Once upon a time there was a very fine family named the Simpsons.  In this family there was a mom and a dad and four children.  The children's names were Rudolph, Butter, Molly, and Pineapple. 

 

Dad Simpson stayed home with the children, taking care of the littlest ones at the apartment, and driving the older ones to and from school and to their various afterschool activities.  Mom Simpson worked full time at the Tardis Pastry Shoppe in town.

 

One day, the Tardis Pastry Shoppe told their employees that they had to close down.  Business was not good.  Mom lost her job.  Sometimes this happens to people.

 

Mom and Dad Simpson were now both out of work.  Even though mom got some money from the government (for people who lost jobs), it was getting hard for them to buy everything that they needed.

 

They needed to pay for their apartment, for food, electricity and water.  They needed to pay for toys and their car, for more toys, and taxes. They even needed to pay for gas, clothes and a "robot defense system".   It was getting really difficult to afford all of these things.  They decided they would have to give some things up until one of the parents got back to work.

 

But, what could they give up?  The family decided they would give up buying toys, and more toys, and for sure the "robot defense system".  They were even thinking about giving up the car.  And they definitely had to give up the extra goodies they used to buy for treats each week at the grocery store.  But it was also getting hard even to feed their family really healthy food.  It was getting so hard, that they asked for help and found out about the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry at the UUCW Church.  It was the food pantry that served the area in which they lived.

 

The Simpson family went to Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry on the third Saturday of each month and got to shop for extra food for free.  They got bread , oranges, canned fruit, meat and butter for Butter.  The got pineapple for Pineapple. Their shopping bags were filled with instant mashed potatoes, ravioli, organic cheesecake , pork, and bananas.  Sometimes there were even clothes at the food pantry.

 

One Saturday, Molly saw a young girl volunteering at the food pantry named Ava.  "Where did all this food come from?" Molly asked Ava.

 

Ava smiled and said, "People from my church donate a lot of this food.  We usually do things like "food drives" where everyone shares some food from their homes or their shopping carts."   Molly nodded.

 

Ava continued, " And most of the food comes from the government.  On the third Fridays of every month, volunteers from our church take their cars to the Worcester County Food Bank to pick up loads of food.  They bring the food back to this church and more volunteers come in to set it up on tables.  And then on Saturdays, more volunteers come in to help give the food away."

 

"That is SO nice!", said Molly.  "I wonder if I could be a volunteer at Loaves and Fishes one day?"

 

"Sure!" , said Ava, "And maybe you and your family could  to come to our church next Sunday.  We are packing up special food  bags for Thanksgiving.  You can all help and make  new friends too."

 

The End.

 

P.S.  A big thanks to all who volunteer at Loaves and Fishes and to Dianne Mann who organizes all those volunteers and for Dianne, Betsy and Paul Wood for running this very important outreach ministry.