Spreading some extra love this Valentine’s Day
I had a major moment of doubt, last Saturday, as I looked around the small meeting room in the church basement that was absolutely packed full of kids making little glitter explosions with marker-smudged hands as they focused with intent on making Valentines for our neighbors experiencing homelessness.
Whitney & Obe’s daughter, Adira, age 5, wearing a space commander costume and doing her favorite activity: cutting paper.
“Do our folks really want or need Valentines?” I wondered.
Every week when my husband and I go out on a Giving Meal distribution run, delivering hot food to folks experiencing homelessness, we always include some snacks like bags of chips or individually wrapped cookies. Our guests are always grateful for the food but when we have a savory or sweet treat that goes along with it, that’s when we see the most joy on people’s faces!
So, for Valentine’s Day we worked with Kids in Action Colorado and Denver Moms for Social Justice on a family friendly volunteer event. Kids of all ages were invited to come and make Valentines for us to give to the folks we serve through The Preservery Foundation so that we could distribute them along with little bags of candy. A message of kindness and a sweet treat seemed like a good way to share a little extra love during the Valentine’s season, and I knew that we could get a bunch of kids involved by doing crafts together! Our own daughter, Adira, who turns five today, is literally always down for a craft project and I don’t know many kids who aren’t.
But somehow as I saw all these beautiful, handmade cards materialize in front of me with their sweet, heartfelt messages, I felt nervous that it was all too trivial. The folks we serve are easily the most disenfranchised people in our community. They don’t even have a safe place to exist, and we’re going to hand them a card and some candy? The worry continued to nag me as we loaded 250 containers of pasta with veggies and sausage into my car and I saw the paper shopping bag overflowing with funky Valentines, ready to be distributed.
As the parent of a young kid who, as I mentioned, is very into crafting, I’m used to finding her little funky notes and illustrations all over the house. They’ve become pervasive enough that admittedly I sometimes put some of them straight into the recycling bin. There’s only so much memorabilia I can hang onto!
As we started handing out the first few meals, we had two volunteers distribute food, water & utensils while Obe handed out the candy and Valentines. I watched nervously as he offered a Valentine to our first guest to approach, who took a moment to look at it, smiled, thanked us and walked back to his tent.
“Yes,” I thought, feeling a wave of relief. “They do need Valentines.”
We have so many homemade gifts in our own lives that it’s easy to forget how precious one can be to someone who doesn’t get to enjoy such simple comforts. On our next stop, I decided to hand the candy and Valentines out. One woman didn’t realize it was Valentine’s season and thanked us enthusiastically for sharing the kind message with her. Another guest said chocolate candy was her favorite thing to eat and gladly took the handful of extra treat bags I offered her while ignoring the Valentine. Another man asked if he could have an extra Valentine to give to his wife. Another guy immediately dropped his Valentine into the gutter without noticing and I rather enjoyed the site of the cheerful, bright red doily brightening up the black slush-covered streets and thought, even then, that it wasn’t wasted effort.
I’m always trying to think of what items are the most needed and the most useful to our guests so we can optimize our service. We get direct requests from folks all the time for hand sanitizer, clothes, hand warmers, toothbrushes and other basic necessities and we’re always stockpiling those supplies so we can hand them out with our Giving Meals. They are always very much needed. This week, though, was a good reminder that we can, and should, also look beyond the basics.
We are focused on hunger relief because food is what we know & understand. But the real magic happens when we can actually show our guests hospitality by delivering the unexpected: a treat, a kind or encouraging message, an expression of care from someone in their community who they don’t even know, but who believes they have the right to exist and wants to see them cared for. Yes, a Valentine may seem trivial, and perhaps, to some, it was. But to many of the folks we served this week it was an important reminder that they are loved. And perhaps, even, that better times are ahead.
