These days, most stay-at-home Moms don't stay at home much. It's a hard, busy job. So it's a huge commitment to also take on volunteer work that requires being at the same place at the same early hour every week when you could be catching up on your coffee consumption, or resting your weary bones for a minute or two.
That was my argument with Kelly Freyer, a stay-at-home mom and the coordinator of Panda Packs, a weekend food program for kids. But Freyer was having none of it. "This isn't hard," she says, eyeing my suspicious line of questioning, then batting off my compliments like a pesky fly. "It fits in my time frame. And I know it's going to someone who needs it. The hardest part about it is raising the money. But people have been very excited about this. And generous. It has a big impact for the small amount of work it takes."
The idea for Panda Packs was born when a taskforce at Freyer's church—Madison's Episcopal Church of the Advent--decided to fill some unmet local needs. The program's goal is to send at-risk primary-school-aged children home with nutritious and easy-to-prepare food for themselves and their siblings on the weekends. Think raisins, chicken noodle soup, peanut butter crackers, oatmeal.
Counselors and teachers make recommendations and the Panda Pack crew shops weekly, filling the bags each Friday morning for speedy delivery to the school where they are discreetly distributed.
When I was there, they packed 57 sacks and are expecting even more next year.
Every week different civic groups take turns helping -- another church group, a group of moms, the notoriously speedy special-needs class from the high school, a garden club. Kelly is right -- minimal work, but far-reaching.
As the project rolls on, more will be reached, more will become involved and more will be helped.
Everything I can think of to say about this "and-they-told-two-friends" grassroots effort would sound trite. Just know that while you're drinking coffee Friday mornings, Kelly Freyer and her gang are busy helping to feed the world, one kid at a time.
Panda Packs
Episcopal Church of the Advent
338 Academy Street
Madison, GA
706-342-4787
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