S/O of Poverty Thread - What do you do with dc to participate in charity?

[holdoll]

Specifically putting your beliefs into action- not just donating money but time as well? Any good/bad experiences?

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I posted on the other thread, but we all make sandwiches at temple to hand out to people on the streets in our city. We collect school supplies, formula, books and videos, diapers, etc. for drives at our temple. We do lots of service projects with Cub Scouts, also.

 

Our temple does the cooking and serving at a soup kitchen on the last Tuesday of every month. I plan to take the kids to do this when they are a little older.

[mommaduck]

Our experiences have always been good...from passing out items (blankets, socks, warmers, canned precooked food, giving rides to the shelter) to homeless people to serving in a soup kitchen.

 

My children also do the Crop Walk and have helped buy baby stuff for women's shelters.

Edited September 7, 2010 by mommaduck

[Pippen]

When my kids were younger we shopped throughout the year for Christmas toy charitable giving. They really got a feel for the concept that buying at 75% off or more throughout the year could make the money going to other kids stretch so much further. They would often watch for things in ads or in the stores and then we would store it until time to donate.

[Carrie12345]

The local charities I'd like to work with don't allow children to participate in any actual acts. We settle for gathering and donating right now.

 

I recently located an organization for farm animal rescue that will allow children to volunteer with parental supervision. I hope to start that in the spring. It may not be the same as working with PEOPLE in need, but it is something!

[Chelle in MO]

We serve at a food bank warehouse, donate items to food/clothing/toy drives, participate in Operation Shoebox. This fall we get to work a shift at an O.S. warehouse, too.

 

All have been great experiences.

[Plucky]

We work at the local food bank. Often, the kids fill backpacks for other children who need food or are homeless.

[Donovans4]

We deliver meals on wheels once a month (the clients love to chat with my DS) and we pick up food twice a month at Trader Joe's and deliver to the local food shelf. (Trader Joe's actually donates twice a week, but we are on the pick up schedule twice a month.) We have also packed meals at Feed My Starving Children and collected school supplies and mittens/hats for the local public schools. There are lots of opportunities out there, but unfortunately a lot of places require volunteers to be 16 or older.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Today we went to the low income housing complex where we know many residents. We talked to people, visited those who can't get out of their apartments, offered to do odd jobs for people. . . nothing too special but worthwhile all the same.

[FaithManor]

My children participated in our church's annual local outreach day in which we gave groceries, personal care supplies, school supplies, oil changes, car washes, free haircuts by licensed beauticians, dental check-ups, and clothing to needy families in our area. They also give of their own toys every year for an orphanage and sell baked goods that they have made themselves at a craft/baking auction to help support a free medical clinic in the Middle East.

 

Faith

[Catherine]

A guy in our city runs a charity called The Book Thing. They take donations of books of all kinds from all sources, organize them by subject, and run a free bookstore on weekends. Children of any age can volunteer, which is somewhat hard to find, so we do it! I've also been able to take my used books there and know that they will actually end up on the shelves and perhaps in the hands of someone who will read them again. I've also scored some nice finds, which is absolutely permitted for volunteers or anyone else. I got a hardcover copy of the original Moosewood Cookbook in excellent shape, and a beautiful children's art history book, large format with nice illustrations.

 

Our other charitable participation, as a family, has mostly been delivering food or goods to our church for food pantries or holiday food deliveries. I found very few charities that would allow anyone under the age of ten to participate.

[Pink Fairy]

We make lunches and hand them out to homeless people. Once we have the lunches ready, we drive out to the known homeless hangouts in our town. We've been doing this for several years, and never had a bad experience. It's always sad to see how many people are genuinely hungry. :sad:

[Paintedlady]

We help with Angel Food at our church once a month, participate in Samaritan's Purse through the kids' Awana club, and they volunteer with me in lots of small acts of service, such as babysitting or taking meals to someone in need.

 

I generally don't deal with big organizations too much b/c they seem to want to limit kids' involvement. And then we all wonder why kids are selfish. If they're never given an opportunity to serve others, how will they ever have a heart for service?