Last month, I shared a little more detail around one of my goals for 2022: being more charitable.
In years past, I’ve donated to causes I care about as they happened, such as hurricane relief or donating to the food bank during COVID.
But, why not make donating part of my monthly budget?
At first, I figured I would pick one charity and set up a recurring monthly donation. But, then I realized I have SO many different causes I care about — why settle on just one?
I decided that this year, I’m donating to one cause per month. For budgeting purposes, it’ll be the same amount of money each month.
I thought I’d share each month’s charity here, in case it’s one you’re interested in.
Originally, I planned on donating to a cause that would celebrate Black History Month.
But, when I set my 2022 goal, I told myself that if something came up and I felt pulled to donate to it, it was okay for me to abandon my original list of charity ideas.
As a result of the current geopolitical crisis, I wanted to donate to a charity that was helping anyone trying to leave Ukraine.
I quickly settled on World Central Kitchen — an organization I’ve been following for years.
WCK is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. We build resilient food systems with locally-led solutions.
I started following the org on social media during another crisis situation. I follow several chefs on Instagram (I love watching “Top Chef” and seeing foodie content) and many of them were participating in WCK’s efforts at the time.
So, when I was scrolling Twitter reading news on Ukraine, I saw that WCK had already created a presence at the border, where refugees were getting free, hot and nutritious meals.
I donated immediately and have been keeping up with their efforts. In a short amount of time, they’ve set up spots at multiple entry points to feed more refugees.
They are also delivering food to people in bomb shelters and in the train station. They are also partnering with restaurants to help them get food supplies (like flour to bake bread) so they can continue to cook.
It’s hard to know the total number, but from what I’ve seen on Instagram, WCK has fed hundreds of thousands of people during this crisis (it’s probably a lot more)!
One last thing I’ll say is that after I donated and have continued to keep up with their work, WCK posted the picture I used for this blog, of the woman and her kitty, Crimsee.
I have to say, not a day has gone by that I don’t think about them, and everyone like them trying to seek safety. All of this breaks my heart, and I can’t help but put myself in these people’s shoes and wonder what I would do, where I would go if I needed to pack up kitty Blanche and head to safety with only what I could carry.
If you can, I encourage you to donate to help those in Ukraine — they have no idea what the future holds — and I’m hoping this comes to a peaceful resolution very soon.
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