In 2011, we created our own international holiday Brown Bag Decorating Day. Not just a day to decorate bags, but a day for creativity, innovation and an easy way to make the world a better, kinder place. This year brought in over 94,000 bags decorated for local kids – enough for every child we serve to have a decorated bag for 11 days!
We received bags from all over the country and heard hundreds of stories, but one in particular really touched our hearts. Beulah Cordle, a 92 year-old woman who has lived most of her life in Muskegon, suffered from multiple health issues and recently lost her husband. “We started realizing she was losing her spirit,” her daughter Marquita shared. Beulah, a mother of five once an active and so full of life, now felt like she was losing her purpose to live.
Last winter when visiting her mother, Marquita brought along brown paper bags and markers, thinking she could decorate bags for Kids’ Food Basket. “Oh, I can’t draw good enough to do something like that,” Beulah said. After much prodding, her daughter got her to try just one. Since that day, she has decorated more than 500 Sack Supper bags. Each bag is a piece of art and carefully written are the words ‘I love you’, so that each child knows that they are loved.
“When I go to bed at night, my fingers are still moving. I can’t stop thinking about the pictures. It makes my whole life worth living,” she shared.
Teachers and school staff tell us at Kids’ Food Basket that kids can’t wait to get their decorated Sack Suppers, and that extra touch of love and caring makes all the difference. Thank you to everyone, caring people like Beulah, that took the time to decorate a Sack Supper bag. Every single one will go right into the hands of a child that knows you care.
Everyone can make this world better every day. And sometimes, it’s as simple as a brown paper bag decorated with love. Join us year-round by decorating Sack Supper bags and spreading kindness that can truly change the world.
