When we were growing up, our parents instituted a weekly "Dollar Night"--a night where our family of five partook of a meal that cost under a dollar. The purpose was two-fold: first, to donate to a food shelf the margin between the cost of a normal dinner and the cost of a Dollar Night dinner; and second, to give us an ongoing, consistent awareness of the existence of hunger and those for whom it is a daily reality.

While I had little appreciation for Dollar Night as a child (I grew to hate split-pea soup and open-face cheese melts), I now have deep gratitude for the experience--for how it has undoubtedly contributed to my commitment to feed others, how even as a kid it somehow connected me to people who were hungry.

I was reminded of Dollar Nights last week when someone was telling me about a similar concept: eating a quarter cup of cooked rice for dinner once a week to maintain an awareness of the bulk of our global population for whom that portion is a whole day's sustenance.

Perhaps your initial reaction mirrors my own: "But my kids will be so hungry. I couldn't do that to them." But the more I considered it, the more I realized, "I owe this to my children--this opportunity to grow as human beings in compassion and empathy and generosity and global consideration; to pass on to them a legacy of seeing beyond themselves and thinking bigger than our family and helping where help is needed."

And so, the dawn of the New Year will mark the beginning of regular "rice nights" in the Caswell household. Will you join us in this commitment?

We have approached the holiday season with such speed, I have yet to pack away our summer clothes. Already, I am feeling the onset of the seasonal tension caused by an over-filled calendar and under-funded budget. It seems as though, this year, it is beginning earlier than usual, but I am attributing that to the jolt I got when I saw Burnsville Center Santa waving merrily from his big green chair the week following Halloween. Really.

Last year, I had a conversation with an acquaintance who was feeling the same annual tension. Together we bemoaned the chaos and the commercialism and the crowds. As part of this conversation, we also talked about how hard it was when every organization was looking for some kind of donation or support. How we felt like we were sending some donation in to school with the kids every day for "some cause or the other." How workplaces relentlessly campaign their pet causes, and how the church events, alone, could claim all of your time and drain your pocketbook. I was an equal part of this conversation, complaining about the seasonal onslaught of various organizations looking to...what? Provide local families with warm and sufficient meals for the chilly holiday season? Ensure that young children in economically struggling families still got to experience the joy of seeing a wrapped package under the tree? Help the millions of children around the world have gifts - minor compared to those I will put under my tree - to open on Christmas Day? Clothe the homeless who face the freezing weather of the season without the respite of a warm home, a blanketed bed, a full meal? The realization along with the realities of the broken world we live in is too humbling for words.

Of course these groups should be doing everything they can to lift up the plight of those in need. And of course they should vigorously promote the various ways that any of us who have the resources to share can become involved. It is now clear to me that I would and should be disappointed if anyone charged with the mission of running these helping organizations did anything less than that. And with this revelation, as a family, we decided that the many opportunities that will come to our attention over the next couple of months will not become hassles or even annoyances, but resources for our research as a family...to decide which of these many options we want to focus on collectively intentionally.

Instead of responding to requests for donations haphazardly and thoughtlessly, we are going to focus our resources so they go deeper instead of wider, and to focus our conversations as a family so the go deeper instead of...nothing at all, but me shoving a bag of Toys for Tots into my children's arms as they go out the door, yelling after them to make sure and get it to where it is supposed to go at school.

Some things we have put in place were greatly influenced by Liz and Chad and their children, who recently decided, after a family meeting and via election by ballot, how they wanted to apply a chunk of money they had designated for charitable spending. We were so excited by their excitement, and by even their 3-year old's mature understanding of why he voted to support the organization he did.

• Collect and consider information on various organization and causes before randomly responding.
• Have family conversation around the information and use the Internet to supplement research
• Establish and communicate a budget for seasonal giving to the family.
• Decide as a family if you are looking for an opportunity to donate money, or want to be involved in purchasing items to be donated.
• Decide as a family if and how you want to donate time and energy to volunteering with an organization, and sign up sooner than later so you have more choices on your preferred time slots
• Decide as a family if you want to identify a single organization to support, or 2 or 3 or more.
• Consider making one intentional shopping trip to support the smaller requests that come up from organizations who look for donations of food and toys (i.e., buy enough non-perishable food items to fill a brown bag at the beginning of the season and pull one or 2 items from there as various holiday food-collection events come up.)
• Create tradition around these conversations and decisions to make them fun and memorable for kids (i.e., voting by ballot, each child has to present their favorite cause or organization, etc.)

