As many of my classmates know, I work at Ingles.
I’ve worked there for a few months at this point and while I have learned a lot it has also proven to be very challenging and tiring. Trying to juggle school generally only allows me four hours of sleep and leaves no time for my personal interests.
While I am definitely capable of rambling about my job it is in no way what this blog is about.
During my shifts I find a lot of loose change. Customers usually drop it, choose to leave it, or forget about it. Normally I wouldn’t think anything of this, but I saw another cashier do something that sparked an interest in this change.
A customer came through her line but realized they didn’t have enough money for what they were buying (I honestly can’t remember what they were buying, but I assume it was some kind of food product). As they were about to leave with their head hanging low my coworker stopped them and pulled out some change from her pocket.
I decided I wanted to help people who need it with all of the loose change that people abandon. I started taking every coin I found, even if it was just a penny. I put all of the coins in the middle pocket of my apron.
I won’t lie and act as if I’m giving large sums to help people who need it, but there have been so many occasions where I’ve had customers trying to buy food or children trying to buy candy that are saddened by the fact that they are so close to being able to complete their purchase but just fall short. Just a small amount of change can make a big difference to someone’s day. I always feel pride and relief in the joy that I can give to someone just by using a few quarters, dimes, nickels, and/or pennies. I’m not sure how to describe their appreciation, but it is definitely prevalent.
While so many of my other CAS projects seem to be a one time experiment I will without a doubt continue to collect any change. It is so easy yet so impactful, and I’ve learned that first hand. Through this I’ve also been left to ponder about the world. I could consider it harsh and cruel for putting people into situations where they need so little but so much at the same time, or I can look at it in a way where in a world where we commonly look for the worst small acts can really mean something and light up someone’s day.
I obviously don’t have any pictures for this blog because I will neither break rules to take pictures at work nor try to take a picture of myself picking up change or paying for someone’s groceries.
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