National Day of Giving is celebrated Dec. 3 this year. This always takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

“Also called Giving Tuesday, this event was established to help the ‘giving season’ get started, reminding people that there is more to holidays than consumerism and commercialization,” according to the Days of the Year website.

“National Day of Giving was started when two organizations, the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, came together in 2012, about a month before Thanksgiving. Their intention was to set aside a day that was all about celebrating the generosity of giving,” Days of the Year continued.

“Many thought leaders in the areas of social media, philanthropy and grassroots quickly joined in, and together they created a group of founding partners including United Nations Foundation, Cisco, Mashable, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Sony, Aldo, Groupon, UNICEF, Google, Skype, Microsoft and Unilever.

“The first announcement about National Day of Giving was made through Mashable, a technology website. The inaugural celebration of National Day of Giving was covered extensively by The Washington Post, the Huffington Post, ABC News, Deseret News and the White House official blog, causing the event to gain an enormous amount of popularity in a short period of time.

“National Day of Giving is organized and celebrated each year with the simple aim of encouraging individuals, families, schools, businesses and other organizations to give to the less fortunate.

“National Day of Giving has been praised by many, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper that covers the nonprofit world, as an antidote to consumer culture and a way for people to give back,” Days of Giving reported.

Weis Markets, 3644 MacArthur Road, Whitehall, has selected Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative to be the recipient of this year’s National Day of Giving. Weis will donate a portion of its total sales collected Dec. 3 to WCHI.

Thank you, Weis Markets, for your generosity!

Please shop at Weis Markets Dec. 3. You can also help WCHI by purchasing items we can use in our pantry and dropping them off 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at my Re/Max Unlimited office, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall.

WCHI currently needs the following food items, and all can be store brands: cereal; corn muffin mix; cranberry sauce; canned fruit (low sugar or light fruit syrup); gravy; macaroni and cheese; oatmeal (plain or flavored boxes or pouches); pancake mix and syrup; pasta or rice pouches (Knorr); peanut butter; canned or boxed potatoes/sweet potatoes; ready-to-eat items like ravioli, SpaghettiOs, etc.; bagged rice (brown or white); soups (creamed, chicken noodle, tomato, vegetable, etc.); spaghetti sauce (plastic jars or cans preferred); Stovetop stuffing mix; and tuna cans in water.

Thank you, our local neighbors, for your generosity in helping WCHI fulfill its mission to alleviate food insecurity in Whitehall Township and Coplay Borough.