This holiday season looks different than ever before! The needs of our most vulnerable community members are larger than ever – here are a few ways to give back going into the season of giving!
I. The Boston Resiliency Fund
This fund is the City of Boston’s effort to provide essential services to Boston residents whose health and well-being are most immediately impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. The priorities of the fund are to ensure Boston’s children, families and seniors have access to food and other basic needs; provide support to first responders, front-line workers and healthcare workers so they can effectively do their jobs while promoting public health; and provide technology to Boston students for remote learning.
II. Pine Street Inn – Amazon Wishlist
November is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Month. The Pine Street Inn is the largest homeless service provider in Boston, and the work they do each day could not be done without the support of donations from the local community. The Pine Street Inn serves our community’s most vulnerable daily and COVID-19 has only made the need greater; review the Amazon Wishlist attached to help the tenants weather the unprecedented time’s we’re in with household necessities that we may take for granted each day.
III. Christmas in the City
Christmas in the City is dedicated to helping relieve the impact of homelessness and poverty on Boston-area children and families. While this year, amid COVID-19, they are unable to host their holiday gatherings for families residing in shelter, they have continued to work with shelters to ensure families experiencing homelessness will still have a joyful holiday season. In a beautiful way, all personal wishlists have been filled and all toy donations have been completed – financial donations will continue to support the mission via the link attached!
IV. Kids Backing Kids
Kids Backing Kids is a new initiative local to Boston! Launched in 2020, and complicated by COVID-19 the mission remained strong. The goal being to support kids in need and engage other youth to fight childhood poverty, homelessness, food insecurity and trauma; to improve lives one child at a time. Kids helping kids, one backpack at a time. This organization has youth as a primary source of volunteers in order to provide education and understanding around these issues, allowing our youth to become education in sympathy around these issues that impact their peers daily. Learn more about these opportunities here. Currently they’re initiative is a Holiday Gift Drive for families in need! Use the link to sponsor a family or provide a monetary donation to support this mission!
V. Community Servings
Community Servings is a local meal service which serves vulnerable individuals in our community. One portion of their mission is Meal Delivery which provides nutritious, made-from-scratch meals delivered to homebound and critically ill individuals. This program has medically tailored meals (meaning they’re customized to meet the nutritional or medical needs of individuals fighting illnesses including HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Cancer, Kidney Disease and more!) There are 15 separate medical diets available to choose from.
There are endless opportunities to give this holiday season, these are just the tip of the iceberg! Follow along on @_smileforasec Instagram page for more ideas on giving this season!
Smile for a SEC 