Tag Archives: donations

Jun 12 2011

Share Your Garden Bounty with Neighbors in Need

Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Do you find that you have too many tomatoes, zucchini or corn when your garden comes into season?  You can only make so many loaves of zucchini bread and jars of tomato sauce before it goes bad.

If you feel terrible about the excess food going to waste, check out AmpleHarvest.org. You can search for a food pantry in your area to drop off your garden’s overabundance.  They will take all types of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Help give a family in need some fresh, healthy food.  They will be grateful for your donation.

Ample Harvest has over 3,800 food pantries registered already. There are an estimated 33,000 food pantries in the United States.  If you would like to donate but don’t see one listed near you contact your regional food bank (the larger food distributor who services food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters etc.) to find out.  Then ask the local pantry to visit ampleharvest.org or take them a brochure from the site.

I believe that this is such a worth-while cause that I’ve added their banner to the sidebar of my site.  Help out if you can by donating food from your garden, letting other gardeners know about this program, and sharing it with others on Facebook.

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Feb 3 2011
plush_rocking_horse

Charity Truck, Part 2

It was another frantic morning tying to get everyone dressed, fed and out of the house on time.  The kids slept late so I threw some clothes on them and herded them downstairs for a bite of something before we headed out.  As we raced out the door I remembered that the donations were supposed to be on the curb by 8 am.  Oh well, it was nearly 8:15 and I still had to take Sean to school.

After the mad dash to preschool, Audrey and I came home get ready for MOPS.  I took my pile out to the street, taped the tag to it and went upstairs to try to make something of my hair.  The neighbors’ stuff was still sitting on the curb as well, so I knew we were not too late.  No time for makeup, got Audrey’s hair in pigtails and off we went.  Much to my relief she didn’t notice the pile of stuff, including some toys sitting there as we got back in the car.

We went to MOPS and then back to the preschool to pick up Sean.  Made it just in time and headed home.  On the way home I realized that I now had two kids in the car whose stuff I had tossed to the curb.  I also thought about the rocking horse I had put out.  The one my mom and dad brought back for Sean from their trip to Missouri.  Hmm…should I have given it away?  It was a gift, maybe my mom would be upset that I didn’t keep it a bit longer.  But the kids are both too big for it now, and I don’t have anyone to hand it down to.  As I pondered and drove I started to hope that the truck had not come yet.

Rounding the corner into our neighborhood I saw some bags still on the sidewalk.  Phew, we made it back in time.  I got out and took the rocking horse into the garage.  Then I got the kids out and we walked past the pile to the mailbox at the end of the culdesac.  They seemed to not even notice the old bath toys sitting on top of the pile.  But on the way back they did spy something – a collection of 12 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse books, each about 3″ square, in the box.  They have fought over these book terribly since I bought them.  The books themselves are not much to read, just a few words per page, so I had put them out.  Oh no, they must have them!!  So back they came into the house along with the rocking horse.  All and all, not too bad with only two things escaping the donation truck.

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Feb 1 2011

Charity Truck, We Are Ready For You!

many socks on clotheslineI did find the time to finish sorting all of the kids clothes–even the 75 pairs of socks.  Sheesh, where did they all come from?  Anyway, I have 4 large garbage bags of clothes, a box of baby toys and a few kids books that I don’t like.  Don’t worry, they have lots of books they will never miss the few I can’t stand.  I’m also giving away the baby gates.  Now that the kids have mastered the stairs in the new house those can go. Other random give aways – a golf umbrella (who needs such a huge unwieldy umbrella?), adult hiking boots in a size 8 (no idea whose boots they are – too small for Paul or me), and a large Britta water filter.

As I was sorting through the garage looking for things to get rid of, I thought about what the Professional Organizer said at our MOPS meeting.  If you tend to hold on to things because you might use them someday ask yourself two questions.  Is it cheap? Is it easy to find?  If both are YES, then it can go.  If you ever do need the item in the future you can go buy one and use it.  For example, the baby gates.  I might have a use for them some day, but I need the space today.  So tomorrow morning I will put my pile out on the curb and someone will pick it up by the end of the day. Can’t beat the convenience of curb-side pick up!

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Jan 25 2011

How Many Clothes do a Two and Four-Year Old Need?

The question came to me as I walked into the kids’ room last night. I dumped three loads of clean laundry onto Sean’s bed, saw their hamper was overflowing with dirty clothes, yet amazingly, their closet was still full of clothes!  How many tops and pair of pants do these kids need?  Somewhere between hand-me-downs and Christmas gifts their limited storage space was once again overrun.

So I went downstairs grabbed some trash bags and prepared to sort and purge the closet and dressers. I sorted the clothes into three bags: donation, returns to my sister-in-law, and a few select items to give to my cousin who’s expecting at the end of the month. I spent about 30 minutes just going through all of Audrey’s things. I still need to do Sean’s dresser, the coat closet downstairs (which is littered with tiny shoes) and the kids’ toybox.  

I would like to get through the rest of it by early next week.  There is a donation collection truck that comes to our neighbornood about once a month.  How much easier does it get?  Just leave the donations on the curb , attach the bright yellow postcard that came in the mail and they will haul them off.  The next pick-up is coming around on Thursday and I’ll have something for them this time!

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