I have a cunning plan. It's so cunning you could brush your teeth with it. Or rather, SOMEONE could brush their teeth with it. But I'll get back to that later.
Our monthly sales meeting at the brokerage was much more than a sales meeting this time around. We only talked shop for about 15 minutes. The rest of our time together was spent as a holiday party, which means something a little different around our company. We had some food (and a big thank you to the co-owner of the brokerage who made sure all the food had gluten-free options), and then we had a visitor. The young woman who addressed us was from a 501c(3) called Homeless Gear. It was started by a brewery owner who helped the homeless man who used to hang around his property, giving him a job at the brewery and changing his life. They have twin missions, helping provide backpacks and other sorts of storage gear to the homeless, so they don't have to lug around all of their belongings in garbage bags, and to help people land jobs and acquire a lot of the things that they need to start, such as black pants and non-skid shoes. They work through a sort of clearing house where multiple charities are located, called the Murphy House. This place also provides services, food, showers, and laundry facilities.
After we heard about the charity and their mission, we had what is called a "service to go" project. Our brokerage volunteer coordinator (the co-owner) went to Sam's Club and loaded up on non-perishable food and bags. We then spent most of an hour putting together evening meals that they can hand out at the Murphy House. Nothing we gave them required a stove, although one food item did need hot water. We gave them a cup of noodles, pudding cup, granola bar, fruit snacks, peanut butter crackers, and a juice box, in a zippy bag with a napkin and spoon. We worked around the conference table in assembly-line fashion. We had a few places that bottlenecked, and I must admit, I was in the slow lane. But we whipped out 100 such bags and one of our agents loaded them in his car to take to the charity.
When we bring volunteer groups together, we hand out t-shirts with our corporate logo on it, to help identify us as a group on projects. When the brokerage owners came up with the designs for the shirts, they decided to create a special shirt to recognize the volunteers who keep coming back project after project. Today three of us got our 5-Project shirt (although the two others were actually on project number 6 or 7). I'm pretty happy about getting mine. I've enjoyed doing this all year.
And now back to my plan. When we had the young woman from Homeless Gear talking to us, I asked about other specific needs that the homeless have. I have been told that toiletries are in demand, and while people often think to donate food, they don't always think about toothpaste. I wanted to know which they wanted more, travel sized toiletries or full-size mega packs from Costco. Turns out they need both. Chronically homeless, the people we see out on the street, need travel sizes, while families who are temporarily homeless (living in their cars or friends' basements, for example) would benefit more from full-sized items. Here's my idea: my in-laws gave up on exchanging presents for Christmas years ago, and instead during Christmas dinner we throw cash in a basket and write down names of charities to be drawn from a hat. I wonder how they would feel about doing a service to go project, and putting together bags of travel-sized deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, shampoo, and whatever else we can think of? We could bring them to the Murphy House, Our Center, or whichever similar local center the family chooses. It sure would be fun to switch things up this year.
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