Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. Gift giving and receiving is my love language, and for a month, give or take, it feels like everyone is speaking my love language. Not only do I love to receive gifts during this time, I also like to find ways to give back (acts of service is my other top love language). Growing up, my mom always stressed the balance between appreciating the gifts we received but also giving our time or donations to those in need. In light of giving season, I made a short list of things I’ve done to give back to the community, just in case you’re looking to be a bit extra generous during the holidays!
Donate to a Food Pantry
Food pantries are places where those experiencing food insecurity can receive items to feed themselves and their families. You might have heard of NC State’s food pantry, Feed the Pack. They provide both perishable and some non-perishable items to students or other members of the NC State Community. They have multiple drop-off points, but the main pantry is located in North Hall. Some of their urgent needs are canned soup, pasta, rice, breakfast food, snacks, beans and pet food.
You can find more information about Feed The Pack here.
Donate Clothes
If you’re like me, you have a huge pile of clothes you’ve been “meaning” to get rid of, but just haven’t gotten around to it. Whether that’s to sell online or drop off at a place like Plato’s closet or Uptown Cheapskate, the pile keeps getting bigger, and your will to take individual photos of each item or wait for hours to get a tiny bit of cash at a resale store dwindles.
Instead, donate the clothes! So many people can benefit from clothing donations, especially cold weather items since the temps are finally dropping. Here are some places you can drop off donations in the Raleigh area:
Goodwill (there are a ton of locations around Raleigh!)
Dress For Success (accepting work appropriate clothing for women entering the workforce)
Donate to a Women’s Shelter
Women’s shelters provide much needed support for women and their children experiencing unstable environments, such as domestic violence or homelessness.
Places like the Wake County Women’s Shelter provide a safe, stable environment for marginalized adult single women in the Raleigh area so they can heal from trauma as a result of human trafficking, domestic violence, homelessness, and more.
You can help by donating a variety of care and hygiene items to meet the needs of these marginalized women. As of November 2023, there is an urgent need for sports bras, backpacks or rolling suitcases, throw blankets, umbrellas and unused makeup, but there are plenty of items on the list, which you can view here.
Sponsor an Angel Through the Angel Tree Program
The Angel Tree program was created by the Salvation Army and helps children in need receive gifts on Christmas when they normally wouldn’t have due to financial circumstances.
After determining level of need, families are asked to make a Christmas list for their children. These lists are put onto cards and hung on a large Christmas tree in the mall, where shoppers can select a child or multiple children to sponsor. They then buy what’s on the list, and turn in the gifts by a certain date, so that the kids will have them by December 25th.
Crabtree Valley Mall is the closest Angel Tree to NC State, and they are collecting donations until December 10, 2023. This is definitely a pricier option, but I wanted to include it because it is such a gratifying experience. Though you won’t be able to see your angel’s reaction to their gifts on Christmas morning, it is so rewarding knowing that you played a part in making someone’s life just a little more magical. To me, that’s what the holiday season is about!
You can find more information about the Angel Tree Program here.
There are so many ways you can give back during the holiday season; these are just a few of the things that I’ve done. I hope these got you thinking about ways to make you and yours’ holiday a little more magic. Happy Holidays!