Shire Sharing

While we are in the Northeast of the USA, we wanted to visit every state in New England. And, before last weekend (November 21 and 22), we had visited and explored 4 out of the 6 New England States. So, of course, we had to visit the other 2; New Hampshire and Maine.

We kicked our weekend off by driving a couple of hours from Connecticut to the area of Manchester, New Hampshire. Why did we specifically choose this area? That’s a good question. The answer is simple; Shire Sharing.

Shire Sharing is conducted by the Free State Project every year. This is a private, volunteer driven, annual charity event aimed at feeding families in need for Thanksgiving that has grown from serving about 50 or so families in 2009 up to over 1,300 in 2014. We are liberty minded people and the thought of neighbors helping neighbors appealed to us. So, we woke up early and headed to New Hampshire.

We arrived at the Shire Sharing warehouse right around noon. There were dozens of volunteers and hundreds and hundreds of bags of food. We came in and introduced ourselves. We told them we were not part of the Free State Project but believed in the cause and we wanted to help out. We were walked around and introduced to a variety of people. The volunteers were so open and welcoming, we felt right at home.

Within about 15 to 20 minutes, we were at work doing quality control. This meant we had to take all of the items out of the bags and ensure that all of the items on the list were in the bags. The items ranged from canned veggies and stuffing mix to aluminum foil and potatoes, with all manner of items in between. This may seem trivial to some. But, this was some family’s Thanksgiving. If you are going to do it, then do it right. That’s how we believe so it was easy for us to get to task.

After all of the bags went through quality control, we went around and just jumped in doing whatever was needed. Mama Nomad marked bags for what each one was missing. Me and the boys broke down cardboard boxes and hauled them to a cardboard recycling dumpster.

As it grew into the late afternoon and the activity began to die down, along with the labor requirements, we decided to head on. We thanked those who spent extra time with us like: Amanda the Coordinator, Merav the Advocate Extraordinaire and Dan, who was one of the only natives in the group.

At the end of the day, we learned that our efforts contributed to helping over 600 households and over 1900 individuals. That is quite an accomplishment and it was all done with the help of private individuals. So, this Thanksgiving, we are going to give thanks for the Free State Project and Shire Sharing for allowing us to help make a small difference in the lives of so many. Safe Travels.