Paybacks

They would show up for the soup kitchen nearly every day. The mom and her kids - three girls and a boy, all under the age of nine. In the beginning they were a mess. Invariably one of the little ones was crying, while the others were spilling their drinks and dropping most of their food on the floor. On top of that, they weren't very good at cleaning up after themselves. And when there were take-home items for the guests, they were usually the first in line, taking more than their share. At the outset, it seemed like they were interested only in taking.

But over time, there has been a marked change. They have learned about sharing, and are truly thankful for the food they receive. What really highlighted that was an incident last week. Since the children are so young, the family receives free milk through WIC (a program for Women, Infant and Children). The mother had not been able to find her milk coupons for the past few weeks and eventually found them under her car seat. All the coupons were going to expire the next day, but even with four kids, they would not have been able to use all the milk themselves. So she went to WIC and redeemd the coupons and donated 9 gallons of milk to Manna. She and her daughters were beaming with joy as they carried in the milk.

It was another reminder for us that people who are receiving also respond when there is an opportunity to give...