Usually around the holiday season, charity drives become more prominent. This is the time you’ll see students and other organizations set up food drives and more. If you are planning to start a charity event of your own, you might want to drop a canned food drive. It’s not as beneficial as you might think and there are many other types of charity activities to launch.
Charity Foundations Prefer Money
Most people think that giving canned goods will those affected by food shortages. That’s not always true. According to Time magazine, money is the better option. Charity Foundations can get more food because they are able to buy wholesale. This means they can stretch what a single dollar can buy compared to what people get at the grocery store.
Time also points out that with cash they can get the specific type of food that they need. You might be donating boxes of canned corn when the truth is they already have too much. They might have a need for milk or soup instead. With cash, they can fill in these gaps. They can’t if your club donates canned food.
There are Better Items to Donate
Food shortages aren’t the only problems that arise from natural calamities. There might be a shortage of clean clothes or medicine. This is another reason why money is often the preferred donation. Foundations can use the given money to get what the people actually need.
You should conduct some research to see which items to focus on over others. Always remember: when in doubt, you can’t go wrong with cash.
Even Canned Goods Expire
For some reason, most people assume that canned goods don’t expire. It’s like the urban legend about Twinkies. Even those will one day rot. The problem with donating canned goods is that there is a chance they won’t get consumed.
If the charity foundation has enough canned goods they might not give them until needed. The extra canned goods might expire while kept in storage. The foundation won’t know this until it’s time to check their stocks and by then it’s too late.
The Yuda Bands Project: A New Unique Service Project
Then there is the Yuda Bands project, a new unique service project. This involves selling Yuda Bands bracelets to provide education.
The money gained will go to someone from Guatemala and Zimbabwe, someone of your choosing. You even get to meet the person via Skype, forging a personal relationship with the one you’re aiding.
The best part is that Yuda Bands projects are free. The organization gives you all the marketing materials and will ship the bracelets. Once the two-week drive is over, you can send back any unsold items free of shipping. All the money earned then goes to your sponsored student.
Providing better education doesn’t only help one person. You’re helping an entire community. With better education, a person can strive to get a better career. This not only helps him or her on a personal level but also improves their nation’s economy. You’re breaking the cycle caused by the poor economy and poor education.
