I’ve seen an idea floating around on various websites about collecting food for the poor during Lent. What you do is, put a box somewhere in your kitchen, and every day during Lent, add an item from your pantry to the box.
Your kids can help with this, and this can help teach kids about both fasting and almsgiving for Lent! At the end of Lent, take the food you’ve collected to a food pantry or soup kitchen. If your parish does food drives, you might just be able to take it to church with you each week and drop it off.
You can start this anytime during Lent, so don’t think it’s too late!
I decided to make a few printables you can choose from to put on your boxes. Just download them free here, print them, and tape to a cardboard box. It doesn’t get much easier than that. Then everyone will know what the box is for and won’t take stuff back out of it.
I’ve always loved this quote from Mother Teresa and thought this was the perfect use for it! “Live simply so that others may simply live.” So true! With this activity, you’re literally taking food from your own pantry and giving it to the less fortunate.
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This one is a little more generic with the guy carrying food, but really gets the point across.
I designed this one to be a little more “Lenten” with the inclusion of purple and a crucifix. I love this bible verse about giving: “And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'” See? We’re doing it for Jesus! 🙂
And here’s another generic one. Straight to the point. 
Hope you find these useful!
Thanks for sharing this! I am always looking for ways as a homeschooling family to do almsgiving. Your site is awesome! God bless you this lenten season. 🙂
Thanks for sharing all of the printables for the alms giving box! We started doing this in our home about 3 years ago. I shared about it last year here: http://threesidedwheel.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/celebrating-lent-giving-alms/ I think we just may add your lovely printables to our box for this year– thanks for sharing!
Love everything you do- I’ve been pinning your stuff like crazy!
this is a great idea ~ thanks for sharing !
We did this 4 or 5 years ago and have not been in a place we felt we could do this again, until now. Thank you for the reminder! The kids LOVE this alms giving project; its a very tangible way to show giving to others. The past several Lents we have been living in other people’s homes and it could have been a good example, but we never felt we should show our giving while we were/are so in need ourselves. But when given a cup of rice, NEVER feel it inappropriate to give away half to someone in need. Someone always has a greater need then you. We missed those opportunities to show both our children and our family what sacrifice really is. This Lent we will again pick up this beautiful project, thank you Lacy!
I love this idea. We are doing something very similar with our kids. We have a box labeled “Share with Others.” Everyday during Lent we each find one item that we no longer need or use anymore and put it in the box. As a family, we deliver the items each week the loca St. Vincent’s thrift shop. It is amazing how much “stuff” clutters our life. It has been a wonderful lesson on sharing for our daughter.
Love this simple but important idea!
I am always looking for ideas on how to teach my kids to give more. Thanks!
Here is what we are doing during Lent this year. Would love to have you check it out!
http://raisinglittledisciples.blogspot.com/2012/02/easter-countdown-with-offering.html
This is so great! Thank you for this wonderful idea and the printable!
I love this idea! I’m a big fan of DOING things for Lent too–I just posted my 10 ideas for positive Lenten activities on my blog.