BB Share-A-Gift Food Hamper Delivery

One of the more meaningful activities which we were involved in this Christmas was volunteering for the delivery of food hampers to needy folk under the BB Share-A-Gift Project. 

Volunteering for this project has been on my list for a while and I'm glad that this year, we were finally able to do this. My kids (and I!) certainly live very privileged lives and I'm always thinking I could do more to help the less fortunate among us, and get the kids involved in the process too. So when this opportunity came up, I quickly put ourselves down for this. Figured there's no time like Christmas time to help spread a little cheer too.

I had a little chat with the kids the day before our scheduled date to explain what we would be doing. And any doubts that they didn't understand what it was about were put to rest when my 2-year old, in her prayers that night, remembered to thank God for the fact that "tomorrow we will be going to bring food to poor people because they don't have enough." Her own words, not mine. I was very proud of her. 

So the next morning we woke up bright and early to join a group organised by the BB 19th Company, flagging off and distributing food hampers in Yishun. It was, for me, extra meaningful to be able to volunteer in this group as this is particular company is sponsored by my ex-church, the church I grew up in. In my many years there, I watched many boys grow from wide-eyed young ones into God-serving and fearing men. Quite a number continue to be active in the BB, and it was really heart-warming to see all the familiar faces, albeit looking a lot older than I remembered them to be! I also met a number of old church mates whom I managed to catch up with briefly.

But we were mostly focused on the job at hand. So after a short briefing by Gabriel (who I definitely remember first meeting as a young teenager!), we set off, with our address slips in hand and 10 big bags in the boot. 

Gabriel, who did a good job with the briefing, and even giving out his phone number as a point of contact.

We could opt to have a BB boy follow us, but since we really didn't have much space in our car, we decided to do the deliveries on our own. We brought along our marketing trolley after receiving some tips from friends, and it really came in handy! The kids could get involved pushing the trolley along, though we also gave them a couple of items to carry from time to time so that they could feel like they were helping.

The boys helping to wheel our hamper along to the next lift lobby.

Meips with her bag of milo. She requested to carry it and then promptly burst into tears when we asked her to hand it over to the recipient. Oops!

And the kids, they were good sports. They walked with us, helped press elevator buttons, rap on doors (Meips), and when asked, gamely greeted the recipients with cheerful "Merry Christmas!" greetings and doled out the handshakes (Noey). They certainly helped bring out the smiles! 

In between, they had fun giggling at the sight of a t-shirt that they saw hanging in a tree, peering at a squashed cockroach and waving at stray cats. They did get tired though, after we'd completed deliveries to 7 households, and thereafter took turns to go up with me for the rest of the deliveries while the other rested in the car. In all, we managed to complete deliveries to 9 households out of 10, which we realised after we got back was a pretty good hit rate.

It was a meaningful time which was well spent, only marred by the fact that my poor husband managed to pull a muscle in his back while bending over mid-way through. He was a bit incapacitated thereafter but fortunately he's managed to get it sorted out. Despite that, we all agreed that it was a good experience overall and we hope to be back to do this again next year. I'm also on the lookout for other volunteering opportunities that we can be involved in as a family, so if you know of any, do let me know!