The absolute best gift that you can give this holiday season, or anytime really, is one that costs nothing.
Now, you’re probably thinking this is some kind of trick. That we’re just messing around with clickbait to get you to read a bunch of AI-generated faff. But it’s not. It’s real and legit. We swear on a pallet of heirloom tomatoes! And here at Fiesta Farms we never joke about tomatoes.
In all seriousness the best gift you can give is this:
volunteering
Volunteering changes lives. For real. Yours most of all.
Bey gets it.
Second Harvest recently posted this message : Over the past year, we have welcomed over 3,500 corporate and individual volunteers who have put in over 11,000 hours toward the fight against food insecurity in Canada.
Those are staggering numbers. But they bring up the question, how many of us can say we have volunteered recently? And if not, why not?
And why not now?
this is not the kind of volunteering we’re talking about
There’s a feeling that comes from the act that is hard to describe, maybe because it’s not something we experience very often, to give of ourselves freely, for nothing in return, in real life. Not donating to a gofundme or liking a social justice post on insta, but actually setting foot in a new place, among strangers, and doing something with your own two hands to make the world better.
We’re not suggesting that you scrap all your holiday plans to throw yourself into volunteer work right this minute. The idea of volunteering at a shelter on Christmas Eve is actually not all that helpful. But we’re talking about volunteering now because we want to plant a seed for the new year. January and February are notoriously the toughest months for any charitable organizations, they are also the most depressing months of the year. Perhaps this could be a way to alleviate both problems!
Volunteers at Black Creek Community Farm
Volunteering gives a profound sense of purpose and satisfaction, while helping you to feel connected to the community. It improves self esteem and fosters social interaction while creating a support system. And it gets you out of your regular life and engaging with new people you might never otherwise meet. It infuses you with empathy and eradicates inertia.
Volunteering is a gift, but maybe not so much a gift you can give away. This isn’t about checking off names on a list or wrapping things up and tying them with a bow to stick under the tree. Consider volunteering as another kind of gift, one that’s much more profound, and one that you can really only give to one person – yourself.