Reverse Advent: A new holiday tradition

Last year I was talking to my work best friend (aren’t they amazing!) about Christmas traditions and she told me about “reverse advent” – I had never heard of it before. The concept is simple, every day you add an item to donate and then in JANUARY you donate it to the local food bank!

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What do you need?

A box to decorate (or a basket)
Art supplies
24 pantry items. Ideas include:
- Toothbrush/toothpaste
- Canned fruit/vegetables
- Cans of soup
- Box of crackers
- Canned tuna/Salmon/Chicken
- Shelf stable milk/non dairy option
- Applesauce
- Jam
- Laundry powder or pods
- Cold cereal
- Pasta/pasta sauce, mac & cheese
- Rice, beans, etc.
- Coffee/Tea

TIP: I highly suggest seeing if your local foodbank have items they are specifically in need of (or NOT in need of) – most either have a list online or are happy to let you know when you call.

How to Participate:

Explain the concept of reverse advent to your children
Decorate a box (optional) to put the pantry items in
Gather items to donate. I like to pull the items together by seeing what extras I have (don’t forget to check expiration date!) and then adding whatever is missing to my next grocery order
I like to make a shelf that is at toddler height in my panty so my kids can choose what item they want to include.
- TODDLER TIP: If you look at some Pinterest posts you will see a calendar to follow but I always find my toddler wants the ability to “pick” what to include.
Pick a time every day for your kids to add an item to the box.
Call your local foodbank to see what drop off centres are available (many have limited hours so ask for the times!)

Making the boxes:

Pick a box that is large enough to fit the donated items in but small enough that your toddler can put the items in by themselves and then make an activity out of it!
Pull out the art supplies and let the kids go wild. We used stickers, markers, crayons, bingo dabbers, etc.
Once the kids were done putting their decorations on it we decided to add a box label to make it stand out. I used my cricut to cut some themed cutouts for the kids to glue onto it.

Why January

Reverse advent was started as a way to restock the food banks after the holidays where they find the need for food is the greatest. This is always the toughest month for food banks as people typically are not donating as much.