As you are filling up a bag of groceries to give to the local holiday food drive, this year add a couple of boxed cake mixes to your donation. The food banks don’t ask for them, but I am suggesting them nonetheless. Here’s why:
Understandably, food banks want staples: peanut butter and mac-n-cheese, and canned tuna and rice. All very good items to include, but out there, across our neighborhoods, are children who will be having birthdays in the next few weeks or few months, and a cake that mom baked–from the boxed mix you donate–can bring happiness to both the birthday child and the rest of the family.
Unlike Thanksgiving or Christmas or Kwanza or other major holidays celebrated by groups of people, birthdays are the celebration of one person’s own special day. And for that day each child deserves a special cake. So I added the two boxed cake mixes you see here to the bag of groceries for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.
But where to drop off the donation?
I checked online for a list of sponsors supporting the food drive and accepting donations. I saw that Bookmans was on the list. They’ve just opened a new store near River Rd. so I grabbed the bag of groceries and drove over there. The Food Drive boxes were right at the front so after I dropped the groceries into the box I spent some time exploring the new Bookmans, starting at the check-out counter shown at the top of this post.
The favorite departments are still there: movies, cookbooks, vintage magazines, occult books, guitars and sound equipment, watches, plus even more books. For comparison here is a glimpse of the Bookmans that was.
A big space for little children
There is now a very spacious children’s book room which was occupied by a father and daughter when I stopped in. The Dad asked the little girl what kind of book she would like and her answer was swift and clear: “Unicorns”. No doubt, he found more than one unicorn book in this room lined with books. And perhaps you can find a book or two or three to buy and donate to the children’s toy drive in December.
My observations: maybe a little bean bag chair or two in the children’s area would be nice. And those black walls — not a winner in my opinion. But “Thank You, Bookmans” for being a sponsor of the 2023 Southern Arizona Food Drive.
If you plan to go to Winterhaven’s amazing Christmas Holiday festivities and light show starting December 9th, just bring that bag of groceries along and drop it off at any entrance to this neighborhood. You’ll be doing good and having a good time all at once!
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