Happy Holidays!

Someone on my holiday list is getting chickens for Christmas.The recipient doesn't live on a farm, won't ever enjoy a 'home-made' omelet and, in fact, will never see their flock. Instead, their chicks will be sent to to a small corner of the world where they will forever change someone else's life by providing a sustainable source of food and income to a struggling family. See, chicks grow into chickens, which lay eggs and, yes, can become dinner. For a family who has only ever known hunger and poverty they become a constant stream of protein and income! And because chickens make more chickens, the gift continues to grow as offspring are passed along to effect the same change in other people's lives. Grass huts become adobe. Wells are dug. Malnourished children become better fed. Medical care can now be had. Attending school becomes more than a dream. All this from a flock of chicks you 'gave' as a twenty dollar Christmas present- maybe to a hard to buy for grandparent, the teenager who has everything, friends who want for nothing or a very special person who deserves an extra special gift. Imagine them going to bed every night thinking about those chickens they'll never see... wondering what the recipient family in Thailand, Honduras or Cameroon is doing now because of those birds... how the chickens must be growing- one hen can lay 200 eggs a year!!... and the many, many ways their lives have been changed.... a gift from the Heifer Project International is truly a gift that keeps on giving to everyone involved... and that is the true spirit of Christmas.