Cheap Toilet Paper

Personally, I hate it.  I find I use twice as much of the inexpensive stuff...but that's just me, and this is not a "tale" (see what I did there?) about my own personal likes and dislikes.

This is a story about cheap toilet paper and the impact it might have on others.

Roger routinely volunteers to serve our community in our church's food pantry.  Every now and then....I help.

While there are certain guidelines set for the disbursement of food from our pantry, having to prove income or need is not one.  If Roger and I got in a situation where we needed food, our pantry would provide it.  You do have to have some ID and documentation of a residence, but even this gets difficult at times as we have had people come in that are living in their vehicles.  Another guideline is that you can only visit our pantry once a calendar quarter.  We do provide a list of other pantries and other resources that can be utilized in the interim.

Our grocery bag are stuffed with jello, rice, pasta and sauce, pancake mix and syrup, tuna, vienna sausage, cans of vegetables, soup, crackers, powdered milk, peanut butter, and jelly.  It isn't a lot but it is something.

Recently, a church member ran across a really good deal on toilet paper and bought it up and brought it to the pantry.  Four roll packages of cheap single ply toilet paper in plain black and white wrappers unadorned with cuddly bears or bunnies.  It was shelved in plain view of the door to the reception area of our pantry.

Someone asked "could I maybe have one of those packages of toilet paper?"  Of course.  You would have thought we had handed over the keys to a Piggly Wiggly!  The appreciation was so great that we began to pack a 4 roll bundle in each grocery bag.

We rarely hear much about the food in the bag but that toilet paper is a star!  Maybe it is because we are unique in our gifting of it.  Who knows?  All I know is that it has been so often mentioned and so appreciated that groups in our church have made it their mission to keep our pantry stocked with TP.  We have also expanded and started to have some feminine hygiene products and baby diapers.

It made me stop and think.  We are all aware of the inconvenience of finding an empty spindle in the bathroom and having to call for help.  But, can you imagine if you knew you just didn't have ANY...at all?

I began to realize that we need to look at the whole person and how sometimes it is the simplest of things that is most often overlooked.

I also dug a little deeper and thought about much we might not consider other people (even family) until they are not around any longer.  It is at that point we would be deeply grateful for even a cheap toilet paper version of them if only we could have them back to fix what was broken, right what was wrong, and say what needs to be said.

Our considerate treatment of others might just be THEIR cheap toilet paper, deeply missed but  much appreciated when it shows up.