The children were all nestled snug in their beds…while visions of filled red cups danced in their heads
Last night, in many homes, children went to bed with a new understanding of what Thanksgiving means.
Either before or after their bounteous feasts, they spilled the change they had collected through the month of November out on tables and counted how many school meals they could give.
They knew every combination of 25 cents they could find would feed one child.
The excitement built as they saw the meals adding up. How empowered they felt when they realized that by their own efforts, they made a difference in not just one person’s life, but in many cases 50 plus lives.
Adult’s hearts swelled as they saw the seeds of altruism taking root in their children.
The feelings the kids were expressing became contagious, and before you knew it, adults were adding to the count by pulling out dollar bills and running out to their cars to find whatever change they could to keep the spirit of giving alive.
A small child beaming with smiles was overheard to say “We’ve got a billion meals…don’t even get me started.” The joy was spreading farther and farther and before the end of the night everyone got a glimpse of where true happiness comes from… GIVING.
As of this writing Pioneers of Peace™Thanks “Giving” Cup Campaign has made a difference by providing 3,276 school meals
There is a wonderful synergistic energy that is created between giver and receiver. Everyone is equally enlarged by the experience.
This has truly been a beautiful Thanksgiving, and the beginning of many more to come.
Check us out on our Facebook page. Pioneers of Peace™Thanks “Giving” Cup Campaign, and if you are so inclined to give to our cause, here is the link http://my.wfpusa.org/popthanksgivingcupcampaign
Take a moment and think back to some of the traditions you have been a part of…
One of my cherished memories is that of baking a variety of cookies with my mother over the Christmas season. After each batch was baked, the cookies were carefully stored in the freezer until the night we decorated our tree. That night we took the goodies out of the freezer and arranged them on cheerful holiday plates. Hot chocolate was brewed and served with the much awaited cookies, but only after the tree was decorated. The anticipation was overwhelming. It was so much fun that I chose to keep this tradition with my children and now my grandchildren. I can honestly say it’s as much fun today as it was when I was a child, but more importantly, it brings family members together and strengthens our bonds.
What about Thanksgiving?
In my house as well as many others, the Thanksgiving feast takes center stage. For the past couple of years I’m embarassed to admit Black Friday shopping has begun to take root. After dinner, newspapers are laid out on the floor and the hunt begins for the best “deals.” Kids look at the ads and begin their holiday wish lists while the the shopping strategy is formulated.
Contrast that with a different tradition…
…Last year about this time I read about a neat little project that a beautiful friend of mine was doing. It is a desire of her heart to help eradicate hunger in children. She told us that for only .25 cents, a child would be provided a school lunch in a red cup by the World Food Program. This may be all the food they eat in a day. Our family wanted to try and help and see what we could do so we decided to join the Thanksgiving “Cup” Campaign. We found three cups. One for the grandchildren, one for our children and one for Bob and I. We all looked for spare change in the bottom of purses and pockets, drawers, in the car, and under the couch.
Little ones came with coins in their hands and dropped them one by one into their cup and each time they did we talked about who may benefit from “their” coins.
On Thanksgiving day we all gathered together and counted “our change”. The children made piles of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters on the floor and counted nearly $100 dollars. In a few short weeks we had “found” and collected enough change to provide 400 school meals for children somewhere in the world.
Isn’t that great.
Thanksgiving is the season of harvest; a time to be mindful of our abundance. It’s a time to reflect on being “thankful” for all that we have. Part of counting our blessings is knowing that our lives could be very different. If we slow down long enough, it is easy to see the contrast between the haves and the have nots.
We mustn’t forget the forgotten. There exists almost a billion people in the world who do not know where their next meal is coming from.
This Thanksgiving we invite you to begin a new Thanksgiving Tradition by joining the Pioneers of Peace Thanks”Giving” Cup Campaign.
66 million children go to school hungry every day. 25 cents feeds a child. $1.00 feed 4 children. $10.00 feeds 40 children. $20.00 feeds 80 children.
Tips for Making the Donation Process as Easy as Pumpkin Pie
1. Become familiar with Pioneers of Peace’s direct link to WFPUSA early. It’s important that you donate through this link so we can measure the good we have collectively accomplished. Here is the link: http://my.wfpusa.org/popthanksgivingcupcampaign
2. If you don’t have a Paypal account, you may want to open one. It’s a safe and easy way to pay directly from your checking account and there are no fees. Here is link: PayPal
On our link there are also options for credit and debit cards
4. Go to your bank in advance and ask them what their procedure is for transferring change into dollars. Most banks have change counting machines that make this process very easy.
5. After counting your change on Thanksgiving day, donate the equivalent through our link, and then the next day, deposit your change into your bank account to reimburse yourself.
6. You can also find out where your local CoinStar machine is and exchange your coins for cash. Just know CoinStar will take a percentage of your money.
7. Calculate how many meals you have donated, and know that as you sit down to your own feast, you have provided much needed school meals to children all over the world.
Other Important Information:
When you donate on our direct link, DO NOT donate anonymously. We want to thank you for your kindness.
When you donate on our direct link you will receive an email receipt from WFPUSA for your tax records .
The first 50 people to donate will receive an authentic red cup as a thank you gift. (One cup per household)
We’d like to thank you in advance for joining us in doing our part to end hunger this Thanksgiving season.
As Mother Teresa said…
May this Thanksgiving be a joyous one and the beginning of a new tradition of putting the “Giving” into Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone and may you always find your cup half full 🙂
Currently we are in the middle of our annual fundraiser for the World Food Program USA’s, School Meals Program. Heres a little info graph to explain what we’re trying to do…
You can learn more about it on our Facebook page, “Pioneers of Peace Thanks “Giving” Cup Campaign” and on our website at http://www.pioneersofpeace.org
… and little bit more about Pioneers of Peace Inc.
