportunity to stay at home to raise my kids, so I do whatever I need to do to make it happen!

I often read a blog site with multiple bloggers called Care2 Causes and another connected one entitled Care2 Healthy and Green Living. I also sign a lot of online petitions with this site. I learn lots of great things through both of these online ‘newsletters’. One time an article on Care2 Causes really caught my attention. The author was writing about how to reach out to your community in small ways that can make a HUGE difference. One of the suggestions was to pick up one extra nonperishable food item every time you went to the grocery store for a local food bank. Put the items together in a box, and at the end of the month, take the collected items to a local food bank. I LOVED this idea! It sounded so easy. Honestly, it should be easy, but it is also really easy to forget to do this simple act. I have really slacked on this lately, but I plan to get better!! I currently have a friend in need of donations, so usually, when this is the case, I will give the food items directly to a friend.

2.

Thanks to the U.S. Postal service for making this past month’s donation process super easy!!! I love when the postal service collects food. You really have no excuse not to donate when they are literally picking up the food from you doorstep! and what a great service project for them! Once a year, the boy scouts do a similar food collection for the North Texas Food Bank where they drop a yellow grocery bag off at your home and return to collect the food items the next weekend! Watch out for those yellow bags!

(and yes, that is an E.T. nightlight in my kitchen-just one of beloved treasures from my husband!)

3. Honestly, I donate whatever is handy. Using the method I mentioned above I usually will pick up an extra pasta or an extra canned food item. I have been thinking a lot lately about including at least one snack item. I know my family eats a ton of snacks, so these families in need probably would like to have snacks also! Aldi is a great place to get snacks for less money! I think people tend to think of basics, but I see no reason why a box of graham crackers or bag of goldfish can’t be thrown in! I also typically donate stuff my own family eats. You will notice two single serving cereals in my picture donation. My kids told me they would not eat those Frosted Flakes that came as part of a multi-pack (they are crazy-Frosted Flakes ROCK! but I am trying not to eat stuff like that right now!), and the GoLean Crisp that I got free in the mail. I am signed up with Kashi to get free samples and coupons in the mail. For some reason, no one in my family has been interested in trying the GoLean Crisp.

4. Several of the above items were purchased using coupons. The Frosted Mini-Wheats are my kid’s current favorite cereal (that my husband and I will allow them to eat!), so I usually use a coupon for $1 off for buying 2 or 3 boxes. For this purchase, I bought 3 boxes of the Mini-Wheats kept 2 for my kids and donated 1. Same thing with the Rosarita black beans (a favorite of my family!), the coupon called for buying 3 to get 50 cents (doubled to $1 at Kroger) off the purchase. I kept 2 cans for my family and donated 1. The pastas were also purchased with coupons. We eat so much pasta that I try to NEVER let a pasta coupon go unused. Pasta is great to fill up your family and great to donate. I tend to buy ‘healthy’ pastas, so I donate healthy pastas.

5. I’m honestly not sure how much I spent on this donation. I guess I am not really that good at keeping track. I would say not more than probably $20. Not enough to affect my family budget, but enough to help another family in need!

6. The kids helped me gather up this donation. The pizza flavored goldfish are my daughter’s favorite! I really try to impress upon my kids how blessed we are as a family to have the home, food, toys, etc that we have. One year we passed out toys to needy families at our church. My kid’s school often has events like family movie nights at the gym where the price of admission is a canned food item per person. At Thanksgiving, my kid’s school (which is affiliated with our church) has a food drive, and the kids place all the bags of food on the altar. Our church and the kid’s school have their own food pantry called The Ark which makes it easy to make a food donation. Part of the mission of my kid’s school is a teaching of social justice. My daughter is also starting her own ‘drive’ to collect items to donate to the Irving Animal Shelter. She has begun by having my mom buy some dog toys to donate. She plans to collect dog toys and treats to deliver a donation hopefully this summer!

Thank you Kim for sharing your donation with us!  I love how involved your children are in your families donating. Keep up the great giving!

Your daughter’s idea to help animal shelters is a great one! I’ll keep an eye out for pet coupons. I’d be happy to help her meet her goal.

If you are reading this post and you also do regular donations to food banks, please feel free to contact me.

adashofdomestic(at)verizon(dot)net

Advertisement

• Posted in: blogging ♦ couponing for community ♦ food ♦ grocery shopping ♦ Shopping with your community in mind
• Tagged: Food bank, food donations, Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini-Wheats, giving with a happy heart, Grocery store, North Texas Food Bank, Pasta, shopping with your community in mind, United States Postal Service