greater kalamazoo holiday food drive.

All the boxes ready to be stuffed!

Hello everyone :) Happy New Year! I know it's been a while but the past two weeks have been a whirlwind of Christmas celebrations, family time, fiance time, great food and drinks and relaxing! So it seems like forever ago when my mom and I went to the Greater Kalamazoo Holiday Food Drive on December 22nd. 

We got there around 9am and luckily were able to find my mom's best friend Deb, and her future daughter in law too! We lined up and got ready to pull :) 

It seems like each year this event gets more and more efficient...and I LOVE that. All you do is walk in a big circle pulling a cart with two empty boxes on it. People at each table within the circle stuff the box with their food, and by the end of it your box is completely full. 

organized chaos :)

Then, the wonderful men and women of the Portage and Kalamazoo police and fire departments speedily close each box and send it outside. From there, it is loaded into a volunteer's vehicle to be delivered to a family in need. 

It sounds simple, but when hundreds of volunteers are packing THOUSANDS of boxes, it is truly amazing. This year, we helped 1,500 families in the Kalamazoo area...all types/ages of volunteers pitched in. Please see below...this adorable little man who couldn't be more than 5 years old made the loop several times, pulling boxes all on his own. LOVE this!

I hope next year you will consider participating or finding something similar and wonderful that the whole family can do together. And I hope 2013 is starting off great for you :)

Be the change. Make the difference.