Comments on Kids Meal Crowd: I need your help for #VTresponse! 5 easy ways to ...

Anonymous #2 WHile I appreciate your sentiments...

2011-09-05T16:11:10.360-04:00

Anonymous #2

WHile I appreciate your sentiments of appreciate what you have/shop locally/better to buy quality products than junk, I feel like you've missed the point. Would you care to donate thousands of dollars to these people in gift cards to store YOU approve of? If their material goods were of better quality or made in the USA, would you feel better, or worse? I definitely agree that people donating trash are out of line, but im a little confused as to what that has to do with donating food or toothpaste purchased with coupons.

@ Anonymous - I appreciate your comment, and wante...

2011-09-05T15:46:57.417-04:00

@ Anonymous - I appreciate your comment, and wanted to provide some immediate clarification to your inquiries.

I've been blogging now since 2008. My blog goals have changed over time, although the goal of connecting with other people over common interests (whether they live next door, or half a world away) remains the same.

This post was part of my personal response to the worst natural disaster to hit my home state of Vermont in approximately a century. One of the topics I've written about over the last three years has included how to stretch money while shopping. I've read about, and participated in, "Couponing for a Cause" in the past - and thought I could help promote that idea here and now to support the recovery efforts in VT.

I'm not encouraging consumption for the sake of consumption, although I think that your points speak to this and it's a valid concern. But I'd have to say, I think a bit off-topic for my intentions here. I've taken down part of my original post, the part with a consolidated list of items I saw requested and places where donations where being collected for distribution. This is something that the #VTresponse web site has done an excellent job of putting together, and there was no need for me to try and duplicate when they have volunteers to consolidate and maintain.

Let me give you an example of how I thought my project could help with ongoing efforts - imagine someone had $50 to spare this week to support recovery efforts. Maybe they read my post and decided to spend $10 as a text donation to the VT Food Bank, $20 to the American Red Cross, and took $20 to the grocery or drug store to purchase items in need like toothpaste, toilet paper, and canned foods.

I know from personal experience that you can take $20 to those stores, and with a little advance planning (make a list, check the sales flyers, bring along coupons) your $20 cash can be used to purchase $30+ of items for people in need. That's my goal here - maximize resources for minimal efforts.

I hope that helps to clarify my intentions. Thanks for volunteering your time in the clean up efforts, and I hope you'll continue to share your thoughts on progress being made and what people can do to help.

I just stumbled onto your page from a facebook lin...

2011-09-04T08:51:54.023-04:00

I just stumbled onto your page from a facebook link, so I'll admit I'm not entirely clear on what the Kids Meal Crowd is all about. It is obvious that your heart and hands are reaching out in every way possible to help anyone affected by this disaster. I too have been moved, and have spent time hauling muddy debris from people's homes and garages, trying to sort out the damage. I found a couple things out there I thought you might find interesting. In the town I was volunteering in, there was a call out for donations to help flood victims. All sorts of household goods and whatnot found there way to an open area free for the picking. While people surely want to help, two things struck me: one, most folks used the call as an excuse to get rid of there most unwanted items that wouldn't help anyone anywhere in a time of crisis! Tell me, what are you going to do with an old wooden tennis racket, some crappy plastic kids toys and a broken blender? And that was what most of this was! The other thing, the folks hardest hit will want to replace their furniture and household goods, but right now, they don't have anywhere to put that stuff! Remember, their homes were inundated with flood water! A call a month or two from now for specific things in good working order makes sense, but this was just ridiculous!

The other thing I noticed is that the lion's share of what I was hauling out of people's homes, no offense to them, was cheap, plastic, disposable crap! This stuff isn't designed to withstand a few months out of the box, let alone anything more severe. This stuff was garbage the day it was put on Walmart's shelves! Unfortunately, I understand the financial duress that drives folks to Walmart to buy that crap, but that's the problem we should be tackling at the same time as we clean up from this mess. Most of that junk is floating downriver now or being hauled off to our landfills. Why would we ever think it would be okay to just replace that stuff with more of the same to end up in the same place a few months or years from now? And the cycle just continues from there. This is an opportunity for all of us to reevaluate our relationships with "stuff," not just repopulate our lives with it.

We are not getting a good deal or a great bargain at Walmart ever! When we buy this crap that poisons our world when it is being made and then will poison it forever after while bringing no joy or usefulness to anyone's life in the meantime, that is not a good deal.

Let's try to help ourselves out of this mess by demanding an end to a culture that makes and consumes trash interminably. Let's cleanup the mess and get back into our homes with a commitment to less crap in our lives, with our eyes on the bigger picture, not just the biggest bargain.

Great question. I've edited this post with li...

2011-08-31T22:33:15.045-04:00

Great question. I've edited this post with links to some of the specific places were I found listings of items needed and donation drop offs. There are new facebook groups/pages/events popping up all over the place so it's tough to wade through it all. Three of the most comprehensive resources I have found are also listed in the post: #VTresponse web site, Seven Days post, and the Common Good Vermont toolkit.

Good luck, thanks for stopping by, and please share with others!

Do you know where those items are being collected?...

2011-08-31T10:00:43.750-04:00

Do you know where those items are being collected?