Sharing in our Success

If you’ve ever visited the Shafer…Power! blog, you know one of our goals for the journey is to share in our success.  In fact, we shared a story in a recent post about donating food to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas.  Well, an interesting thing happened after we made that donation.  We were contacted by CAFB as they wanted to interview us about our entrepreneurial journey and our contribution to their organization.  Below is a re-post of the article from their blog (the original can be found here).

The Amazing Shafer Kids

By Kanaka Sathasivan, Online Marketing

For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you’ll know that last week we found out about an amazing pair of entrepreneurial kids who hosted a taco wagon (with just a little help from their parents) as an adventurous yet educational project. Owen and Malia Shafer, 6 and 4 years old, not only raised $50, they decided to do some good and share their success with CAFB. They took half their proceeds to the store and bought cans of beans and tuna to donate. I was so impressed with these kids that I invited them and their parents, Paul and Kathleen, to do a tour of the Food Bank.

When the kids first arrived, I explained that the Food Bank is primarily a storage and sorting facility and showed them the big refrigerated trucks that the food leaves on to be distributed at pantries. When we went inside to look at the warehouse, Owen proudly showed me a bag of donations they had brought. We weighed it on our scale (5 lbs!) and then Owen and Malia received a receipt for their donation. Owen even got to help put it in the large incoming donations box.

Since it was late in the day, I was able to take the family through the freezer and warehouse. Owen and Malia tried to look into every box we had and were amazing at the variety of food we carried, from rice to beans to bananas and even bottles of water.

I explained that all the food that came in was transferred to the product recovery area, where volunteers cleaned it, sorted it, sent it down a conveyor belt, and then packaged and weighed it. The kids were fascinated but very disappointed when I said they had to be 8 years old to volunteer there. (I hope they’ll remember us and come back when they’re older!) They were also impressed with the size of the food bank and couldn’t believe our entire warehouse was filled with food.

The Shafers donate food at their church every Sunday and were excited to give in a larger scale with their donation to the Food Bank. Owen explained the importance of donating: “If we don’t share, how would people [in need] get food?”

He and Malia both agreed that the best part about donating was having fun. When I asked Owen what he might say to other kids his age to encourage them to donate, he explained “If I donate, it makes me happy.”

I was thrilled to have met both Owen and Malia, along with their parents, who encourage them to do a project every month where they ultimately share their success. I hope more young kids can follow their example, and we also hope more families will be inspired to tour the Food Bank with their children in the future!

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