United Way kicks off Grateful Giving Calendar November 1

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The Greater Mankato Area United Way is encouraging the community to give back to local organizations fighting hunger and homelessness.

by kicking off its annual Grateful Giving Calendar, November 1st. The Greater Mankato Grateful Giving Calendar is meant to bring awareness to basic things that are sometimes taken for granted.

“Every day for the month of November there’s different prompts for folks to use. So for example one might be put a dollar in if you have a car that you are able to use to get to work today, put 25 cents in for every cell phone that’s in your home -things like that that maybe most of us might take for granted,” said Sarah Buesing, United Way Community Impact Director.

The Greater Mankato Area United Way suggests creating your own piggy bank and at the end of the month, it’s up to you to decide which organization you’d like to donate to.

The whole Grateful Giving idea became a collaboration between the local United Way and regional homeless response teams.

“United Way kind of took it under our wing to kind of help out just with our connections and things but we still collaborate with homeless response teams,” Buesing said.

United Way has recommended over 20 different organizations to donate to. Some include any local food shelf, the Salvation Army, Partners for Housing, and Feeding Every Baby, just to name a few.

“The people that do the collecting themselves just know that it’s a really easy way and just a really easy thing to kind of be mindful of and know that you know like I said, a lot of these things are things that we all can take for granted,” Buesing said. “You know, cellphones, electricity ... a roof over their heads, things like that. And so its just, it really does create that space to take some time to think and be grateful during this time of year.”

You can participate by connecting with family, friends or co-workers to complete the activity together.

Add to your bank while talking about things you are grateful for.

And after it adds up, donate.

To follow along with the calendar this November visit www.mankatounitedway.org/grateful-giving.

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