Donating Backpacks & Bars with the IRC
Excited not just for their new backpacks filled with supplies, but also for the delicious Earnest Eats treats!
Donating and Doing. One is great, both are better. When partnering with the International Rescue Committee, a committee who aims at responding to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helping people survive and rebuild their lives, we knew one just wasn’t enough. Specifically, we decided a great way to achieve this goal was participating in the San Diego chapter’s Backpack Campaign.
Each Summer, the IRC asks the San Diego community to donate a new backpack filled with school supplies to every refugee child who will be entering an American school for the first time. Excited for this great opportunity to help, we donated Baked Bars for each backpack distributed. Earnest Eats didn’t want to simply stop there though, we wanted to experience firsthand how this amazing campaign was executed.
On Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Mariel Shaw, our marketing associate, and I, Jennifer Yniguez the marketing assistant, took off to City Heights to the IRC corporate office ready to embark on the backpack doing and donating adventure.
We met with Sneha Patel, a resettlement agent at the IRC, and set off to visit some families living in the City Heights area to deliver the brand new backpacks filled with school supplies and our bars.
We visited a total of six families, each one delighted, each one appreciative, and each one reinforcing our earnest desire to make a difference. Some families had only one child making the transition into American schooling, others had up to five children receiving a backpack. There were smiles, curious faces and obvious signs of muted excitement.
All smiles for the backpacks and bars!
Mariel and I grew more and more comfortable with each new apartment. Not being able to speak any of the languages spoken by the families, most commonly Thai and Arabic, we were quite nervous about the barrier. Yet, we found that the nerves were not needed. A smile really does take you a long way, a respectful nod shows more than one may think, and the eyes really do convey more than words express.
There were some funny moments as well: when we were in the home of an Iraqi family, the mother was pointing first to her stomach, then to her two eldest children (one a boy, the other a girl), and held up one single finger. What was she trying to tell us? Then, it came to us…twins! She was letting us know her two eldest were fraternal twins, and what a relief when we were finally able to share in her pride. There was also a valuable lesson learned when visiting the last family – a Burmese family with four children. Three children received backpacks, but we did not have anything to give to a baby not yet of schooling age, who was very much aware of the injustice being performed. We instantly started searching our pockets and purses for anything that could rectify the situation; thankfully, I found a new Roxy coin purse. While it didn’t soothe her tears right away, she seemed pleased with the gesture.
We left the last apartment feeling good about the trip. We were also amazed at the daily work that the IRC does: the work they enjoy, the work they feel a passion for, and all the work still left to do. Thanks to Sneha at the IRC for letting us tag along!
- Jennifer Yniguez
