I’m not trying to go overboard talking about charitable giving on my blog this season. I don’t, however, want us to lose sight of the reason for the season and to forget about those who can’t afford to even eat on Christmas. I will be talking about different charities on this blog, though, a pretty good bit just to highlight those that I think people might not be aware of. I’m not trying to push anything on anybody, I just feel led to do it. Thank you for your understanding. If you feel led to help any of these charities, please do!

I found out about a charity today while I was sitting in the waiting room of my doctor’s office, and it’s one that I think all of us, as bargain hunters and couponers, could either help out or even start in our areas easily and without a lot of financial investment. It’s called Blessings in a Backpack, and it’s almost completely without administrative costs. This simply means that any donations of cash go directly to the purchase of food for families, not to pay workers. How cool is that? It’s goal is to feed children and families who may get their only real meals at school because their families can’t afford food.
Blessings in a Backpack was started by Stan Curtis and Missy Hammerstrom in 2004 with the intention of finding a way to feed children over the weekend. Have you ever given any thought to the children who get free lunches at school, and where the food for the rest of the week is gotten? What if there is none, or not enough? Chances are they have a family who is going without dinner on a weeknight, or anything on the weekends. Some children get enough to survive, but barely, and you’d never know it by looking at them. Web MD, my discovery source of this charity, states that the effects of malnutrition in a child start with their inner-workings. They’ll start to move slower, or feel drained more often. Physically, they look fine. That’s scary to me.

By July 2005, Meijer (based in MI) had become a key partner for Blessings in a Backpack and they had 2 schools in their pilot program. Soon after, Hilary Duff adopted a school in Los Angeles. It further gained national attention in 2006 on the NBC Evening News with Katie Couric and again with an article in USA Today.

The article I read today featured Scarlett Johansson. Her work with the organization stems from her childhood, growing up as a lot of Americans do in a single income home with many siblings. The actress said she didn’t perhaps realize how hard it was on her parents until she was an adult and saw other children in her same situation. She’s now helping to draw more attention to the charity. It got my attention, and I’m sad to say it was only because that was the only thing there was to read in the waiting room. Now, I am excited to see how I can help. I feel as if I have found something I can do to help others within my community in a way that there is a very real need.

We can all help this charity very easily, and it simply depends on how much time you have on your hands as to the degree of your involvement. For those of you who have quite a bit of time, and are in an area with K-5 Title 1 and Free/Reduced Meal Utilization programs you can Adopt a School. I think this might be the area in which I want to begin my involvement. If you are interested, request more information here. This is an especially important thing to do for those of us (including Alabama) who don’t have this program anywhere in the state and/or you live in an area with a rather poor economic climate. I know that in my area, jobs are scarce and extremely hard to come by. The number of people who live near the poverty limit is high, and the number of children who do get free/reduced meals at school is high.

For those of you with a Blessings in a Backpack program already in place somewhere within your community, you could also volunteer. You could volunteer to fill backpacks, deliver backpacks, sort food, or any number of things. This would be a wonderful activity for a family to do to celebrate a holiday together, or as the site suggests as a great activity for a school or civic group to partake in together.

One of the easiest ways to help, for those of you who may be short on time but have the financial resources, is to donate. You can donate $80 and it will fill a backpack for one child each weekend for an entire school year. Blessings in a Backpack is a 501(c)3 organization so all donations are tax deductible. Corporations may also donate new backpacks and get taxable documentation. Physical resources can also be donated, for instance if you have a truck or van you could donate this for the purpose of delivering the backpacks.

There really are countless ways you can get involved with any charity of your choice, not just writing a check. Blessings in a Backpack is a charity that intrigues me because I see that the donations go directly to helping children and families get food; I don’t have to wonder how many pockets my donations are lining until the few dollars that are left actually go toward helping someone. Yes, that’s harsh, but I believe it’s a thought that might be in the minds of a lot of people. It is very nice to see donations going straight to work.

I have already submitted my information to see how I can help. There is no Blessings in a Backpack organization in Alabama and I think that needs to change. I’d love to see more of my fellow Alabama bloggers do something like this in their communities!