Helping Needy Families in Ledyard

Do you know someone who is homeless?  I do.  I actually have met several, and they are right here in Ledyard.  Every year, we have more and more families who come to the schools for support due to being temporarily homeless.  Many of these families have 2 or 3 children, so with an average of 8-10 families, that could be as many as 30 people (that we know of) who are impacted.  As the homeless liaison for our school district, I try to help families who are in this situation by connecting them to local supports like social services, the Ledyard Food Locker and by helping find transportation or arranging free lunches for the children until they have new permanent housing.  At Gallup Hill, and in many of the schools, we support more families by having our own food lockers for emergencies or to help families who (for many reasons) don’t use the town food locker.  It never seems like enough, though…. 

This summer, my daughter (who is 14) decided we should do something to help.  She loves to volunteer, and also wanted to do a service project for school, but wasn’t sure what to do.  We talked about working in a soup kitchen, or donating toys, but it wasn’t until she began watching that Extreme Couponing show on TLC when her eyes lit up.  She said, “Mom, what if we extreme coupon shop, and donate the food to the local food locker?”  Wow, great idea!

So, we practiced this summer, and we began shopping for the food locker for real in October.  This fall we donated nearly $250.00 in food by Thanksgiving, and we spent less than $45.00.  Not bad, that was about an 80% savings!  My daughter was learning a valuable lesson about helping others, saving money and being organized.

Since the holidays, we have donated mostly to Gallup Hill School, and we have taken some time off to do other things (like finding a bin for all those coupons that seem to be taking over my living room!).  The folks at the Ledyard food locker told me, however, that as spring and summer arrive, the food bank gets depleted because people don’t think to donate.  So, it’s time to dust off our sneakers, and get planning some trips to the market. My daughter says we have to try to get even better on our bottom line so we can donate more!

Our goal this spring is to donate another $250 worth of food by May 1st.  So, are you in?