Should Urban Schools Participate In a Toy Drive For The Holidays?
Toy drives, food drives, and donations are regular occurrences in K-12 schools and students enjoy giving gifts or food to get extra points for class competitions, or just to help another organization in need. I often wonder about our donations? Every year, teachers, in a low income school districts would partake in this sometimes week-long or month long drive. Personally, I would drive to the store to help my class with the donations that were needed. Even though my students couldn’t give, I would have at least something from my class to give when the collector came around with the bin of toys or food.
Teacher Obligation
Teachers, pretty much felt obligated to participate in the latest donation and gift fund; but it often concerned me that we would ask our students who were in urban populations, low social economic status, and impoverished neighborhoods to give or donate. I think we were all a paycheck away from poverty as teachers but as I watched year after year, students bring in their canned food I’d wonder was this the answer? I would see many students walk in with one can as if they wouldn’t benefit from keeping it themselves.
Can Our Students Afford Donations
I would see parents come to the school personally and give, not because they could afford it but because their child wanted to participate in the drive. I remember one year, we had a homeless student donate to; at that time, “Helping the Homeless.” I often wondered if we were doing the right thing or is it like taking from the less fortunate to give to the less fortunate. I would ask my teacher colleagues in affluent schools if they too, had these drives and donations. She assured me that they did but parents would go out to buy canned goods for the drive, not eating can goods themselves. She also expressed to me that they no longer have to participate in fundraisers because now they just ask every parent to donate a set amount so they do not have to participate in a fundraiser. She shared that they have been using this method for three years now and that she’s glad. Her school raised enough money for their teachers to each have 1:1 tablets, microphones to amplify their voice, and a personal device that works the white board without walking up to it... I was so happy for her to be rewarded because yes, we are both teachers and our checks still go towards students and their well being but I often wonder what its like for the parents, teachers, and students not to have to worry about this years donation around the holidays.
Volunteering Statistics & Trends according to non for profit source:
Approximately 63 million Americans — 25% of the adult population — volunteer their time, talents, and energy to making a difference.
The 2016 national value of volunteer time is $24.14 per hour. In other words, Americans contribute $193 billion of their time to our communities.
The volunteer rate declined by 0.4% to 24.9% in 2016.
Women volunteer at higher rates (27.8%) than men (21.8%).
People aged 35-44 and 45-54 are most likely to volunteer (28.9% and 28% respectively) while 20-24 year olds have the lowest rates (18.4%).
On average, people spend an average of 52 hours per year volunteering their time.
72% of volunteers are involved with only one organization, while 18.3% are involved with two.
The top four national volunteer activities are food collection or distribution (24.2%), fundraising or selling items to raise money (23.9%), general labor or transportation (18.8%), and tutoring or teaching (17.9%).
The top four volunteer areas are for religious (34.1%), educational (26%), social service (14.9%), and health (7.3%) organizations.
42.1% of people became volunteers with their main organization after being asked to volunteer.