Extreme Makeover: "S" Family - Adopted High Needs Boys

Remember way back in April, when we had our

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In case you weren’t around we had 3 big surprises for our readers. The surprises were a great way to share and give back to so many of you great readers. The surprises included some great FREE stuff, and ways for you all to help some families.

Today, we’re following up with our 2nd Surprise. The Extreme Food Storage Makeover: Helping Families in Need. We had 4 main families that were chosen, each having different reasons why this makeover would be great for them. Some were financial, others were just in need of some direction and help. Since you the readers are the ones who raised the money through a percentage of your purchases at our Shelf Reliance store that month, we thought you’d like to know how it all turned out. We introduced the first family last month, and today we’re introducing the second family.

This is a family that has adopted 3 high needs young boys. The boys are ages will be 7, 11 and 12. Mom and Dad have started a large vegtable garden. Kids are learning about weeding and watering their dinner as well as selecting their favorite veggies and discovering what grows in the area and what does not. 🙁 The garden came about when the youngest, then 6 years old, requested a garden for his birthday present. The parents could not resist fullfilling this birthday wish.

Both parents work full time and with high needs children everything has to fit in the monthly budget. Food storage is a goal of this family. They have downloaded your binder and have been working on babystep #1 for the last 4 months. Mom was thrilled to get the 3 day emergency food done, and she trys not to look at the rest of the binder and become overwelmed. She tells herself that she is better prepared today than she was 4 months ago.

This family has hearts to help others. They are forever assisting those around them and see food storage as a way to assist others in times of emergency. This family lives on a very tight budget due to the needs of their children. Emergency room visits and unexpected drama keeps the budget tight. This family has just moved into a house that they have been working towards for 12 years. They now have the space for food storage.

In speaking with the family, it became quickly apparent that with everything they have to deal with, help getting organized was going to be a life-saver. Initially we planned to only send food to the families. When we saw the before pictures, and spoke more with the family about their situation, we knew shelving was going to be just what they needed. As you can see from this picture their short wall prohibited them from getting some regular shelves. They didn’t have the time to build custom shelves. As a busy family who adopted 3 high needs boys, and both parents work – we couldn’t help but help get them organized. Here’s a picture story of their shelving makeover.

Shelf Reliance has a variety of Food Rotation Systems that can fit so many spaces, and cansolidator rotation systems that can fit in pantries. When shopping for shelves, if you decide on the Shelf Reliance Food Rotation systems, make sure you use our store link to get prices up to 40% off.

This is a letter we received from the family:
Thank you Julie and Jodi. What a difference a little organization can make in a busy life. With two full time jobs, and two sandwich shops, and three high needs children, food storage was an overwhelming addition to our lives. Our food was stacked in the upstairs storage room. With it piled on top of each other and in boxes, I couldn’t keep track of what we had and what we needed.
Enter Julie and Jodi. They understood that if I can’t see what I have, it’s like not having it. They sent my family two shelves from Shelf Reliance. Putting the shelves together became a family bonding adventure. My boys took great pride in rolling the cans down the racks. Now when I ask my sons to “run upstairs and bring down five cans of green beans,” you would think I was asking them to go to an amusement park. I can see what I have and what I need. It is so much easer to use the food storage daily and re stock it monthly.
Thanks Julie and Jodi. Food storage has become fun for my children, and not so overwhelming for me and my husband, who has now decided that we need the really BIG harvest shelf. I didn’t even have to ask. Thank you from the S family.