Different Ways of Giving Back

There are many ways to give back. You can write a check to a cause that is important to you. You can volunteer for an issue that’s close to your heart. Annie and I were talking recently about giving back. It’s important to both of us. Although writing checks to important issues and causes is important, it often feels slightly cold to me. You rarely really know what your specific dollars went to.

We’ve also volunteered our time before and that can be difficult based on a busy schedule that we maintain between work, Sammy’s school, Sammy’s extracurricular activities like sports, and obviously maintaining some form of a social life.

I think it’s hugely important to give back in whatever fashion you can. I think it’s good for you as a human and it obviously can benefit your community. That said, I also think it’s good to give back in ways that you also enjoy and in ways that some may overlook. In our recent conversation I brought up the idea of doing a big cook and delivering it to the police department as a way to say thank you.

I understand this isn’t solving childhood hunger or obesity, nor is it fixing crime or helping the people in Puerto Rico. But…it’s something, it’s local, and having a good relationship between first responders and the community is very important. Annie thought this was a great idea because she LOVES to cook and feed people, which goes back to my point about finding ways to give in your community that fit who you are and what you are capable of.

Obviously if you are living paycheck to paycheck it would be difficult to donate money to a cause. Obviously if you hate cooking or aren’t good at it, delivering food to the police department as a thank you would not work. We can all give back. We can all help groups, organizations, and issues that are important to us. For example, Annie is co-classroom mom for Sammy’s class as well as his team soccer mom. I have been assistant coach on three of Sammy’s sports teams, have volunteered at a pancake breakfast, and help must! charities (a local charity) with some of their social media work pro-bono.

Again, we can all give back. I know it can be difficult. It can be detrimental to your family if you give money away. Volunteering your time can be hard as well. I understand, maybe your schedule is super busy, maybe you have a bunch of kids, maybe you work well over 40 hours per week, or maybe you just enjoy your leisure time so it’s just not for you. I will throw another ‘but’ in there. But, you can still find some way to help your local community.

For us, food is one great way to do that. If you follow us at all you know we cook often, typically using one of our Traegers. We love it. When the idea hit me, to do a bulk cook and give it to the police department as a thank you, Annie was on board and reached out to someone we know that works for the department. This was the first one we did and we’ve been talked about what other groups or organizations we can do this for in the community as a way to express our appreciation for what they do.

The police department is a no brainer, they put their lives on the line to keep us safe. We’ve also thought about doing something like this for the fire department, Highway Patrol, Sheriff, Sammy’s school staff, or even the local hospital staff. The hospital staff popped in my mind due to our visit to the ER a couple of months back when Sammy got a nice little gash in his eyebrow after falling. The staff was amazing and yes, I know they make money and that’s their job…but saying thank you in a way that feels good to us is always nice as well.

I don’t know. I just think we all have some ability to say thank you and spread some positive vibes. I think we all have some way we can give back. You can’t convince me otherwise. It’s important. This is our community. On a small level we should be helping our neighbors…then those in our community. We’re all in this together. Then the people in our county, our state, our country, and yes, then the world. If we all do something, anything…it makes things better. 

**We will be posting the recipe for the Enchilada Casserole here soon! 

***Update!!! Here’s the post with the Bulk Cook details!