Day 23

A few years ago, a neighbor of ours got sick, really sick.   Our neighborhood rallied to help provide meals for her family.  Early on, the self-appointed-neighbor-in-charge (every street has one), a paragon of efficiency, sent out an email to a group of us with a list of criteria for the meals.  Included in the instructions were:

All meals MUST be provided in disposable containers

Make no mistake; this was a directive, not a suggestion.  At the time I was a bit put off, primarily because this was just one of a list of about ten “rules” (to include NO PASTA dishes because they had already gotten too many of them)  Plus, I figured if her family could get the fork to their mouths, surely they could rinse out a dish.  But, I do get, that in times of stress, it is difficult to catalog and return casserole containers.  So I complied.

Since then, I have actually followed the disposable container directive as if it is a law.  I would hate to have to go to pot luck prison.  And now, just a few weeks into The Simple Year, I have had two occasions to take meals to families.

As a result, I have stumbled upon an interesting phenomenon.

$3.49

If your eyes are better than mine, and you squint, you will notice that a disposable aluminum foil dish costs $3.49.

Contrast that with the following

$.99 each at Goodwill

My personal favorite--$2.00 at a garage sale

It appears, for the sake of convenience, we will pay more for a disposable dish, because we don’t want to “bother” someone who just had a baby or lost a family member.     And, I’m not pointing fingers, I’m guilty too, I’ve been doing it for years.

So the last time I made a meal, I put it in some of those dishes you see above and included a note that among other things said,

“…these containers have been repurposed from second hand stores and they are yours to keep, pass along or donate…”

Now, I am a dollar or two ahead, I have reused something and maybe, just maybe, set into motion the “traveling casserole” dish.