Have fun, and let us know if you come up with any other ideas or traditions to add to the list above. We are excited because, already, we have experienced more joy in our giving than we ever have before. This is how I want to experience the season of giving.

Hello Friends!

We wanted to share (with permission) the following letter because it spoke to the true mission of Project FoodStock with such a wonderful simplicity:

Dear Amee and Elizabeth,
My name is Sarah Johnson. I work part time at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church but primarily I am a pre-school teacher. My daughter, Mandy Dain, and I are Co-Chairs for this year’s Prince of Peace Women's Retreat at Camp Wapo in Amery, Wi.

Here is a brief description of my journey to you:
Almost four weeks ago, two women (Pat Jarvi and K.Z. Koboski) who work at the Mission Outpost, here at church, led our staff chapel. During their worship time they shared that it is not always possible to keep the food shelf at Mission Outpost filled.

I went home and was discussing this with my husband. I was outraged! It seemed like with a congregation of 10,000, we should be able to keep the food shelf stocked. I was felt as though our members were not doing their part when it occurred to me that our little family was not doing our part either. There was a multitude of reasons that flooded into my brain of why we could not help - money has been so tight for us. I have been working two jobs and really do not have the time and energy to take this on, and yet something kept pressing on my heart. After a serious discussion, Brant and I decided that we would incorporate food donations into our life style. Each time we went to the grocery store for ourselves, we would pick up 1 item to be donated to the food shelf. We could assimilate that expense into our tiny budget, just a single item. Then words of doubt crept into my head, "one item will not make any difference." I thought about all the single things that make an impact: 1 vote, 1 prayer, 1 smile. I knew that in our own small way, we would make a difference. We have been doing this consistently for about a month now, and it has become a family passion for us. My 11 year old son is enthusiastic about making suggestions of what item we should buy for the food shelf "this time." I am not always as organized as I would like to be and find myself going to Super Target to pick up a few things a couple of times a week. Each time, we also buy 1 item for the food shelf. That is what we pledged to ourselves to do - buy one item for the food shelf every time we went to the store. We have not found this to be a burden at all, but instead we have been blessed beyond measure. Buying regularly for the food shelf has brought our family closer together. My husband and I are so proud of our son and his willingness to help others. Without being aware of it, we had presented a model for him to follow.

This seems like a good place to put a "happy ending," doesn't it? However, my story continues:

Last night, my family and I attended a benefit concert to raise food donations for local food shelves. The concert was hosted by River of Joy Lutheran Church. Pastor Steve had shared during staff chapel that River of Joy would be hosting this concert. Music was donated by the talented Heatherlyn Hamilton-Chronis. During the concert there were presentations from different agencies that support food shelf donations: Community Action Council, Feed My Starving Children, Thrivent Lutheran, and...Project Food Stock. My heart was lit on fire!
I immediately realized that I could implement a regular food shelf donation pick up within my pre-school classroom. I could introduce your concept via my monthly newsletter. Families could bring in food items during the month and at the end of each month I could bring everything in to a food shelf. What better way to involve 4 year olds into giving back to their community?!

This too, seems like it would be a good place to put a "happy ending," doesn't it?
However, my story continues:

I am at this moment in my church office, working on this year's Women's Retreat. As always, I am a bit unorganized and have been praying "Lord, lead me; Lord, lead me." I will share with you now, that indeed He has. I have been led to you.

Our Women's Retreat theme is: Relax, Reflect, Recharge, Rejoice! How I never dreamt that a year ago when I came up with the theme, that it would fit so perfectly into the mission of Project Food Stock. I believe that we are called to Reflect on all that we have and all we can do. We can Reflect on why there are so many with so little. We can Reflect on what kind of impact just one woman can make. We can Reflect on what kind of impact 125 women, their families, and all of their friends, neighbors and co-workers can make. We are a powerful entity and I believe God is calling us to make a difference. In doing so, we will truly Recharge and be able to Rejoice!