In case you don’t already have it circled on your calendar, take note: GivingTuesday is today, Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
Begun in 2012 as a counter to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the shopping fever that grips us during the holiday season, GivingTuesday encourages us to give back to our communities, whether through charitable donations, volunteering or an act of kindness or generosity for someone else.
Last year on GivingTuesday, about 34.8 million people took the opportunity to donate a total of $2.47 billion to U.S. nonprofits. Countless others performed other, less quantifiable acts of generosity.
No doubt, just nine years after it has launched, GivingTuesday has grown into what its organizers call “a global generosity movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world.”
Of course, that big movement is made up of individual decisions to do or give something — big or small — to help others. If you’re eager to participate, here are ways you can give back and make a difference this GivingTuesday in Tremont/Duck Island/Irishtown Bend neighborhoods.
Help Feed Someone in Need Through the Annual Holiday Food Drive
Many of us may feel like we’re in a different place than we were last year, but for the more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, in the United States experiencing food insecurity or a lack of access to nutritious food, the challenges brought by the pandemic are far from over.
In the midst of this need, many food pantries are struggling: They’ve had to ramp back help and reduce portion sizes due to staffing and volunteer shortages and inflation affecting the cost of food staples such as meat, chicken, dairy and eggs.
This GivingTuesday, consider donating to your local food pantries through the Holiday Food Drive.
1) Donations of Canned Goods and Paper Products can be donated through your Block Club Food Drive Facilitators – or deliver to the side porches of Tremont West Development (please include a note with the name of your block club with your donation).
While food donations are appreciated, the Wall Street Journal reports that food pantries may actually prefer money donations, as they can purchase food for those in need without having to “sort, organize and repack [food donations] with a diminished staff.”
2) Donate by check made payable directly to the food pantry/hunger center of your choice (see below for the list of 10 local pantries/hunger centers/food bans). Deliver your check to your Block Club Food Drive facilitator – or deliver to or mail to:
Tremont West Development Corp
2406 Professor
Cleveland, OH. 44113
(a large mailbox with Tremont West’s name is located on the side porch below tenants’ mailboxes – Please write your block club name on check memo line or on envelope)
How to give: Click donate, select an amount to give, choose your block club, choose which food pantry/hunger center you want your donation to be sent to, and choose form of payment,
That said, donating your time and effort are also helpful: You can volunteer at a local food bank, pantry or hunger center. Not sure where to start? Check the list below. In addition,
Feeding America has a
Find a Food Bank tool that allows you to search by zip code or your state of residence:
https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank
- St. Augustine Hunger Center hot meals program
- St. Augustine Parish food pantry services
- Pilgrim Church Food Pantry
- Immanuel Lutheran Church Food Pantry
- St. Michael the Archangel Food Pantry – Holy Name Society/Iglesia San Miguel Arcangel
- St. Malachi Parish Back Door Ministry
- Westside Catholic Center
- Iglesia Nueva Vida Food Pantry
- Mega Church Resource Center Food Pantry
- Greater Cleveland Food Bank
- Hunger Action Network of Greater Cleveland