B is for Beans

This week we are learning about the letter 'B'. For our letter B activity I decided to have the girls practice their fine motor skills with this oldie but goodie preschool activity, gluing beans on to the letter 'B'.

 Birdy doesn't always have the patience for this kind of thing!

Now the debate goes on about whether or not to use food as art items. I am on the fence when it comes to our own class. I understand that if you worked in a preschool with children who were in an environment where hunger was an issue, then of course you wouldn't want to have them gluing food on to paper. But I happen to know that both these girls are very well fed.

I also volunteer in a food pantry every week and so I know that the issue of hunger is one which is very real and very near to us. So I would like to take a moment to talk about these beans and food pantry donation items.

The food pantry that I volunteer at is operated out of Big Sissy's middle school. It serves as a way to help families of students at the school who are in need. We receive donations from churches, individuals from the community, and other area non profits. One of the jobs I do is to inspect the expiration dates of all the food which has been donated. We can not send items home which are expired. A lot of people don't realize that "non perishable" items actually do have a shelf life. Even things like pasta, beans and rice.

 This is an example of one of the food pantry cabinets. These shelves are stocked with kid friendly items like beef jerky, peanut butter and fruit cups. We have another section for "family" items like pasta, sauce, beans and rice.

 These beans are an example of a donation which we, unfortunately were unable to send home because they had expired. We couldn't send them home with a family and so they were to be thrown away. I felt no guilt at all taking them to our home and use them in our Letter B activity.
So the moral of the story is...
If you are donating to a food pantry, please check your expiration dates!