Yesterday's Mobile Food Drive: Over 1100 Items Donated to Southeast Gwinnett Co-op!

Unbelievably amazing things have happened over the past couple of days. I want to take a minute to share some of them with you because it is clearly evident that they weren't just a coincidence, or "co-inky-dink" as I like to say.

1) First of all, I think I can speak for most of us involved in "Clipping for a Cause" that seeing the images of bare shelves at the co-op truly brought tears to our eyes. Laura Drake, director of Southeast Gwinnett Co-op sent a desperate plea out to everyone she knew asking for prayers and donations to feed over 70 needy families. The shelves were empty as you witnessed in the photographs. The very next day, 5-2 Ministry of Snellville, GA which is another coupon ministry similar to ours, donated over 2,000 items to re-stock the shelves. It was nothing short of a miracle.

2) The Gwinnett Daily Post contacted us earlier in the week to do a story on what Clipping for a Cause is all about. They came to our meeting on Wednesday night and stayed for over an hour, interviewing and taking tons of photographs. One of our church ministers was present to show her support, and before the chaos got started, she said a prayer for us about following God's plan to provide food for His people in the midst of a crisis. After all of the excitement got underway, pictures snapping, the scissors clipping, loud laughing and conversations..an older woman walked into the room with tears in her eyes. I knew she wasn't part of the ministry, but I knew I recognized her from somewhere. "I am a member at the church," she said. "You came to talk to us recently about "Clipping for a Cause" and how you all donate to surrounding organizations using coupons.." She then explained that she wanted to remain anonymous and wrote out a check for $100 and told me to stretch it as far as possible. I couldn't hold back the tears and when I hugged her for a long time, she was speechless to learn that $100 is as much as we have spent in 5 months on everything we've donated to date while saving over $2000.

3) Not only did Southeast Gwinnett need food, but they were completely out of toilet paper. A lot of people don't realize that even with food stamps, you can only use those on food items, not non-food items. So, personal care, paper goods, etc. are not covered with food stamps. An email blast went out to the entire "Clipping for a Cause" group only 3 hours before we met Wednesday night explaining the TP need. When I arrived, I opened up our cabinets where we store our coupons and there were over 50 rolls donated in that short amount of time.

These events along with the fact that more people than ever came to clip coupons and shop for items Wednesday night go to show you that this didn't all happen by chance! Not only that, but I couldn't even see my poor kids or their car seats because of cramming over 1,000 donated items in my car Thursday to deliver! Words can't begin to express the gratitude and joy I have toward others who are obediently following the call to help others.