3 Local Non-Profits To Support This Holiday Season

Three Local NonProfits to Support This Holiday Season

We will soon be passing around the gifts for whatever holiday we celebrate as a family.  As the holiday season approaches, we thought you would be interested in ways to support our community without re-inventing the wheel.

Here are some of our favorite local non-profits.

Cookie Cart
cookie cart - one of our favorite local non-profits

Cookie Cart is one of the yummiest local non-profits in the Twin Cities.

Cookie Cart is a bakery that started in North Minneapolis on Broadway. In 1988, local youth were invited by Sister Jean  Thuerauf to join her in her kitchen to help with schoolwork and to bake cookies. Since then, Cookie Cart has grown provided hundreds of youth in struggling neighborhoods with job experience and leadership skills.

It’s super easy to support Cookie Cart’s mission.  Buy their cookies.  With two locations, on Payne Ave. in St. Paul and on Broadway Ave in North Minneapolis, Cookie Cart is fairly accessible.  But know what makes it even MORE accessible?

Buying the cookies online.  You can order cookies themselves or you can order a gift card.
Cookies run from $1-$2/cookie and holiday gift baskets are offered, too.

We love Cookie Cart.  We think this non-profit will make everyone in your family smile because not only are you receiving a delicious cookie, but you are also making a difference in someone else’s life.

Read about our tour of the Cookie Cart here.


Feed My Starving Children

Girl volunteering at Feed My Starving Children

If you have never heard of Feed My Starving Children than I, Gianna Kordatzky co-founder of Family Fun Twin Cities, have failed you.  Feed My Starving Children is THE favorite local non-profit of my family.  As soon as each of my kids turned 5, they were at a station packing food with the best of them.

Let me give you a quick run-down of Feed My Starving Children.

Feed My Starving Children was started in 1987 with the mission to provide meals to everyone who is hungry around the world.  The mission relies on donations of finances, ingredients, and time.  Our family loves to serve at Feed My Starving Children because it is so fun and so meaningful.

Because it is costly to ship the food around the world, cash donations are very necessary.  One way that Feed My Starving Children raises that cash is through their Marketplace.  Both at the packing sites and online, you can purchase gifts from artisans around the world who have been given fair trade jobs that have rescued them from slavery or simply provided a way for them to care for their family.

I never second guess a purchase from FMSC because every penny of it is well-spent.

Read about volunteering with kids a Feed My Starving Children Here.


Every Meal


Every Meal Fighting Child Hunger Logo

Roseville-based Every Meal helps hungry people in our own neighborhood.

In case you’re not familiar, Every Meal (formerly The Sheridan Story) focuses on the food gaps when children aren’t able to receive free and reduced meal programs (evenings and weekends), but with the pandemic increasing this need, the organization has been working diligently to continue to provide 50,000 meals per week to hungry kids in MN and Western WI.

How can you support Every Meal during the Holiday season?

That’s such a great question.

Need a car? Apple Autos Give Back to Kids Event

Any Apple Autos location
Tis the season for giving back! Our friends at Apple Autos just launched their 3rd Annual Give Back to Kids Event! From now until the end of December, when you purchase a new or used vehicle from an Apple Autos location you will have the opportunity to donate $25 of your purchase to support Every Meal! If you don’t need to purchase a car you can still take part in their Donate-A-Dollar Campaign which allows you to donate $1 for every car service to five charities of choice including Every Meal.

Need Groceries?  Head over to Eastside Co-op.

Eastside Food Co-op Seedling (Round-Up) Program
2551 Central Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418
Throughout the month of December, shoppers can make small donations at the register, which will be donated to Every Meal.

Need a place to celebrate?  Check out MyBurger.

MyBurger’s Sweet Treat, Good Cause Event

Any MyBurger location
For the entire month of December, when you purchase a Mint Chocolate BonBon Shake at MyBurger they will donate $1 for every malt sold to Every Meal!


Thank You!

Find more ways to volunteer with your family this holiday season.

Let us know if we have missed your favorite local non-profits.

December Free Fun in the Twin Cities - Family Fun Twin Cities

2 thoughts on “3 Local Non-Profits To Support This Holiday Season”

  1. Thank you for your sharing. Lent is a great time to teach kids about the importance of service to others. I am worried that I lack creative ideas for service projects with my students. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you.

    1. Thank you, Bianca. We always share this article in November in time for Advent, but you are right, Lent is another great time to remind kids about volunteering.

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