People in Marysville are Generous!

I volunteered for Keller Williams Marysville food drive today. It was my turn to collect donations by one of Marysville stores. The Grocery Outlet on State Ave is where I spent all Saturday afternoon.

My job wasn’t too difficult. I had to stay by the store entrance and hand out lists of possible donation items asking shoppers to buy an extra item to donate for Marysville food bank. Well, while there I was also helping people get a shopping cart.

This was my first time doing this and the experience was quite enlightening! Here are a few raving observations, I’ve made:

1. People who donated didn’t appear to be very wealthy.

As I understand it, Marysville Grocery Outlet is a store where you buy affordable food. Not necessarily the richest people in Marysville shop there. People who didn’t drive fancy cars or wear expensive clothes were stopping by the donation bin to spare something from their shopping cart.

2. People were donating more than one item.

I was asking shoppers to pick up an item on the list to donate. What I noticed that most people were bringing more than one thing. In fact, quite a few of them would bring a bag full of goodies. Some even brought more than one bag!

3. People of all ages were donating.

What I also observed that there were no single age group that would or wouldn’t participate. Some elderly folks and middle age shoppers were donating.

I noticed that some Moms used the opportunity to teach their kids a lesson. On the way out of the store I saw kids proudly dropping boxes of cereal in the donation bin.

I was about to leave when another young guy came by. He was wearing a “Grocery Outlet” t-shirt and was employed by the store. It turned out that his part-time shift was about to begin. Smiling he put a bill in the jar. Unlike most in the jar it wasn’t a $1 bill!

A few minutes later I stepped into the store to say “good bye” and “thank you” (store employees treated me well :). I noticed the same guy behind the check stand actively packing bags. He just donated about his hourly pay, I thought to myself…

To sum up, what I learned was that people in Marysville are generous. Some shared that they got help from foodbank in the past and didn’t want to see people hungry. I was touched that despite the poor economic situation (or maybe because of it) people were willing to share and give to others.