Volunteering

I've been delivering food that stores would throw away to community fridges, organizations that distribute food to people for free, and directly to people for free since the pandemic. Some people like to connect with others with social media. I prefer volunteering like this way. I meet people face to face. People in the stores appreciate that I'm helping them reduce waste. People at the distribution places appreciate receiving more food to distribute. People who receive food directly appreciate the food. I still spend about as much time per week as American's spend on average per day on their screens. Personally, I recommend volunteering over social media. Over the years, the stores I've picked up from have closed or moved. Today was my last time…

I described my volunteering to some friends. One remarked how over the holidays she wanted to volunteer so went to some pages that catalogued volunteer opportunities but they were all filled. People volunteering around holidays is like people going to gyms after new years resolutions: after the holiday, it empties again. People return to social media and watching TV over the gym and volunteering. This time I looked at it differently. We love being generous and helping people. Somehow we do so during holidays more, but our hearts, minds, and souls benefit from helping others all the time, certainly more than from scrolling and getting outraged from social media. Even though I volunteer fewer hours per week than many Americans spend on screens per day,…