Turn Your CHANGE into Real Change.

A note from Mole

What happens after we say thank you?

Thanksgiving gives us a reason to stop and name what we’re grateful for.

Food on the table. People around it. The ways God has carried us through another year.

But this year, I keep thinking about what happens after we say thank you.

Here in Mole, that question keeps leading me back to rice and beans.

We can’t make the trucks come. We can’t lower the market prices. We can’t stop the violence happening hours away from us.

And you can’t either.

But maybe that was never the measure of whether we could make a difference.

None of us can fix everything. But all of us have something within our reach.

For us, it looks like buying food while we can. Filling pallets. Making sure that when someone comes to us hungry, we have something to give them.

For you, it might start with the change in your cup holder.

That may not sound like much.

But it can become somebody’s supper.

The difference a dollar can make

A little change. A real meal.

When there isn’t enough food, some families in Haiti make mud cookies from dirt, salt, water, and a little oil. They help quiet hunger for a moment, but they don’t provide the nourishment children need.

No child should have to turn dirt into food.

And no child should be known only for the hunger they’re living with. These are children who deserve to learn, play, grow, and have enough energy to just be kids.

$1.32 provides one child with a meal of rice and beans, including shipping. That means $13.20 can provide ten meals.

Not an enormous fundraiser. Not something that requires a committee, matching shirts, and six planning meetings.

A little money, gathered together, can become real food.

Gratitude becomes something we do

Start at your own table.

This isn’t about feeling guilty for enjoying Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s about being thankful for what we have… and noticing what we can share.

Put a jar on the kitchen counter this November. Let the kids decorate it. Set a family goal. When you sit down for dinner and talk about what you’re thankful for, talk about what your family could help provide for someone else.

When relatives gather for Thanksgiving, let the children explain what they’re collecting for. Invite everyone to add some change or a few dollars.

You could skip a Pizza Friday and give what you would have spent. Make your coffee at home for a week. Choose one ordinary expense you can do without and turn it into food a family needs.

You don’t have to fund a pallet by yourself.

A church can collect change throughout November and bring it together for a Thanksgiving offering. A classroom can set a meal goal. A business can put a jar beside the register or offer to match what customers give.

Different places. Same goal.

Kids helping kids

And yes… make it fun.

I have been to hundreds of VBS programs, camps, and children’s ministries over the years, and I have learned something:

Kids love helping.

But they REALLY love helping when there is a competition, something they can physically watch grow, and the possibility that an adult may have to publicly embarrass themselves at the end.

So pick your teams.

Boys vs. girls. Kids vs. adults. One grade vs. another. One Sunday school class vs. another.

Whatever works for your group.

Have everyone bring in their loose change. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. Whatever is hiding in couch cushions, junk drawers, cup holders, and the bottom of Mom’s purse.

With an adult’s help, children can ask neighbors and relatives to contribute. Ask a local coffee shop or business about setting out a collection container. Gather change at school or church.

And ask grandparents.

Thanksgiving may conveniently put several of them in the same room.

Then make the progress visible.

Hang two buckets from opposite sides of a balance. Each week, let the kids bring their change forward and pour it into their team’s bucket.

Now they aren’t just hearing that they’ve raised money. They can watch their side get heavier.

And dollar bills are absolutely welcome. We are not going to reject a twenty on a technicality.

Exchange some of the bills for coins, or use small weights to represent the amount raised. You can also use a clear collection jar, a scoreboard, or a chart showing how many meals your group has funded.

You do not need an elaborate setup. The point is to let the kids see that what they’re doing matters.

A little ambition. A lot of quarters.

Now set three goals.

This is where things begin to deteriorate.

Choose willing adults and safe challenges. We are trying to bruise somebody’s dignity, not send them to urgent care.

Click a goal to reveal the reward.

Yes, there is video evidence.

Which brings me to my sister.

My sister has actually swallowed a worm for one of these fundraisers.

Yes.

A worm.

Before anyone emails me to explain that this is ridiculous, I have video evidence.

I wish I were making this up.

For the record, I am sharing family history. Not recommending the menu.

And here’s the fascinating part.

Once an adult agrees to something sufficiently ridiculous, the children are no longer the only ones invested in the offering.

Adults who have shown absolutely no previous interest in loose change suddenly arrive carrying quarters.

People recruit friends. Someone finds $20. Grandma goes back into her purse.

Because apparently feeding hungry families is important…

but the possibility of watching someone eat a worm really brings a congregation together. Lori has been bringing churches and camps together for decades with WELL OVER a dozen worms.

That is what I love about it.

Long after the jars are empty

What I hope the kids remember.

They will remember the competition.

They will remember watching those buckets get heavier.

They will definitely remember whatever happened to the adult who agreed to Goal #3.

But underneath all the laughter, they can learn something that stays with them long after the jars are empty:

They don’t have to wait until they’re grown to help. They don’t have to have a lot of money. They don’t have to understand every difficult thing happening in Haiti.

They can start with something small and discover that God can use it.

And Thanksgiving can become more than a conversation about what they’re grateful to have.

It can become a memory of something they were grateful to give.

This Thanksgiving

Can we feed one more family?

The point isn’t to carry the weight of everything we cannot change.

It’s to do something with what we can.

Maybe that’s a family jar on the kitchen counter.

Maybe it’s a church full of children hauling in their change.

Maybe it’s a business matching donations, a classroom working toward ten meals, or somebody quietly giving enough for one.

None of those gifts has to do everything.

But together, they can help us put food into the hands of children and families who need it.

This Thanksgiving, as we thank God for what we’ve been given, let’s see what a little of it could become.

Gather your change. Give a meal.

Here’s how to give.