Thursday, July 31, 2014

Celebrating our 3rd Birthday



This week marked our blog's 3rd birthday.


When we started the blog in the summer of 2011, I was 14 years old, a soon-to-be high school freshman and my brother Thomas was a 12-year-old middle school student.

Many things have changed since we began food blogging.  Now we're both in high school. In the Fall, I'll be a senior and Thomas a sophomore.

In 2011,  me (age 14) and Thomas (age 12)
attending our 1st Howard County Blogger Party





The biggest difference now is I can drive myself and Thomas to review restaurants. Thomas took the driver's education class this summer, so he'll be driving soon too.








To celebrate the blog's 3rd birthday, we wanted to do something meaningful.


We read a Day Resource Center Facebook post that stated they are in need of food for their pantry. From our summer jobs and birthday gifts, we pooled our money together and headed to the store.

We each purchased four super packs of the items on the Center's wish list - soups, pastas and fruits.








After loading the items in the car, we set off to deliver the gifts to the Day Resource Center in Jessup.

Although the directions were easy, we had a hard time finding the Center, so we called Grassroots Intervention Crisis Center for some assistance. They told us, the Center is only open 3 days a week. Unfortunately, today (Thursday) was not one of the open days, so no one would be available to receive our food.

Grassroots Crisis Center offered to store the food and deliver it to the Center when it opened again on Saturday.




Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center in Columbia 
When we arrived at Grassroots to deliver the pantry items, we met the nice staff person who talked to us on the phone. When we told her we are food bloggers, she introduced us to Ms. Dotty, the manager of the Grassroots cafeteria and pantry.  

Ms. Dotty told us that the Grassroots pantry is also low on food. She gave us a list of pantry items that are needed. 

Ms. Dotty's wish list

Paper products: napkins, paper plates and 12 oz coffee cups

Breakfast: sugar, coffee creamers, canned coffee, orange juice, breakfast cereal bars and family size cereal boxes, fruit juice (individual juice boxes or 2 qt bottles)

Lunch: canned tuna, mayo, catsup, mustard, relish, chips

Dinner: instant potatoes, salad dressing (ranch is popular)

Snacks: variety of chips and crackers, individually packaged sweet treats (i.e. 100 calorie packs) 

According to Howard County Plan to End Homelessness,  580 homeless children were identified in Howard County public schools during the 2010-2011 school year. As students ourselves, that really made us think about how we could help out more. 

We hope you will consider donating needed food to the Day Resource Center and Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center. 

Click on the names to learn more about the Day Resource Center and Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center . 

Thank you for reading our blog!!! 

- Charles 



Follow Day Resource Center and Grassroots on Facebook