I am the 9th of my mother& #39;s 11 children. My dad split when I was 5 and left my mother with 4 pre-schoolers, 4 elementary kids & 1 middle-schooler. I don& #39;t remember a time when my mom was not employed & I remember her going work with pneumonia, unable to afford to take time off 1/

Although she worked her fingers to the bone (AND put herself through college) we were on welfare until I was in high school. I remember every year the firemen would come to our house in the week before T-day and Xmas with boxes and boxes and boxes of food. 2/

My siblings and I would run to our rooms as soon as they showed up because we were ashamed to be so poor. I regret this so much now. I wish we would have swarmed those fire fighters with gratitude...but we were punks (poverty propagates neglect that wouldn& #39;t happen otherwise) 3/

I only tell this story to show you the other side of those donations to firefighters & folks talking the time to collect food for human beings in need. Somewhere there& #39;ll be kids swarming boxes of food in utter delight to feast!.picture that when you drop food in those boxes 4/

....and there& #39;ll be mama& #39;s sneaking away to the bathroom to quietly sob in gratitude and relief. So on behalf of poor kids, thank you in advance for being so generous. It make a huge impact.

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