Ladies of Lancelot

My cupboard…not bare!

This morning I was talking with a new “old” friend. You know, one of those people you meet and feel like you’ve known them forever?  When I described “this” project I asked her what she was doing.  I knew she was up to something.  She’s one of those high energy, always involved people, she’s always up to something.  For the sake of this blog, I’ll call her Linda.

“Oh,” she said, “I used to do this project called the Ladies of Lancelot.  Once a month, I went around to all the women in my neighborhood and asked them to give me all the extra canned goods and non-perishables they had in their cupboards.  I let them know I’d be back next month!  Then I took it all down to the food bank.”

Then all those b*#@!s moved away.  Now I have to train a whole new batch.”   (The “b” word was said in the context of our earlier conversation and drew a big laugh, since she had ‘fessed up to being one!)

I was struck by the simplicity of two things.
1)  Linda knew all of her neighbors and
2)  Linda knew we all had extra food in our cupboards.

Put this knowledge together, and Linda exercised her citizenship and community participation by engaging her neighbors and making a trip to the food bank.  And I bet the neighborhood was a lot safer for everyone knowing each other.

Thanks “Linda” for the inspiration today.