Want to really help the homeless this holiday season? Donate new socks! They’re among the most needed items at shelters.
This is a very nice article by Michelle Woo of Reddit’s Upvoted. Thanks so much Michelle!
“Being without socks, especially during the cold and wet season, can lead to all sorts of foot ailments: blisters, fungus, frostbite, and in extreme cases, blood poisoning, and deep bone infections. But many homeless people don’t have clean, dry pairs of socks available.
In Reddit’s Today I Learned community, Reddit user ironypatrol pointed to the finding that socks are among the most needed—but least donated—items at homeless shelters.
According to Tom Costello Jr., founder and “Chief Sock Person” of Philadelphia-based nonprofit The Joy of Sox, new socks can even be more important than food since many homeless people have access to soup kitchens and pantries.
“If I ask people what they do with their old clothes, they’ll probably say they donate them,” Costello Jr. tells Upvoted. “But what about socks? Since their socks usually have holes in them, they’ll get trashed. So a homeless person going to a clothes distribution center might get shirts, sweaters and other clothing items, but not socks.” Since 2011, the organization has distributed nearly 157,000 pairs of new socks to the local homeless population.”
To read a pdf of the article click on the photograph. To read the article on upvoted.com click here
