Why Not Give A Gift Food Basket

Stumped for a gift idea? Food baskets are always welcome and thoughtful

Rising food prices are affecting everyone. Unless you're particularly well off, you probably now think twice before you toss an item into your grocery basket. Do you have a neighbor who's struggling to make ends meet? Probably so. When the holidays roll around, food baskets filled with cookies and gourmet treats make great gifts. However, these days, a food basket gift is a great gift choice for any occasion.

There are so many opportunities to give a food basket. If you're invited to a neighborhood party, it's common to bring your host or hostess a gift. In times past, a nice bottle of wine or some fancy chocolates filled the bill. Today, baskets filled with more ordinary items might be a better choice.

Let's say you're attending a neighborhood potluck backyard barbecue. Your hosts aren't rich. In this case, an attractive basket filled with marinades, sauces and seasonings can be the perfect gift. Your barbecue host now won't have to spend as much at the grocery and will have a fresh and hopefully new supply of tastes to add to future parties.

If you belong to a church group, be proactive. If a food basket program isn't already in place, start one. Ask your pastor if there are people in the community in need of basic foodstuffs. Elderly people on fixed incomes are being particularly hard-hit at the grocery. Suggest starting a food bank in place of the collection plate. You'll be surprised at the response from church members.

Go to local stores in search of donations. Ask for donations of baskets from local craft and discount stores, in which to put the food. You can help preserve the dignity of impoverished people by bringing the food basket in an actual basket, tied with a ribbon, rather than a brown paper bag with a jumble of cans.

Here's another idea for giving food baskets that proliferate: when you give your middle-class neighbor a food basket gift, include a card thanking them for their hospitality, along with a 'pass it along' message, inviting them to use the basket to fill with food items for their neighbor, homeless shelter or food bank. You can bet they will pass it on. Kindness and charity can be contagious.

Suit the contents of your basket to the recipient. If your sister has just lost her job, fill that basket with the pricier regular grocery items, such as coffee, cheese, bottled spaghetti sauce or a well-loved, but not affordable jar of raspberry jam.

The trick to giving food baskets is making the presentation special. Pull out some decorations from your gift wrap box. A little ribbon, some dried flowers or an ornament makes your act of charity invisible to the recipient. Be sure to add that pass-it-along message.

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