12 tips for preparing food baskets for donation

I swear the Christmas commercials and advertisements started before Halloween was even over this year. I KNOW our local Wal Mart was playing Christmas music at least 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. The commercialism of the season is outrageous, but it's also a perfect opportunity to help those less fortunate and share the true joy and meaning of this holiday season.

Have you seen the movie the Sisterhood of the Traveling pants?  This year Longaberger has donated one Medium Market Basket to the Real Farmwives of America to cross the country and be used to do charitable work around the holidays.

During January, the Real Farmwives will auction the basket off on E-Bay and donate the proceeds to a Melanoma Cancer Research Center in honor of our friend Leontien. 




One of the ways our family helps get into the spirit of the holidays each year this is by helping to coordinate food baskets for needy families through our church. We've been doing this project as long as I can remember—and that's a long time considering we attend the same church I grew up in! Over the years, I've collected some tips that help our food basket project go a little smoother, and I'm excited to share them with you in case you are interested in spearheading such a great project in your community!

1. Know how many families you are going to serve. When you know how many families your group or organization is willing to commit to serving, everything is soooo much easier. You know how many supplies you will need in advance so volunteers can prepare.


2. Find the right families. We have a special trailer park ministry in our church where volunteers transport children from a local trailer park to our church each week to participate in our church programming. Some of these same families are also recipients of the food baskets our congregation prepares. My mom is also an education program leader for Head Start in a a three-county area, so we also serve families from one of the local Head Start centers as well and the teachers there help identify needy families. The key is to have someone "in the know" who works with those less fortunate on a regular basis identify those truly in need. If you're not sure where to start, many local churches or food pantries can help point you in the right direction or even your local department of jobs and family services.

3. Don't give just your leftovers. Sure, there's nothing wrong with cleaning out your pantry and donating your extras to a good cause. That's how our ministry started. But over time, we've encouraged those in our congregation to be purposeful in their giving. Once the number of families we will serve has been determined, I like to take my kids shopping with me to buy our items to donate. It's a great teaching opportunity for the kids and there's always a great debate about what item we will buy to donate. This year my kids picked chocolate cake. We carried the cake mixes to our church for packing in this fabulous little market basket by Longaberger. It was the perfect size the the kids to help carry!

9 cake mixes are no problem for the market basket!

Buying one of the same item for each family makes things sooo much easier when it comes time to pack the baskets.

4. There's nothing wrong with money, but.... in the long term, folks are going to remember the items and the thought of your actions much longer than they will remember money. And you'll feel better about it, too. If there are those in your organization who want to donate money instead of items, designate a shopper and send them out with the money to purchase items. And it doesn't take much money to buy items for say 10 families...just $4 will get you 10 muffin mixes and they sky is the limit! One of our Sunday School classes always donates money and goes shopping with it for cleaning supplies. Other folks donate money to cover the cost of the turkeys we pack with our baskets.

5. Stock up on freebies. Are you a couponer with closets overflowing with toothpaste or shampoo? Donate them! This year our church provided baskets for 13 families. During the year I had accumulated a stockpile of deodorants for free or next to it from shopping at CVS and Rite Aid. I didn't really see that our family had an immediate use for 13 deodorants, so I donated them! Watch the ads during the year and you can find lots of freebies (or close to it!) and sometimes even some moneymakers if you're coupon savvy. On

6. Think beyond food. We call them food baskets, but there's so much more to it! We like to stock our baskets with cleaning and hygiene supplies like dish detergent, laundry detergent, toothpaste, vitamins, soaps and more.

7. Make it fun. We kick-start the holiday season and packing of the food baskets at our church each year with a carry-in dinner. Everyone gets together and enjoys a good meal and fellowship before getting to work. There are even a number of older folks in our congregation who are not physically able to do the actual packing and carrying, but they enjoy getting together and socializing while being part of the giving.

8. Get plenty of paper bags. Yes, most of my shopping bags these days are plastic. But I always try to ask for paper and stock up on these leading up to the holidays with these food baskets in mind. They are so much easier to set up in stations because they stand on their own. The kids in Sunday School at our church even decorate them for our families. Having some boxes on hand is always a good idea, too. Those canned good get heavy!

9. Have a staging area. We take one of our Sunday School rooms and turn it into a staging area before the packing begins. All the food gets hauled in there and sorted by kind. All the corn together, all the green beans, noodles, eggs, soaps, stuffing, etc. gets sorted by kind. It takes a little time, but will make the actual packing sooo much easier.

10. Set up a station for each family. We packed food for 13 families this year, so we lined the halls with 13 distinct spots—one for each family. Each stations had several paper grocery sacks and at least 1 small box for the food to be packed into.

11. Get packing! When it's time to pack, have several folks designated as sorters in the staging area. Their job is to get things together into groups for each of your family. We did 13 families this year, so my brother and I packed items together into sets of 13. Once we had 13 cake mixes together, we gave them to a pair of kids to pack. One did the carrying and one put a cake mix box into a bag or box at each station. Same with the flats of veggies, etc. Any leftover items that don't make even number "sets" can then be grouped together into a miscellaneous group and divided among the stations that ways. It really makes it easy to make sure each family is getting the same amount of the same items.

12. Deliver. Yes, you can have the families plan to come pick up their items, but let's face it: gas money is no easier to come by than grocery money. Take the time and effort to deliver the items. Not only does it make things easier for the families you're helping, but you'll remember than personal interaction as well.

To be honest, I had the best of intentions of taking pictures of our sorting and packing....but then everything got crazy and I forgot all about my camera. I hope you enjoy my tips and are able to spread some love yourself during the holiday season. I'd love the hear some of your family's traditions of giving.

Many thanks to Longaberger baskets for the use of their market basket...I've never carried my items to the church in such style or received so many compliments! Be sure to check back with the Real Farmwives next week to see how more of our farmwives are putting this basket to good use this holiday season. And please stop by to spread some Love to Leontien as well! Remember, this basket (complete with lots of good karma) will be auctioned off in January on E-Bay with the proceeds going to support Melanoma Cancer Research Center in honor of our friend Leontien.