We love Giving Tuesday…it’s a day to pause and think about you can do to help others. It’s doesn’t have to be grand gesture…it might be shopping for groceries for an elderly neighbor; donating clothes to a local shelter; calling a friend who is all alone. And this year all of non-profits desperately need donations and a few of our favorites you might consider this year that includes helping girls, helping our first responders, feeding the hungry, and protecting animals.

Gifts of Hope for Girls and Their Families

The 3Ts Cheryl Benton actively supports Plan International a global girls’ rights and children’s charity, as the Chair of the New York City Leadership Council. This year girls and their families in countries like Nigeria and Zimbabwe need our help more than, but a Gift of Hope can really make a difference.

“Wear a mask and wash your hands frequently, has become the mantra during these times we live in. But imagine living in a place where you don’t have access to running water, and a bar of soap is a luxury item? Well that is true of many families living in countries like Nigeria, or living in crowded shelters or refugee camps.  That’s why for just $68 I bought a Gift of Hope which will provide 10 families with the essentials they need: soap, detergent, and lightweight water containers- things we take for granted that will make a life a little bit easier for them. “ ~Cheryl Benton

Helping our Veterans and First Responders

The 3Ts Anne Akers, a veterans advocate serves as an advisor to Operation Warrior Shield an organization that provides comprehensive support programs for service members, veterans, first responders and their families that are focused on transition, health and wellness, employment, prevention of homelessness, peer engagement, and connections to community resources. The emphasis is to help heal their hidden wounds. Learn more and ways you can donate.

A growing number of Americans are going hungry

According to The Washington Post, 26 million now say they don’t have enough to eat, as the pandemic worsens and holidays near. Here are a few organizations you can support to help make sure that no one goes hungry this holiday season. And of course, you local food pantries are always looking for donations.

Feeding America is the number one charity in America when it comes to fighting hunger with more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. They feed the hungry in America through a nationwide network of more than 200 nationwide (and in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) member food banks that provide assistance to more than 25 million low-income individuals struggling with hunger in the United States.  Nine million of those are children, and nearly three million are seniors.

Donations to No Kid Hungry helps the organization Share Our Strength recruit summer meal sites, improve and begin school breakfast programs, and teach families how to shop and cook on a budget. Additionally, through grants to help the most innovative hunger-fighting organizations across the country, No Kid Hungry’s partner organizations purchase food and supplies to keep children of food-insecure families from going hungry.

Loaves & Fishes sets its sights on helping food-insecure families feed themselves and their dependents for a week at a time through donations of a week’s worth of nutritious groceries. A nonprofit, nondenominational organization, Loaves & Fishes was on the efforts of a church in the late 1970’s that responded to a growing hunger problem in North Carolina, and has since expanded to a nationwide movement that provides the hungry with necessary foods.

The goal of SOS is for no child in America to grow up hungry. “Share Our Strength (SOS) is a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry. We raise funds through our pioneering culinary events (Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, Great American Dine Out, A Tasteful Pursuit and Great American Bake Sale) and award grants to support successful organizations across the country that work to provide children and their families with the healthy food.

Animal Charities

Here are a few wonderful charities that protect our 4-legged friends.

• Your Local Shelter or Rescue
• Best Friends
• Humane Society
• Farm Sanctuary
• ASPCA