I’ve seen a lot of people make the no shopping on Thanksgiving pledge. Here’s one step further everyone can go with that pledge to not shop on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday. First, let’s rename it Snack Friday. Some of you may have seen the last two years I’ve referred to it thus, and tried to turn it into a day to stay home and eat leftovers, rather than heading out to get deals we all know aren’t actually as good as they’d have you believe anyway.

The second thing you can do is make something extra while you’re doing your Thanksgiving cooking, and on Snack Friday, bring it down to your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter, or wherever the hungry are being fed. Even if it is the same kind of non-perishable food you’d donate any other time, bring something there on Snack Friday. I’m pretty sure the leftovers from a soup kitchen Thanksgiving meal are slim to none, so this will be a way to guarantee the hungry can participate in Snack Friday and have leftovers like the rest of us. You are reminded that day of things for which you are thankful; you will also have done something for which someone else can be thankful.

Even if it’s not that Friday, bring something that weekend if you can. I feel like there is probably a drop-off in donations in the days immediately following Thanksgiving, after the huge push to get food for the hungry in the days leading up to it. (Maybe someone can confirm this?) If we all give a little throughout the weekend we can make sure the hungry are fed that whole weekend.

Please share this if you think this a good idea. Everyone seems to be a little fed up with the moneygrubbery that seems to crop up around the holidays, so let’s demonstrate that by doing something constructive. They’re all about the take. Let’s show them we’re more about the give. Happy Thanksgiving.