Florida 9-year-old collecting food for needy

Linda Lowe has always raised her daughter to care about other people.

Those values shined through last month when her 9-year-old daughter, Lydia Lowe, told her that God had put the needy on her heart.

The conversation occurred after walking out of church on the Sunday before Halloween. The church was conducting a drive to collect bags of food to feed the needy at Thanksgiving.

As they came out of church, Lydia asked her mother what the bag was for. After Linda explained it, the two headed to the store. Along the way, Lydia told her mom that she wanted to fill 50 of the bags.

“The Lord called it on my heart to do this,” Lydia said.

Since she is a single mom, Linda was unsure if she could help her daughter achieve her goal, but with the help of family friends, Lydia quickly received many donations for the bags.

When her mother called the church to let them know they had bags ready, the woman in charge of the drive told Linda they would not accept bags with items not on the list. Most of Lydia’s bags had items not on the list.

The call caused Linda to wonder if they should stop collecting. After a phone call with Lydia’s father, who is incarcerated, Linda decided to keep helping her daughter.

“He said ’The devil will speak when he doesn’t want things to move,’” Linda said of the phone call. “’Keep her vessel moving.’”

Since then, Lydia’s collection drive has grown every day. According to her mother, they are well over the 50-bag mark.

As they finish, Lydia and her mother take the donations to different organizations that help the less fortunate.

Lydia, however, is holding onto one bag that she calls her golden ticket meal.

“She loves Willy Wonka,” Linda said. “She is looking for a family with an incarcerated parent to give it to because that’s the walk she’s been doing.”

The mother and daughter duo said they would not have been able to make so many bags without the help of others in the community.

“It makes me happy,” Lydia said when asked how she feels about others helping her.

“It’s overwhelming the generosity of mankind because you don’t hear about it,” Linda added.

Despite a few bumps in the road, Linda said the journey has taught her and her daughter a very important lesson.

“No matter what anyone says, you have to keep the faith because God will provide,” Linda said. “I feel blessed by her mission and I am honored to be her mother.”

After asking Lydia when she thinks they should stop collecting, Lydia replied “When the food stops coming, we can turn it into Christmas baskets.”

Lydia added that she would like to see everyone pay it forward by doing an act of kindness.

This story originally published to nwfdailynews.com, and was shared to other Florida newspapers in the new Gannett Media network.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Florida 9-year-old collecting food for needy