Pioneers of Peace ™ is a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating peace by fostering compassion, altruism, and gratitude. We do our part in relieving local and global suffering by providing humanitarian aid to women and children.
Compassion
As Pioneers of Peace (POP) we are dedicated to the promotion of human development and resilience. Our efforts are founded on principles of gratitude, compassion, and altruism. We choose optimism over cynicism. We recognize that even simple acts of kindness are powerful, whether performed by individuals or groups. Such efforts alleviate suffering and elevate consciousness. Acts of generosity inspire others and foster a spirit of giving; we are thus committed to raising the awareness of individuals and groups who are actively engaged in making a positive difference in the world.
As pioneers of peace we make a personal commitment to our own kindness and growth, understanding that we cannot ask of the world what we are unwilling to do ourselves. We hold that the act of “giving back” is the strongest evidence of resilience; therefore as Pioneers of Peace, We Walk, Not Just Talk.
Pioneers of Peace ™ has a two-fold mission.
1) We cultivate peace by promoting compassion, altruism, and gratitude.
We define peace as individual well-being, and goodwill toward others.
We believe well-being is enhanced, on every level by focusing on the needs of others.
We seek to strengthen pro-social values across all age groups through education and opportunities to practice pro-social behavior.
We walk, not just talk.
2) We relieve suffering by providing humanitarian aid to women and children
We support The Zero Hunger Challenge[i] by providing school meals
We support World Food Program USA, in their effort to fund the School Meals Program[ii].
We believe hunger is a solvable problem
We utilize fundraisers, the sale of unique products and educational presentations to accomplish our humanitarian goals.
[i]The Zero Hunger Challenge is a global initiative, which aims to build support around the goal of achieving Zero Hunger. It was launched by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and call on everyone-governments, the private sector, non-government organizations (NGOs), and the public- to do their part to achieve this goal. It is based on a shared conviction that hunger can be eliminated in our lifetimes. http://www.wfp.org/zero-hunger
[ii] No child should go to school hungry. Today, an estimated 66 million students across the developing world attend primary school hungry, with 23 million children in Africa alone.
School meals can be life-changing for the world’s poorest children. School meals also help to get students into the classroom, giving them an important key to a better future—an education.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides school meals to more than 24 million children each year. Just 25 cents provides a child with a nutritious meal, such as porridge, rice or beans. School meals help to improve children’s nutrition, ability to learn and life chances. School feeding also gives poor families an incentive to send children to school, especially girls. http://wfpusa.org/what-wfp-does/school-meals
Between Sept 1 and Thanksgiving Day, Pioneers of Peace™ teams up with World Food Program USA through our annual Thanks “Giving” Cup Campaign. We collect our spare change for the purpose of providing school meals to the world’s hungriest children. Just 25 cents feeds a hungry child in school for a day.
,
We Don’t
… Ask you for money you don’t have
… Ask you to forgo your holiday gift giving
… Ask you to starve so that you can feel the pain
… Ask you to give up your family vacation
… Ask for an ongoing monthly donation
… Ask you to donate to an organization that doesn’t have a track record
… Ask you to give Pioneers of Peace™ your money
We DO ask
… That you find a cup worthy of holding precious coins that will pay for school
meals
… That over the course of the campaign you fill the cup with your loose change
… That you look under your cushions, empty the bottom of your purses, search through your junk drawers, pick up coins off the street, and send your children on a hunt for lost coins waiting to be transformed into nutritionally complete meals.
…That between Thanksgiving Day and Dec 1st you liberate the buying power of the change you collected by donating it to WFPUSA on the Pioneer of Peace Thanks”Giving”Cup Campaign link
We Hope
…That you take this easy opportunity to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children
…That your choice to help will have a ripple effect of goodness in the world
…That your children will have the seeds of gratitude and compassion planted in their hearts
…That you know you have
…That children who would otherwise be searching for food or working, can receive an education.
…That through all of our efforts, we will see the end of hunger in our lifetime
Join me and many others in fighting world hunger this Thanksgiving by saving your spare change between September 1st and Thanksgiving Day. The money collected will be donated to The World Food Program USA to provide meals to impoverished school children.
The School Feeding Program feeds over 20 million children each day, which is only a fraction of the vast need. Each nutritionally balanced meal is only 25 cents. That means when you spent $20.00 on sushi you could have fed 80 children. Shocking huh!
Hunger Facts
1. 870 million people do not have enough food to eat
2. 98% of the worlds undernourished people live in developing countries
3. Asia and the Pacific have the highest number of hungry comprising 578 million people, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 239 million people, and then Latin America and the Caribbean with 53 million people
4. Malnutrition is the key factor contributing to one-third of all global deaths (2.6 million per year)
5. Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger related diseases.
Begin by choosing a meaningful cup and start emptying your jingling pockets and bulging wallets into it. Take a look at some of last year’s participating cups.
Some of Last Years Participating Cup
Search under your couch cushions for all of the spare change you can find and send your little children on a quest to find every lost coin hiding in your home and car.
Dig out your old purses and rescue the loose change that is waiting patiently at the bottom, to be used for a wise purpose.
Spread the word that we can make a difference this Thanksgiving; a holiday in which we celebrate abundance and gratitude. Last year we collected close to $5000.00 which provided 20,000 meals to school children.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Stay tuned for logistical information. For now, choose your cup and start filling it with change. Until next time…
The children were all nestled snug in their beds…while visions of filled red cups danced in their heads
Barbara Scoville, LCSW 