Michigan International Speedway has announced that fans can take their personal vehicles around the race track for free in exchange for participating in a toy drive and food drive.

A snippet from MIS’s announcement:

Michigan International Speedway is collecting goods to benefit two local charities by hosting a lap around the racetrack from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, weather dependent. Guests may take one lap in their personal automobiles around the historic two-mile oval in exchange for a new, unwrapped toy or bag of food that will be donated to Toys for Tots in Jackson, Mich., and the Food Pantry, in Brooklyn, Mich., respectively.

The last public track drive at MIS was in 2005, so this is a rare treat. All the details are at mispeedway.com.

The concept started with a holiday tradition by one family that was featured in a 1982 Woman’s Day article. That article is the genesis behind giving101.org, which is a national charity referral and campaign site.

I think this idea would go over well with my local readers in Monroe, Mich., because community service is a significant part of the local culture. The pageant queens really do attend dozens of charity events every year, many of the local college scholarship applications expect students to list their community service hours, nearly all the civic and social clubs have at least one fundraiser or volunteer campaign going at any given time, and schools frequently have projects taking place such as canned food drives or greeting card projects for veterans.

If you’d like to start a charity gift custom among your friends and family in lieu of exchanging more traditional gifts, here are some tips:

• Treat this as a teachable moment. When my daughter was in grade school, a family friend gave her a $20 bill — but it wasn’t hers to keep. The friend gave her the money when I was in the same room and explained he wanted the money to go to “the poor box” at our church. (This friend knew we were a church-going family and he was a minister for another congregation.) So at the next opportunity, I showed my daughter exactly in our church where the “poor box” was stationed. When she dropped the funds, I told her about the various efforts that the money goes to.
• Put as much thought into selecting the cause or charity gift as you would a traditional gift. If this is a Christmas charity gift, don’t look at the causes YOU believe in. You want to support the causes the RECEIVER believes in. Maybe you have some clue from current or previous charity efforts such as a pageant platform, a Boy Scout Eagle project, a Girl Scout Gold Award project, a fraternity’s designated charity or a civic club’s outreach efforts. Otherwise, look to their interests for clues: An eco-friendly friend, for example, would enjoy a donation to a “green” charity in his or her name. And a book lover would appreciate a donation made to the Friends of the Library.
• Don’t pull a surprise switch. If a charity gift is above and beyond the usual gift exchange, that’s one thing. But if this donation will be in lieu of gifts, you’ll want to discuss the concept among the friends and family before everyone goes crazy shopping for retail gifts. The person you are gifting also might give you a suggestion as to which charity or philanthropy they would like to support.

This is a good week to start on my 8-week grocery shopping plan, which is timed to begin on the first Sunday of the month. After all, you’ve got a good stack of coupons to start with this week.

There also are typically a LOT of food pantry drives taking place during November and early December in Monroe, Mich. I imagine a lot of other communities see the same situation.

Don’t worry so much yet about WHO is taking donations because the requests and announcements from the workplace, school, civic clubs and businesses have already started crossing my desk at The Monroe Evening News. There are many food drives that don’t get announced to the newspaper until after the organizers want to report how many groceries they have collected.

Just start picking up items that you can get at a good price that would be welcome at a food drive. Put them aside in a box or bag in your kitchen or pantry, so you can respond quickly to the food drive requests.

Here’s a list of suggested items.

If you are already grocery shopping on a budget, you’ve figured out how to get groceries for your own family at a very low cost. But the families who rely on food pantry donations are so focused on financially surviving day to day that they may not have the time or resources to do what you do at the grocery store.

Based on requests I’m seeing now in the donation drive announcements in the Monroe, Mich., area, both regular groceries and holiday groceries are welcomed during this time of year. Here are groceries you will want to watch for on the sales and promotions with the specific intention to set aside items for the fall and winter food pantry collections:

Peanut butter, tuna, canned meat, pasta, macaroni and cheese, cereal, canned  fruit, canned vegetables, canned soup, canned meat, stuffing, cranberries, canned pumpkin, canned milk, powdered milk, sugar, brown sugar, flour, oatmeal in a can, shortening, cookie mixes, cake mixes, yeast and gelatin powder.

But the Detroit News went into more details for today’s edition, and you’ll see that it’s a widespread problem across faith lines: Cash-crunched Metro Detroit churches slash staff, services.

A snippet:

While attendance has gone up in many congregations, layoffs and downsizing throughout Metro Detroit have taken a toll on collection plates.

“Churches operate on the benevolence of (their) parishioners,” said Bishop Charles Ellis III, pastor of Greater Grace Temple, an Apostolic church. “If people are hurting, how can the church not be facing the brunt of that?”

I know the first instinct for many people who are in financial need is to go to either their own church, or find any church they think can help if they are not members of a congregation.

The pastor and congregation will certainly pray for you, and you’ll make new friends by getting involved with the church programs and services. Some churches also host financial literacy classes that will teach you how to manage wisely whatever resources you do have. All of those results are certainly beneficial in their own right.

But do not be surprised if the money just isn’t available in the church budget to pay your electric bill, or the food pantry runs out of groceries because of high demand.

