Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Clause

I like many people have a budget. Each month I painstakingly hash out how much money goes to what. Some months I'm more successful at following it than others. But there is, without a doubt, one month I stick very closely to my budget - December.

Part of my budget is obviously a food budget. My food budget is most likely higher than most single girls because I truly cook for myself. Without fail each Saturday or Sunday I go to the grocery store with the week plan in hand. I do my best to build off similar ingredients so not to waste anything and to keep things less expensive. (Rant: Cilantro and Parsley really need to be sold in smaller bundles. Who uses that much cilantro and parsley before it goes bad? Ok, "who" that is single?)

For the month of December I add $10 a week to my budget. Not for holiday cooking. Not for buying extra eggnog. And not for buying those multicolored holiday M&Ms. No, each week I buy one extra bag of food for the food shelters. I start the week after Thanksgiving and do it every week up to Christmas.

My local store, QFC, makes it VERY easy in that they started selling $10 bags of food already put together AND they have a bin for that food on your way out. Very convenient and therefore leaves me no excuse to not do it.

It's my little bit of giving back during this season. It saddens me when I see the statistics of how many children go hungry in our local area alone. No one should ever go without a Christmas meal, but at the minimum if I can at least give them A meal, then I feel good.

Today I was picking up this week's bag. To my luck, as I hefted the bag up off the table - it broke. Can goods and boxes went everywhere. An older woman standing by me stopped to help. She thanked me for buying the bag of food. I explained to her how I do this every Christmas and how every week leading up to Christmas I buy $10 worth of food for the food banks. I think I saw a tear. She stopped and looked me directly in the eye and said with more emotion than I could ever conjure up, "Bless you, and thank you."

She began to tell me her story about how many years ago she hit a rough spell and was down on her luck. The only way she was able to give her kids food was through local food banks. She said she was never as thankful in her life than at that time for people who give. She folded her hand over mind and patted it saying thank you and Merry Christmas.

We went our separate ways. Yet I caught a glimpse of her in line and she too had a bag of $10 groceries. Suddenly, my heart was full of joy. It grew three inches today.

So with that, I decided that every month for 2009 I'll buy a $10 bag of food (or $10 worth of can goods). I challenge you to do the same. We may not be able to end hunger, but we can sure help our local families.