The need for food, shelter and clothing is becoming more desperate as time goes by. You may be doing okay but know friends or neighbors who have not done so well and are now homeless or have no money to buy for their families. So what can you do to help out? Meet neighbor is here to help.

Create a food drop center! You may feel that you don’t have enough skills to organize a drop center but it really doesn’t require you to have any skills other than being able to organize somewhere for the food to be collected. Once you have collected quite a bit ask for volunteers in your community to help you sort it into packages which can be delivered, or the alternative is to let people know that they can drop in and choose what they want from the goods you have collected. It could be a good day to meet your neighbors.

Don’t forget to advertise your food drop center either by securing a free ad in your local newspaper or putting up posters all over town. Get the word out whichever way you can. If you meet a neighbor, tell him!

There are a few different ways you can create a food drop center:

1. Ask your local church if they have a hall they would be willing to let you have for free or rent to you for a very nominal fee. If they don’t have any activities planned they may let you use it for an extended period of time. Ask people to drop in their food donations to the hall so that you have it all in one place.
2. Does your town or city have a town hall? Ask your local authorities if they’d be willing to donate space, even if it’s only for a day, so that you can collect food for the needy.
3. Would your local supermarket be willing to allow you to place a bin inside or outside their door for food donations? Some store managers may donate food items as well. A supermarket is a great collection point as people will be willing to donate an item from their shopping.
4. Organize a food drop center at the local schools. Ask each child to donate a tin of food and you’ll be amazed at the response. Many families will be willing to donate one tin of food to help others not so fortunate. It’s not the same as donating money, which is tight for a lot of people.
5. Setting up a picnic in a park and asking each participant to give a tin of food as a donation to a worthy cause is another way to create a food drop center. It doesn’t take much to pack an extra tin in with the picnic supplies.

Creating a food drop center isn’t hard to do and if you get desperate for somewhere to store the goods you may even consider your own garage!

House Neighborhood

You’ve been waiting to go on vacation for a whole year, and now the time has come. But, before you leave, you have to make sure that your home is safe and secure. Remember that burglars don’t take vacations!

Spend some time looking around your home to see if there are any points of entry that need securing. Don’t forget to lock a doggy-door if you have one, as burglars will use any means to get into your home. If you’ve got a house key hidden somewhere which is normally a place you would look for it, move it to a more secure place.

If you’re friendly with the neighbor next door, ask them to hold onto your spare key in case of an emergency. Be sure to give your neighbor details of where you’re staying and a phone number so they can call if there are any problems. Ask your neighbor to empty your mailbox of junk mail and to pick up any local newspapers left for you.

You need to give your home that lived-in look. If there isn’t any activity around your home for days on end, people in your community will notice, and the problem is that you really don’t know what all the people in your neighborhood are like.

If your car is normally parked outside your garage, then leave it there and ask your neighbor to keep it clear of snow or leaves, depending on the time of year. If you live in an area which gets a lot of snow, ask your friendly neighbor to keep your driveway clear. Leaving your car parked for days on end with snow built up all around it, is a sure giveaway that nobody is home.

Have your neighbor put your bins out as usual on collection days, and bring them back inside when they’ve been emptied. If an emptied bin sits out for days on end, you are giving the burglars a “no-one’s home” signal. Do you have a dog? Leaving a dog, especially a noisy one, in their own environment, is a great deterrent to burglars. If anyone comes near your home it will set your dog off and hopefully the neighbors’ dog as well. Ask your neighbor to make sure your dog is fed and is given water and shelter. This can sometimes be a better arrangement than putting your dog into a doggy vacation home!

Asking your neighbors to do everything for you while you’re away can often work well, but sometimes it doesn’t and it can cause friction between you. If that is the case, then why not get a relative or friend to houses it for you? This takes all the responsibility off your neighbors and gives you peace of mind knowing that someone is in your home. This also works well if you don’t want to place your pets into a kennel. If you are an avid gardener and don’t want your plants to die while you’re away, then you also solve that problem.

Whatever you decide to do before you go away, be discreet and don’t tell anyone who will listen that you’re going on vacation. You may just tell the wrong person and you may find out on your return home, that your home has been burgled. Keep your home safe while you’re on vacation, so that you know you’ll be coming back to it the same way you left it.