<p>My Mom’s birthday is coming up and she needs/wants nothing. She jokes that we should all come and take things out of her house for her birthday. Last year I gave a donation to the No Freeze homeless shelter in her area (Connecticut). This year I just got a flyer from them. The statistics were pretty sobering. In 2008 the number of homeless families n the state was up 13% from the previous year. Children living in shelters rose 18% from the previous year and the average household has to earn $44,000. per year to afford a two bedroom apartment in Connecticut.
Just a thought that if anyone else out there is looking for a birthday or holiday gift a donation to one of the shelters in that person’s area might be a good choice. Particularly if they live in cold weather.</p>
<p>We gave a big donations to the local soup kitchen/pantry last year and will do the same this year.</p>
<p>Is there any similar organization like No Freeze in NJ area?</p>
<p>Excellent idea, ebeeeee. For Christmas we’re donating chickens to a poor village through Heifer International. Anything that helps people who need it, rather than indulging our own desire for more stuff, is a good thing.</p>
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Totally agree! For the past couple of Mother’s Days, I’ve donated to Food for the Poor in honor of my mom, and she has been thrilled. Charities that have a low cost of admin are high on our priority list in terms of determining where our donations go.</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to Philabundance](<a href=“http://www.philabundance.org/]Welcome”>http://www.philabundance.org/) is a local Philly charity that does great things.</p>
<p>I also always go thru my cupboards and buy/take what I can to the collections at work and church. At church yesterday there was a Free market for women’s clothing (all donated by church members). They joy at seeing these women get to pick out clothes for themselves and their children, well it just doesn’t get any better than that.</p>
<p>I think I saw a figure of over 50K that a family of 4 would need to exist in Philly (and that is pretty darn hard to do unless you live in a bad neighborhood.</p>
<p>I figured you Ccers were all over this but the letter I got in the mail yesterday reminded me and I decided reminding couldn’t hurt.
I don’t know if there is a No Freeze Shelter in NJ…google away!</p>