My Forlorn Bag Of Donated Grocs

We have too much food. Much of it goes to waste. Much of it is bought by my Grandmother.

The Friday of Memorial Weekend I took the step of giving it away. My first target was something I actually bought: two loaves of bread that were on sale. I was told by Mother that that was two too much. That was the catalyst for me looking at websites that take food.

I found a place closer to downtown that I can use sidestreets to get to. I first donated one loaf of bread because I thought we could consume the other. When it became clear that just wasn't going to happen, one day I looked to see Grandmother spacing out in her bed watching her videos, quickly grabbed a bag and took the remaining loaf from the fridge.

Then I looked around. There's a lot more stuff I can take away. She bought a lot of stuff, I tell you. So I decided to also donate a box of Pop-Tarts and a bag of Doritos, and I took off.

I was really busy that week. I forgot that this food shelf was only open until 3; I realized such when I got there and it was closed. I had to take my parents to the airport afterward, and they'd get mad (or at least ask questions) if they saw the bag of groceries in my trunk, so I had to get rid of it. I decided to just lay the bag on the front step, hoping that somebody from the food shelf will just pick it up the next day.

I had been thinking about that bag all weekend. I imagined it sitting all alone, with no one to embrace it and give it a good home. I wanted to take it back away from the unrelenting humidity of the weekend. And then it was going to rain one of those days, and I feared the bag was going to rip or rot, and the food was going to spill all over the street. And I beat myself up that I just laid the bag out front without pushing it well within the roof of the front door; instead it was exposed to the sky and any precipitation that fell that weekend. But I was so busy that holiday, I just couldn't.

And yet the bag haunted me. Finally I made an excuse that my parents' minivan needed a car wash, which just so happens to be on the way to the food shelf. Memorial Day I stopped by to see if the groceries were OK.

It was gone.

Guess one of the neighbors or some stranger took it a few hours after I left it. Or maybe a guy from the food shelf did drop by sometime over the weekend and took the food inside.

Bye-bye, bag of donated groceries.