Day 31: canned goods

I am donating food items every day this week to a local charity set up by a senior at Milford High School. This not only makes my donating easy for the week, it also ensures that everything will be used and appreciated.  Well, maybe not appreciated. I'm not sure why, but some of the items I purchased at the grocery in anticipation of this week's food drive are not things I would eat myself.

I think this bargain shopping for items to donate has to do with the fact food drives really count on canned good, and lots of canned goods aren't really that good.  Today, I put two cans of veggies in (green beans and peas).  This is fine, although I love FRESH peas myself and fresh green beans. Last summer, I bought peas at the farmer's market that were actually delicious.  But for some reason, I went way basic for the food drive.  I even bought two cans of beans and wieners.  Really?  Who eats those?  I guess for a moment I thought they would have fiber and be filling or something.  Later in the week I do have peanut butter and even name-brand cereal.  I'll think of other ways that I can make up for my less than stellar choices.

Day 30: the bat sweater

By 8:30 this morning I had already donated a sweater that I had never worn--still had the tags, in fact. I call it the bat sweater for two reasons. First, it's the same murky gray color I associate with the airborne rodents. Second, it was a fashion disaster I purchased last year when this strange trend of short-sleeved sweaters started infiltrating the low-end stores where I purchase most of my apparel. Each sleeve hole on this beauty was the size of  a large pizza, so whenever I tried on the sweater (which looked relatively normal on the hanger--isn't that always the way) I transformed into a winged creature of the night.  A fat one at that. And I just looked awful. Ridiculous, in fact.  Somehow, I'm hoping this sweater will look better on someone else, somewhere.  If not, maybe it can sit in their armoire for a year and then they can pass it on to the next victim. I suppose it could go one like that for a near eternity. 

Here's a tangential problem:  I gave away one sweater today, but I purchased two sweaters from the clearance rack at Macy's yesterday. Overall, this is not going to reduce my total number of possessions in any way, nor is it helping anyone else (except the floor manager at Macy's who wants to reduce the stock).  Yet, tomorrow marks one month of giving or donating every day. I'm proud that I've been able to keep this up, and I have faith that I can make it for the entire year.  It's becoming second nature to me. I look for donation boxes, jars, and just plain ideas for giving everywhere I go. It's like the English teacher's curse of spotting missing or misused apostrophes on any written sign.

Day 29: oatmeal containers

Today I gave a way two empty, 18 oz Quaker oatmeal containers.  One was quick oats, one old-fashioned. In this case, I saw a posting by a woman named Diane on Freecycle for just these types of containers. I noticed that Diane and I live in the same zip code, so I offered to drop them off, but she insisted that she could pick them up. She might have thought it was weird for someone to offer to drop these off, right? She came by this afternoon and picked them up off my front porch. Why did Diane need empty oatmeal containers?  Some sort of craft project, I believe. I can't quite imagine, but for whatever reason I had the goods!  How is it that I had two empty containers? I actually didn't. I emptied the contents of one container into a ziploc bag.  I just thought it would be nicer to give two, especially if she was driving over. I hope there are more Freecycle requests like this one in the future. It was so easy today.  Just a couple of quick emails.  I feel so green about it, too.

Day 28: A binder, 26 cents, and a book

Unlike yesterday where I had to seek out my doantion, today has been a breeze. Since it was an inservice day, I stopped at Panera.  I had to dig in my purse to put some change in teh share the bread box, and I decided that I really need to start carrying a change purse (that sounds like something my grandmother would have said) just for these unexpected occasions. I also donated a book to our new student-led writing center, How to Swat the Killer Be's Out of Your Writing, and I gave a binder to a friend and co-worker, Diana.

Day 27: Petsmart Donation

I went grocery (and other) shopping tonight at several different stores and kept my eyes peeled for opportunities to donate.  Amazingly, they were few and far between. I had to buy kitty litter, so I knew that if I could make it to Petsmart, I wouldn't miss my chance. I took advantage of the debit card donation, and I donated change to a box built into the checkout counter. Both of these small donations went to help homeless pets, so I'm happy with my choices.
Here's what I'm wondering, though, why do so many grocery stores have opportunities to donate food or money only around Thanksgiving or Christmas? People are hungry all year long.