Talk about paying it forward
Today I ran into a former neighbor of mine. He's a friendly fella, has to be well into his 70's if not 80; I'll call him John. I remember when John retired - it was a big deal for him - what was he going to do with all his time? Work had always kept him so busy.
When I asked John what he does to keep himself busy, he smiled, as he well should. He volunteers his time. Every day. He explained it to me this way: while leaving a local deli after having lunch with his wife one day he saw one of the employees carry a large bag out back and dump it into the garbage. John was curious what was in the bag - what exactly was being thrown away - because sticking out of the top of the bag was a loaf of his favorite kind of bread. The employee explained to John that any bread not sold after 'x' amount of hours of being made is thrown away.
That didn't sit too well with John. You have to remember, he has got to be at least 75, if not 80; if we think we're having hard economic times now, John can recall worse times! So, he approached the owner and asked if he could come by at a certain time each day and pick up any bread that was going to be tossed. The owner of the deli thought it was a great idea as he didn't like seeing the bread go to waste either.
The next thing John did was talk to a friend that worked in a homeless shelter, and before you know it, John is in business rescuing bread from the garbage can and delivering it to a shelter that feeds the homeless and needy. John has even found more sources of food that was going to be 'dumped' as he put it.
I thought I'd share a great story; a retired man is busy and feels that his life has purpose, deli owners feel less guilty about throwing away unsold product, and homeless and/or needy folks are getting nourishment. Doesn't get much better than this, does it?
Photo courtesy of Paul at www.freedigitalphotos.net
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