Thinking of the season of giving, there are a few ways I like to involve my kids in caring for others. Here are few we have implemented in our home.
Filling a Little Pantry
My family frequents the Beavercreek Library, one of the locations of Feed the Creek Little Pantries in Beavercreek.
An impactful way to directly contribute is adding your own donations. Nonperishable, unexpired food can be placed in the box with the help of the entire family. Make a special trip to pick out some food or grab some duplicates when doing your own shopping.
Bringing In a Cart
Aldi has a coin cart program to prompt users to return their carts to the store. Any store can benefit from us returning our cart all the way back into the store.
Sometimes this looks like finding a cart in the handicap area we can grab and return. Sometimes this looks like taking our own cart all the way back into the store. If we grabbed a dry cart from inside, we can put it back for the next person ready to use it.
Filling a Wishlist
Local organizations want more than your money. Finding things you can give off some wishlists can be a great way to declutter in preparation for the upcoming holidays while keeping your items out of landfill.
Volunteering At the Library
I’ve written often of my love of our libraries, and starting in about middle school, many of our libraries allow kid volunteers. See individual branches for their programming. My own family has helped run a station during a program, prepared supplies for craft bags and even worked a weekly shift for the Summer Reading Program.
My hope in sharing these ideas is to encourage you to look for ways to involve the family in caring for others this giving season. As our most recent book would say, “Nuts to You.”
