The Rest of the Story…an amazing recount from an extraordinary volunteer who followed the full journey of our OneMeal program from meal packing event to the children receiving the meals on the other end.

My journey from food packing to feeding centers. There is safety in normalcy. The same routines generate a sense of comfort cocooned in familiarity. While your heart may dream of worldly adventures where you are truly making a difference, your mind counters with all the reasons it is more practical to stick with what you know. I found myself weaving this familiar yarn of complacency and excuses in my own life. Reminding myself of how very busy I was and questioning how I would even begin such a journey. Along came Kids Around the World (KATW). It started with a simple invite to a OneMeal food packing event in my community. I had no idea what to expect but my lively table soon fell into a rhythm of scoop, dump, insert and seal. It was exhilarating to help fill the bags with food, and our little assembly line hooped and hollered every time we filled a box with meals and started in on the next. As Iwatchedthepallets fill with the boxes of food we packed, my mind began to wander to the journey they would take. Children in our group had decorated the boxes with sweet little drawings and hearts. Who would see their loving gesture? How many little mouths would be filled with their nutritious contents? What were the stories of the children belonging to those mouths? I was standing on one side of that safe and familiar bridge and it was no longer enough. My soul longed to know the other side. To see and experience the rest of the story