Putting It All Together: How Do You Give Back?

I have around a million things to tell you about England---which is where I still am, incidentally, stuffing myself with Easter chocolate---and about Paris too, and you will find that most of them involve food, which will probably not come as much of a surprise, but those things will have to wait, because today, as part of my second foray into Putting It All Together, we are going to talk about giving back.

Yes, giving back. Do you give back? I like to think that I give back, but sometimes I worry that just sorting through my closet and dropping off a few bags full of stuff at the thrift store isn't.....well.....giving back enough. Does it count if I also shop at the thrift store too, considering the thrift store is one of those ones where all the money goes to a specific charity? I like to think so, especially since this has the added bonus of justifying my vintage cake stand habit---seriously, how many cake stands does a person need? How many cakes do I even make? Maybe two a year?---but I say we should count it anyway. I mean, it's not like I'm buying my stuff back or anything, right? (I had a friend that did that once, by the way: took a whole bag of clothes down to the thrift store, then couldn't find anything she wanted to wear on a date that night. She went back to the thrift store and bought back a sweater she'd just given them. Charity begins at home!)

Anyway, San Francisco is a pretty easy city to give back in because there are a lot of people who need giving to. My company runs a great program that connects employees with volunteer opportunities: in the last few years here, I've helped prepare meals for people living with HIV at Project Open Hand, dug a garden at Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center, and pulled up weeds on a nature trail with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (sadly, no Leslie Knope in sight.)

I could do more, though. I suspect we could all do more---unless, of course, you're Mother Theresa, in which case feel free to sit down on this comfy chair over here and I'll bring you a latte and maybe also a scone---and that's what I'm interested in hearing about from you today. If like me, you seem to find yourself with a deficit of hours in the day, how do you give back effectively without turning your entire life upside down? I've set up a direct deposit, for example, to send a little bit of my paycheck each month to a charity that helps Cambodian children who've been injured or orphaned by landmines, and I'm a sucker for those paper shoes at the drugstore, where you pay a dollar for whatever cause you're supporting and they just add it on to the end of your bill. They're small things, yes, but they're a start.

What about you? Do you give back? How do you give back? I'm thinking there are probably a few more ways to do it than just buying every cake stand from every charity shop in the land. Though hmm, it's certainly not such a bad idea.