Long Night Making Gratitude Baskets For the Food Bank

I shared in yesterday's post how I was doing food bank stuff all day. It started with a board meeting before lunch and there are some situations happening that have caused, and are causing, issues there and I don't know now much longer I can be involved if things continue on as they are headed. 

With those things happening, everyone is a bit concerned. Since I am the person that has been involved the longest, most of the workers are coming to me with their concerns. 

I was trying to type up the minutes for the board meeting, and had many pages of notes, but people kept coming in and visiting with me talking about the issues that are happening, and the waves that they are causing throughout the organization. 

I know that the current director of the board is leaving to go on a service mission with his wife and that announcement at the meeting caused much stress as things are now up in the air. 

I brought up bonus's for the workers, and making" thank you" baskets for all the regular donors and businesses and groups that have supported the food bank through the year. 

I asked all the workers who they thought should get a basket, and I suggested a gift card for a worker who recently retired as they wanted a plaque and basket, but I know he is diabetic and thought a grocery gift card would probably help him as he has some health and finance issues. 

After talking to everyone, I had a list of 18 people or groups to make baskets for to be delivered. With that, I went to two different stores looking for any container that was inexpensive that I could use to fill with treats for the different sizes of baskets we would need! We needed some individual ones for a woman who brings in pasta every week as she grocery shops, she buys a few extra bags and drops them off. 

We have a few people like that, so I made some small individual baskets, some group baskets for smaller companies / groups like the 4-H offices who did a food drive last month bringing in over 7000 lbs of food! 

Then there are the larger businesses in town that have many employees like banks, who donate to our cause that needed larger baskets. I had to go to two different stores to get enough baskets and then pick up a $50 gift card as well. 

I had to head back to the food bank after closing to pick up treats to fill the baskets and the treats for that many baskets filled up the back of my car! You would be surprised at how many treats it takes to fill a large basket as you want some fillers in the bottom so you can stack the larger items up higher in the basket so it looks nice and they can see all the treats on a tiered system. 

I then got home and finished off four rolls of my tulle putting bows on the baskets. I also spent MANY hours opening the boxes and walking around the table putting one or two of each box in each basket for the smaller ones, and four or five of each in the larger baskets. 

My kitchen kept getting smaller and smaller as I emptied the larger boxes and then opened smaller boxes to take out the treats from the individual boxed items, like granola bars that have the case box and then the smaller individual boxes. 

Once I had all the items distributed into baskets, it took hours to stack them into the baskets in a cute order with the bigger items in the back on top of something and then down to the smaller items in the front and sides with a few treats on top of it all. 

It was after midnight by the time I had all the baskets made. I ran out of  baskets as a few I purchased were falling apart and I didn't notice when I bought them. 

I had to finish a few so someone could deliver them out of town on their way out of town today, so I wrote those "Thank You" notes, but will get the rest of them written this weekend and deliver the rest next week. 

I did deliver one today as it was to a company who had donated car parts to someone in need. They had also done me a great service when my youngest had her serious car accident a few years back, so I asked if I could deliver that basket to thank them personally. 

You can clearly see the joy on this guys face when I dropped off the basket to their office today! He really appreciated the gratitude, probably more than the treats. I think people appreciate when you share your gratitude with them! Thus, the name of my blog, because I KNOW that the secret is GRATITUDE! 

I did nothing yesterday other than things for the food bank, and went to bed really late after finishing those baskets, I still had to blog and reply to all the comments on my five platforms. 

I am super tired today having to get up early and having a busy day. It is now midnight as I finish writing this. I am really looking forward to sleeping and hope I get a good night sleep. 

Have a blessed day!