Thanksgiving Kindness Project: Making Cards for Families In Need
Have you ever received a homemade card? It’s a wonderful feeling to know someone took the time to make something special. Local Anchor is teaming up with the Los Angeles Food Bank to help families for the 2022 “Season for Sharing” campaign.
We are partnering with local schools for a special Thanksgiving Kindness card-making project throughout the fall. Kids and families in our community will be asked to make unique Thanksgiving Kindness cards that will be distributed during the 2022 holiday season.
Local Anchor is Teaming Up With the Los Angeles Food Bank to Help Families for the 2022 “Season for Sharing”
Homemade Thanksgiving kindness cards created by kids and collected in the community will help bring smiles to families across Los Angeles this year. Students will make and collect cards through school sites and select local business locations. Kindness cards will be distributed by the LA Food Bank along with food during the 2022 holiday season.
This project is brought to you in partnership with First Republic Bank & Sylvan Learning. Huge thank you to these sponsors that help make this project possible.
Local Anchor’s Thanksgiving Kindness Project Needs Your Help
Local Anchor is working with Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to spread kindness this Thanksgiving by asking your families, organizations, and schools to make cards that will be distributed with the food deliveries. Spreading kindness across Los Angeles to individuals and families in need!
See the directions below on making Thanksgiving kindness cards and use the information and the questions provided to talk about the importance of being kind while you make the cards, and enjoy spreading kindness this Thanksgiving season!
Thanksgiving Kindness Card Project Instructions
- Parents – register your school, group or family here, so we can have an estimate on how many cards are coming in.
- Pull together any arts and crafts supplies like construction paper, markers, crayons, stickers, stamps, etc.
- Check out our DIY Card ideas here.
- You can complete this project with a group of friends, in a classroom, with a Girl Scout or Boy Scout troop, a sports team, or just at home with family.
- Let kids get creative! Having fun is part of learning the benefits of kindness.
- Include your child’s first name and age on the card.
Important To Note:
- Greetings should be general good wishes applicable to a diverse patient population.
- Good examples: “Happy Thanksgiving!” “Best Wishes,” “Thinking of you today.” “Sending sunny wishes your way.”
- No religious or sectarian references
- No Advertising/Branding
- No food items such as candy, pasta, or cereal
- Cards don’t need to be in envelopes, but please leave them unsealed if they are
Drop off your cards at these participating Sylvan Learning Centers, local businesses or see if your local school will collect your cards.
Sylvan Learning – El Segundo 720 S Allied Way Suite C, El Segundo, CA 90245
Sylvan Learning – Hermosa Beach 1137 Aviation Blvd, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Sylvan Learning – Sherman Oaks 13553 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
Sylvan Learning – Long Beach 5510 E Britton Dr, Long Beach, CA 90815
Sylvan Learning – Los Angeles 8471 Beverly Blvd Suite 201, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Sylvan Learning – Brentwood 11740 San Vicente Blvd Suite 106, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Sylvan Learning – Culver City 5731 W Slauson Ave Ste 150, Culver City, CA 90230
Sylvan Learning – Torrance 23326 Hawthorne Blvd #170, Torrance, CA 90505
Sylvan Learning – Gardena 1045 W Redondo Beach Blvd #170, Gardena, CA 90247
Sylvan Learning – Santa Monica 1910 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Launch Dance Center – Redondo Beach 1603 Aviation Blvd, Redondo Beach, CA 90278
How to Have a Conversation About Kindness With Kids
When we think of Thanksgiving, we think of what else… Giving Thanks!
There are many ways to give thanks in our lives, offer gratitude for what we have, thank others for what they have done, and gather with family and friends as we share in thanks. Another way to show gratitude is to give back to our family, friends, schools, or community in a meaningful way.
This Thanksgiving, Local Anchor will work with community members on a kindness project to benefit local food banks. Food insecurity has impacted more families increasingly since the COVID-19 pandemic began. As the holiday season approaches, this is a great time to start discussing kindness in your family and how we can spread kindness throughout our community.
So what is kindness? Simply put, the dictionary defines kindness as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.
The dictionary leaves it there, but if we go further, we may find that kindness goes deeper than just being nice. It speaks to our humanity and our need for connectedness. We all have the capacity to be nice, but it takes intention to be kind.
Kindness is also good for us. Being kind increases self-esteem and empathy and decreases cortisol, the stress hormone. In addition, being kind releases dopamine and serotonin in your brain, causing satisfaction and well-being and causing your brain’s pleasure and reward centers to light up. Being kind to others is actually more rewarding in our brains than having something kind done to us!
To help our kids understand kindness, some open-ended questions might be:
- Can you think of a time someone was kind to you?
- What was something kind you did for someone
- What does kindness mean to you?
- When someone does something kind for you, how does that feel?
- When you do something kind for someone else, how does that feel?
- When are you kind/unkind to yourself?
- How do you think kindness impacts the world?
- So how does kindness tie into our project?
What else can we do to be kind and spread happiness?
Talk to your kids about bucket fillers. We all have a bucket inside us, and kind acts fill our bucket with good feelings. We can fill our buckets by doing good things for others as well as receiving.
Parents, check out this post: Growing Your Heart With Gratitude by Abby Withee, MFT
About the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
Before COVID-19, two million people faced food insecurity in LA County, including more than 570,000 children. Each month, the LA Regional Food Bank reaches 800,000 individuals facing food insecurity, an increase from 300,000 before the pandemic.
Did you know that the LA Regional Food Bank supports 688 Partner Agencies in LA County by distributing 131 million pounds of food?
The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank is the central resource for the supply and distribution of food for people in need throughout LA County. In cooperation with hundreds of partner agencies, the Food Bank serves hundreds of thousands of people each month.
LA County is home to more food insecure children than any other county in the USA. Each day, after-school meals are provided to thousands of children. On Fridays during the school year, students receive a backpack with healthy food for weekend meals at home.