This morning I was preparing some toast for breakfast and as I spread some peanut butter on it and selected a several years “expired” jar of Ikea marmalade from the pantry to put on top of the peanut butter, my teenager walked out and noticed the jar on the counter.
“You know that jar of jelly is expired, right?” he mentioned. Kind of amazed he knew this.
“Yup, and you know what “they” say about expiration dates on things!” came my response. How many times do we need to have this conversation?
He shared how my other child had been commenting to him while looking through the pantry recently at the different cans and jars of food that were 1-2 years beyond the date some factory had stamped on the top of the container and I revisited what we’d talked about probably a dozen times with regard to this matter (many jars/cans of food last WAY longer than the dates stamped on them but….somebody somewhere had issues and now everything has to have an expiration date on it!) as I proceeded to enjoy my tasty breakfast of tea, peanut butter toast and apelsin/flåder marmelad.
Which led me to thinking about today’s 7 Ways to Love entry and the little free pantry movement. Yes, it’s what it sounds like. First there were the little free libraries, now there are little free pantries. And your activity today to love the world is to do anything pantry related. Share your food, check out your food (is it “expired”?), cook some food that you then give it to your neighbors or friends or the hungry folks in your community.
Heck, if you feel so inclined, get some materials together and build your own little free pantry to have in your neighborhood so more people can share whatever may be in their pantries that they’re not eating.
Food is love.
TimeSpaceOne 