Finding meaningful service opportunities with small children is really, really hard. We did the obvious stuff like cards for nursing homes and cookies for people who are sad, but I wanted something more. A friend told me about First Fruits Farm, but Elijah was a newborn and I didn't think we could handle it. Fast forward a year, and our stake partnered with them and asked for volunteers. I still wasn't sure how much help we'd be, but some friends volunteered to go with us, so we signed up!
On the wagon, heading to the fields!
Basically, this farm grows food specifically for food banks and needy families. They rely on volunteers to come help harvest. Our job that day was pumpkin harvesting!
Some Knoxes and some Bloods gathering pumpkins.
The Uhligs and Hendricksons were there as well.
Luke & Elise found tiny potatoes leftover from a previous harvest.
The kids were quite enthusiastic about it for about 30 minutes. Seth even got to stand in the wagon and load up the pumpkins into the bins (perks of looking a lot older than 12). Then Seth, Catherine & the older Knoxes & Uhligs were just SO tired that they had to take a break in the wagon. Guess who didn't take a break? Aaron, Elise & Elijah.
Elijah was hilarious. He was ALL about this pumpkin harvesting thing. I'd set him down, and he'd run to the nearest pumpkin. I'd pick up him and his pumpkin, walk over to the wagon where they were loading, and then lift up both Elijah and the pumpkin (so Elijah felt like he was the one handing off the pumpkin). Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Let's just say I got my upper body workout that day!
He always chose the biggest pumpkins.
The workers gave him a big smile and sweet comments every time he handed them a pumpkin.
Side note: working outdoors in a mask is no fun.
Our group at the end!
1 comments:
I LOVE this! Hands on service :)
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