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Couponing for Community: A Week to Give To Others (May 2-8)

May 3, 2010 by 8 Comments

It is Couponing for Community week at Pocket Your Dollars and around the blogosphere. Couponing for Community is a coordinated food drive where more than 50 bloggers are asking their readers to give generously out of their abundance. The event culminates on Saturday, May 8, which is also the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

Kaley Ehlert, at Cha-Ching on a Shoestring, spearheaded the idea after seeing a Nightline story a few weeks back about coupons. The folks featured in the story had ginormous stockpiles of food, which got Kaley thinking about how to encourage others to give to those in need.

What You Can Do

It is easy to participate in the Couponing for Community food drive:

— Find a few items in your pantry or buy some things at the store to donate

— Give in one of the suggested ways listed below

— Find ways to engage your kids and family in the process of giving

— Share what you are doing to encourage others and allow us to report back on the magnitude of our impact. Upload photos of what you are giving to the Pocket Your Dollars’ Facebook page or Flickr page. Leave comments here with stories about how you and your family participated. Let us know how many items you donated (we can tally them up if we know what everyone is doing).

Ways to Give

Stamp Out Hunger. Stamp Out Hunger is the nation’s largest single day food drive. This year the National Association of Letter Carriers expects to receive more than 1 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) pounds of food on Saturday, May 8. Leave your non-perishable food items in a sturdy bag or container next to your mailbox. Your postal carrier will pick up your donations and get them into the hands of a local charity that will distribute to the community. Personal care items like shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant are gladly accepted as well.

At the Grocery Store. Many grocery stores have a receptacle near the door where you can drop off non-perishable food items.

Your Local Food Shelf. Feeding America has a food bank locator that will help you find an organization near you that will accept your donation.There’s is not a complete list, but a great starting point for you to identify a local organization.

After seeing the more than 2,100 food items Pocket Your Dollars’ readers donated in a single night last March (and another photo here), I am confident that we can make a tremendous impact on the world around us this week.

Your turn: What are you going to do to give to others this week?

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About Carrie Rocha

I am passionate about helping people live within their means so they can get out and stay out of debt. I live in Minneapolis, MN with my husband and two little girls.

  • Andrea

    I always keep an eye out for anything that is free that I won't use – I make a trip to my local food shelf about twice a month. They really need the help right now. i would encourage all of you to do the same!

  • Vicki

    I always try to pick up anything for free that I won't use – sometimes even using my double coupons at Rainbow. My daughters like to go out and work the local food shelf C.R.O.S.S. in Rogers, MN (http://www.crossfoodshelf.org) when they have days off of school. CROSS is always looking for items. We collect all of our extras and bring them out to the food shelf when they have days off of school. They also periodically clean out their closets and bring out their outgrown clothes and toys as well. They can see their donations put to good use for those who need them!

  • bobbiejo45

    Thanks for reminding me of some 'deals' I got that I soon realized I wouldn't use. Putting them in a bag today to drop off at the store…

  • Rhonda

    I always give back!!!

  • ashley

    This wasn't this week but a while back I received a random $5 gift card to walmart. I don't normally shop there for a number of reasons, but I went to spend as close to that amount as I could without going over. I bought some items to take to church the next weekend for sharing sunday (went to a local agency). Our financial situation has been pretty tight lately but it was really good to have a way to share with others.

  • Kate

    Another tip is to call your local food shelf and see what they desperately need. I know our runs out of laundry soap, ladies personal care items, and shampoo a lot. I always try to "shop" with that in mind.

    Also, make sure to check the expiration dates as well. I volunteer at ours, and it is amazing how some persons donate old (like two years past the exp. date) food.

  • SHANNON

    how do you find your local food shelf?