Tzedakah In-Kind Collection Box

Today we finished our last tzedakah activity, a Tzedakah In-Kind Collection Box, before switching over to our Hanukkah focus. I love how it ties together all the activities and discussion we’ve participated in these past few weeks. This special tzedakah box is where we can collect in-kind donations that we will then donate to the appropriate agencies or people during this holiday season.

What You’ll Need

• Box
• Paint (optional)

Putting It Together

1. Paint the outside of the box, if you wish.
2. Write the word tzedakah on the front.
3. I added photos of the types of tzedakah we might collect to help my pre-readers, and even the older kids, better understand what the meaning of this box is.

Finished & Loving It!

This is a super simple activity, but has such a big, important meaning: during this busy holiday time, it’s so important to think about and to do tzedakah—meditate on the injustices of the world, where there is unfairness, and empower yourself and your family to take action however you can.

The box itself is of course super simple to make: we grabbed a box then painted it and wrote the word tzedakah on the front. But you don’t even need to go that far—any box or bag will do! But this gave us a chance to practice some hiddur mitzvah and make the whole idea of collecting items in this box extra special.

I liked adding the photos of the tzedakah items we plan to collect. I think it will help remind the kids what items around our house, or at the store, we can start looking at closely and adding to this box if appropriate.

Of course the main part of this box is not its outside decoration, it’s what we will collect inside. For us, that will probably be non-perishable foods, warm children’s winter clothing, socks and maybe some old toys or books we are ready to pass on. Our local Jewish preschool is hosting a donation drive for the first three categories. This makes it very easy, and helpful, to drop these items in their collection bins and we know they will get where they are needed.

There may be organizations in your community already doing collection drives and are connected to the agencies or people in need. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel—see what’s already available and help support these efforts!

After we set up the box and talked about the pictures and items we might collect, we did a quick walk through of our house. There were already items we could grab and thus truly start this activity with such motivation and purpose. I look forward to continuing to collect items as we see them, add some additional non-perishable food items to our grocery list, and fill up this Tzedakah In-Kind Collection Box. It’s a really wonderful, hands-on and meaningful way to do tzedakah with our family.

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