Purple Piggy Bank

We’ve been battling the “wasted” food issue around here. Mallory’s favorite snack (that she can’t seem to finish lately) are Mini Muffins. They come in little packages that contain five little muffins. She usually eats three and then walks over to the garbage can and throws the rest away. We have now taught her to grab a snack bag and save the remaining muffins for the next day. We’ve used the concept of food shelves and people not having enough money to buy their own food, to help her understand why we can’t waste food.

Today she was complaining that she had to eat the leftovers and wanted a fresh bag. This was complete with a whiney voice and even a roll of the eyes (oh the joys of four year olds…) I told her that eating a new bag would waste the leftovers. I said to her, “You are very lucky to have fresh food in front of you whenever you are hungry. Remember that the kids in Haiti are going whole days without eating a single thing.”

She was quiet. She pondered. I knew she had talked about the kids in Haiti at school and I know that everyday they pray for those kids and the population as a whole.

She looked up at me and said, “Why do the kids in Haiti have no food?”

I told her that in Haiti the ground shook and it caused a lot of buildings to fall down. People can’t go to work because their buildings are broken and they can’t make money to buy food for their families.

“Will our ground shake?”

Nope. The ground below Minnesota isn’t going to shake.

And then she said this:

Besides I have a good idea! How ‘bout I give the money that is in my purple piggy bank to the kids in Haiti! Then their Mommies can take them to the grocery store so they can buy food. Because I don’t need that money. I don’t need to buy a new toy.

And I was speechless.

This piggy bank full of money is special. She knows that when that bank gets full she gets to take it to the bank and then with (part of) the money she gets to go to Target and pick out a brand new toy. Mallory isn’t the kid who gets a new toy every time we go to Target…

My heart swelled with love and pride today. She is an amazing four year old…