Do Right and Risk the Consequences

We have an informal saying around here: Do Right and Risk the Consequences. One of our E-gineers had that as a bumper sticker awhile back, and it just seems to apply pretty universally.

We all have countless opportunities to do a little something for someone else – something completely selfless and sacrificial. It seems so often we let those opportunities slip by – for a myriad of reasons, for sure.

Add to that: with our abundance of technological connectedness, we’ve become ultra-aware of so many needs globally, regionally, locally – as well as within our own extended families. And the sum of those needs can be overwhelming, causing us to wonder, “Where do I even begin? How do I choose?” Of course it’s reasonable to think through carefully. But we can also get caught in “paralysis by analysis,” and end up doing far less than we could if we just decided to do something.

Recently, a wonderful opportunity came our way here at E-g. The folks at Million Meal Movement reached out and asked if we would be interested in packing some meals. It was a no-brainer. We knew right away that we wanted to do an all-hands-on-deck event during one of our monthly all-employees lunches.

You’re wondering how that went? Let me step back and let some E-gineers speak for themselves:

I really had a blast! I think it’s amazing that we could pack 13,000 meals in that amount of time. We were having a lot of fun at our table… 11/10, would do again.

I thought it was great! I really appreciate that MMM is a local group serving Hoosiers in need. Just from a statistical standpoint, this may be feeding one of our neighbors, or many people in your own community. I definitely want to get some of my friends together and help out on a weekend.

I loved the event – service made so easy, it hardly felt like service… Beyond the fun of it, it was a great charity and I was proud to be a part of it and of E-g.

I loved it! It was an absolute blast! …So proud to be part of the team!

The experience almost brought tears to my eyes! …I am one of the people who found themselves many times in need of a little help regarding providing a decent meal to their families in the past after taking care of their other financial obligations! Food stamps are helping but they are serving a specific category that not everyone falls under! Churches food pantries are good resources but not everyone is connected to church! For me I was thinking how amazing and powerful our God is! To use us serve a need for people around us! Some of them will [be too] shy to ask for help!

I loved it. Lots of fun working together.

I loved this service/activity and it’s a great match for the heart and culture of E-g!

Loved it… What a wonderful ministry!!!

Let’s do more of that… (and it was fun to see little pipeline improvements along the way to improve throughput)

The folks at MMM did all the hard work of bringing the supplies and hauling everything back to where it’s needed. And as you can tell, we got to do the immensely fun work of teaming up together to pack up meals – mostly for people right here in Indiana.

There was music. There were attempts by some at dancing (either that or someone was doing Fortnite emotes over virtual reality). And there was some rivalrous competition, to be sure. As a result, we observed and discussed the differences and trade-offs between speed and quality, for instance. (Hint: it’s not just how quickly you load the ingredients into the packs, but how quickly you load quality packs in the boxes!)