Life Lessons

 Some young 4 H members in California are getting more in depth life lessons than they even imagined from one of their most recent projects. The group of young people and their adult project leaders decided to prepare and serve food to the homeless in their area, and even secured a two thousand dollar service learning grant to help them in their efforts. What they didn’t count on was that local and state officials would set up and take notice, and not in a “pat on the back, you’re doing a good job” kind of way. Rather more the “if you want to feed the homeless you have to meet state requirements including a certified kitchen, persons eighteen and over only preparing the food, and oh yeah, reams of paper work to fill out” kind of way. Life lesson number one: You can’t fight city hall. You can however, maybe, come to an agreement that will appease everyone involved. Life lesson number two: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. And life lesson number three: Anything worth doing, is worth doing right, and in this instance that may mean having to jump through a few state and local health regulation hoops. Trust me kids, it will be worth it.