Over at Wandering Scientist, Cloud has a post about dealing with a multitude of holiday food drives.
I’m facing the same thing. My workplace has one. My alumni club has one. Baguette’s day care has one. Each of them benefited a local organization, which I also like.
It’s easy enough to go through the pantry and select nonperishables that I don’t need or can’t remember why I bought (green enchilada sauce in mild, medium, and hot?). But then where do I take them?
This year choosing a food drive was also easy. I drive to Baguette’s day care but not to work, so it’s easier for me to drop canned goods off at her center’s office than to manage them on the bus. And I didn’t go to my alumni club’s December event anyhow.
The university I work at has a program for students with children; we gave Baguette’s infant carrier and stroller, Moby wrap, Boppy, and assorted other items to a grad student whose baby was born prematurely (she should be home by now, I think, and I’m so happy I was able to provide some supplies to help bring her home from the hospital).
Earlier this year, we sent a friend stationed in Afghanistan a huge box of food, which she shared with the other soldiers at her base. Last month, I donated money and blood and a box of baby wipes and formula to various organizations helping with Hurricane Sandy.
I wish I could send everything I have to New Jersey. It’s 3,000 miles away, but it’s local in my heart.
Photo by HowardLake, via Flickr. (Creative Commons)
Thanks for the link!
Most of my old baby/kid stuff goes to Home Start, which is a San Diego charity working to prevent child abuse and just generally help out families that are struggling. They are also the source of our annual Christmas adopt-a-family. Other than that, I mostly give money. Except for the food drives, which I apparently cannot resist.
Thanks for the inspiration! Most of our gifts are money, but we’ve done a fair amount of food and other goods this year as well.
We are always so happy when we can find a place or a person who needs what we are finished with. And I love how excited Kidzilla gets when she helps pack up her too-small clothes to give “to the small babies.” New Jersey…ugh. There but for the Grace of God go I, right? Too sad and your title is exactly right – there could never be enough to fix what those people have had destroyed.
We haven’t involved Baguette yet, but I think we’ll try to do it next year. I think it’s so important to help kids learn how to help others.
We’ve picked a couple of kids to help out this year. We do food drives when the schools host them, but I like doing something more personal, too.
I like that mix, and I also like to do something international and something local, although I’m not sure I’ve managed “international” yet. Can I count New Jersey? 🙂
That is so awesome. I bet it felt great to give your baby stuff to someone you knew really needed and appreciated it.
I’ve benefited from generous friends and family–I can’t think why someone else shouldn’t benefit from them, too!
I can’t wait to unload my kid stash to someone else once I know for sure we won’t use them. We do this mostly with relatives, giving swings and old clothes to the younger babies. Recently a coworker gave me two of her infant seats, and I’ve never felt more grateful for such a generous act.
There are any number of items that we got a lot of use out of–for a short period of time. There’s still plenty of use in them, and I’m glad someone else can benefit from that.