Churches are just a part of the social safety net anyway. You do need to include taxpayer-funded programs, opportunities that exist in the marketplace, and your own resourcefulness into the mix.

If your family needs financial assistance, here’s my sidebar with tips on what to expect.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Monroe, Mich., has announced its Sixth Annual Coat Drive.

If you are able to donate a gently used winter coat in children’s or adult sizes, or children’s snow boots, deliver them to the parish office at 924 E. Second St., from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays (closed noon to 1 p.m.) and from 9:30 a.m. to noon Fridays.

If you are in need of a coat, the distribution will be free and on a first-come, first-served basis from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday Nov. 7 at the parish hall, 937 E. Third St. Just show up, bring any family members who are in need of a coat, and try on the available items to see what fits.

This distribution is like a giant hand-me-down closet, so it works best when there is a good selection and range of sizes. If you or the kids have changed sizes in recent years, drop off your old coats during the donation times. There usually are good early season sales on winter coats, so now is a good time to take inventory and see what you intend to replace this year.

Or maybe another family will, in the meantime, have dropped off winter clothing at the church that will fit you better.

I’m already receiving a lot of those announcements to be published in The Monroe Evening News. Just as an example, here are the bake sale notices that we have posted at the MonroeTalks calendar. And while I do have some donation drive announcements in my files – most of the donation drives in this area are handled as a club or classroom community service project rather than as a public appeal.

You may not get a lot of heads up as to when those donation drives will come up. Sometimes the only notice you get is a flier stuffed in the kids’ backpack, where it gets forgotten about until just before the donations are due. Even when the event organizers report their efforts in advance to the newspaper, I often get only about a week’s lead time from the committee.

You could decline to participate in those efforts on the basis that you don’t have anything to give. But I found that situation to be pretty awkward.

My daughter’s homeroom classroom was involved in a Christmas adopt-a-family project during a time when our own household finances were really tight. The best I could do was raid the kitchen shelves for items that were non-perishable, and send my daughter to school with a bag of groceries that were originally purchased for us. Luckily, what we sent was sufficient to credit my daughter with participating in the effort.

If you plan ahead, you can handle those requests much better than I did on that occasion. This is a very predictable time of year for such events — even if you don’t know the dates or details yet.

As you buy your groceries during the next few weeks, you should look out for any grocery item that would work for a bake sale or donation drive. When you see those items on a  good price via coupon or sale or a freebie promotion, grab an extra one or two beyond what your family needs for those charity appeals.

Then take a bag or box and set it in your kitchen or pantry area. Put your donate-able items in that bag or box and leave them there. Don’t mix them up with your family’s groceries.

Then when you get a charity appeal, go to the donation bag or box and take out whatever you will be donating to the cause of the day.

The Salvation Army of Monroe County is asking the public for donations of gently used winter clothing.

According to Maj. Michael Thomas, commanding officer of the Monroe corps, the Salvation Army is anticipating a large need for winter clothing this year for needy families.

Winter coats, gloves, hats and boots are needed. Donations can be dropped off at the Salvation Army Family Manor, 815 E. First St., Monroe, Mich., from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays or by special arrangements.

Donations also can be made in the organization’s new facility in Bedford Township, 7200 Lewis Ave., Suite C-1, Temperance, Mich., next to the Michigan Secretary of State office.

For more information, call the Monroe office at (734) 241-0440.

For a donation to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, customers will get a free 3-ounce Jack’s Creation ice cream treat.

Local readers: Cold Stone Creamery is at Tim Hortons, 1448 N. Telegraph Rd., Monroe, Mich. There also are locations in Taylor, Oregon, Toledo and Sylvania.

There are several of those programs available in Monroe County, Mich. Check through my charities and donations archives to find the links.

The newest one I just learned about is Gordon Food Service Marketplace Fun Funds. There is a GFS store in Monroe, right across the street from Meijer.

The fliers and a list of participating groups are posted at the store. I didn’t notice the promotion until checkout, so I don’t have a list of all the locals that are participating. But pick any school or church that’s on the list and let them earn your points. I did. Or ask your favorite K-12 school or church to sign up.

Do these shopper card rewards programs work? Yes, if enough shoppers sign up and participate.

The flier from GFS does the math this way:

400: The number of members in your school.

40: A given number of members who participate in the Fun Funds program each month.

$40 The amount spent per member each month at GFS Marketplace on Fun Funds Items (Explanation: specially marked items earn 10 percent back, all other items earn 1 percent back.)

$4,800 The combined quarterly purchases of Fun Funds items.

$480 Your quarterly rebate amount – calculated at 10 percent – to use for new playground equipment or any other school purchase!

So for about forty dollars a month in groceries – burgers, lasagna, pies, chicken breasts, bottled water, chips and more – for only forty families, you’ll earn almost $2,000 a year in rebates. But as member enrollment grows to 60, 100 and more members shopping each month, you can watch your profits really soar.

Now,  I do not spent $40 a month at GFS. It’s more like $100 a year.

So what? It’s no money out of my pocket to participate in this program. All I have to do is wave my card.