It’s November, and it not only ushers in festivities but also the season of giving. We celebrate the spirit of sharing, giving, thanking and being grateful for all we have. In that spirit, there’s a new day of giving called Giving Tuesday, that is gaining popularity globally since 2012.
In the US, it’s the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Individuals, companies, governments, organizations give back to their communities, whether it be by the donation of time, resources or skills.
At givingtuesday.org, non-profits across the nation list their websites so residents of the community are able to search for local organizations to support in any number of ways. There are also many campaigns listed on social media by charitable organizations seeking donations and volunteers. You can find these using the hashtag #givingtuesday.
At the MAVF foundation, we are volunteering at a local food pantry, working directly to help those struggling to make ends meet. To make things a little more fun (and competitive) this year, MAVF is having a contest to raise funds for food pantries in the US via the website FreeRice.com.
Free Rice is an online quiz that helps you increase your knowledge on a variety of subjects like Math, Chemistry, English Vocabulary, or French. For each correct answer you provide, 10 grains of rice are donated to the World Food Program to fight hunger worldwide. You can play individually or form a team with friends, or play for an existing team. The quizzes are available in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Korean. http://www.freerice.com
The MAV Foundation has set up a team called EndHunger2030. After you create a profile, you can join our FreeRice team which currently has 14,000 grains of rice. MAV will match the team total beginning on #givingtuesday by giving $0.01 for every grain of rice won (to a maximum of 1 million grains) to food pantries in the US. If you score 10,000 grains of rice, that’s $100 that will be donated to a food pantry. You can share your scores with friends on Facebook and Twitter for a little friendly competition.
The contest runs from #GivingTuesday until December 31st, 2016. So… play a little, tickle your brain a little and give a little!