Expiration Dates

When you work for a non profit you deal with allot of expiration dates. Nearly all of the food items donated to our ministry are given to us because they are dangerously flirting with their expiration date. We've learned to interpret these dates, best if used by, better if used by, sell by. We've learned how to stretch out the life of donated food by freezing it or adding it to recipe that may not call for it. Shredded carots in pasta sauce? Sure why not.



Most of the non food items we get are because no one has any use for them. Clothes that have been out grown and over stocks that won't sell. People have a knack to give us things that need "a little fixing up" or items nobody has any idea what to do with. We have to call on our creativity to figure out what to do with a case of orange colored pencils or 50 copies of the Gettysburg Address.

That theme seems to continue to resonate with the people we minister to. We reach out to the ones that may seem like they have no use or are past their sell by date. The kid whose parents told him he's no good and kicked him out of the house. The vagrant who reeks of alcohol. The girl whose christian friends shun because she doesn't believe in that stuff anymore.

We have developed a gift of revealing the value in items that may seem worthless to others. We have dedicated our lives to revealing the beauty in those the world find plain or ugly. It's all about exchanging Crowns of Beauty for Ashes. Gods love has no expiration date.