December 2011

Welcome back gift baskets readers!

A really great post coming up (not bragging about me, just the topic!), so I’ll get to things right away! Congratulations to Howard Y. ( December 8, 2011 at 5:41 pm), Starlet Borzymowski ( December 9, 2011 at 8:02 am), Joy B. ( December 15, 2011 at 10:48 am), Swisspotluck ( December 10, 2011 at 6:21 pm), and Swisspotluck (December 10, 2011 at 6:21 pm)!! Email your information to amariscal@1800flowers.com and we’ll get your Comfort and Joy Sweet Treats Gift Basket to you right away!

Sweet Miss Givings Ultimate Bakery Gift Box $89.99; Product Code:96362

I’m going to take a little break away from talking about gifts, décor, movies, and the inevitable snow storm that will make my morning commute 10x more hectic. Instead, I want to talk about an extremely cool project that the 1800baskets.com team participated in. We decided to partner up with local Chicago fund, Chicago House & Social Service Agency.

Chicago House has been a leader in housing and supportive services for people living with HIV and AIDS, with programs that expand beyond housing to encompass a variety of services designed to help people living with HIV and AIDS move towards independence and self-sufficiency, including prevention, medication adherence, and employment programs. The Chicago House organization is by far one of the best non-profit programs out there for helping those in need. Their residential and scattered-site housing programs create stable housing, a Family Support Program offers housing, case management and other support services to 18 families, including over 30 dependent children, and works intensively with both parents and children to stabilize their lives and help break the cycle of poverty. They work intensively on education and support for those living with HIV and AIDS; awareness and prevention initiatives, medication adherence programs, community case management and work support programs only scratch the surface of everything this organization has to offer.

A few of us on the team with all of the donations!

1800Baskets.com has even partnered with their employment initiative business, Sweet Miss Giving’s bakery, a for-profit bakery that provides transitional job training in addition to donating 100% of its profits back to Chicago House. You can find their bakery items (here) to order! A sweet treat supporting an even sweeter cause. And from personal tasting, the turtle brownies are the only brownies I ever want to eat for the rest of my life. If I could eat them every day without giving myself early on-set diabetes, I would.

This holiday season, we knew we wanted to help out even more. For the beginning half of the month, we ran a donation drive in our office to collect personal hygiene items, winter gear like coats, gloves, hats, scarves, and games for families to play together. We ended up with way over 1000 items! (And my arms ended up with some muscle definition from carrying…) As a gifting company, our main objective is to make our customers smiles, but this was a whole other level!

For the rest of the season (and really the year), think about ways that you can give back to your community or help those in need! Maybe find “two for one” deals while you’re out grocery or everyday shopping and just set things aside as you go along to make the donation process easy. Sort through your closets or attics for things you just don’t have a need for anymore. Get yourself a delicious treat at Sweet Miss Givings and put those calories to a worthy cause (if it’s for charity, I hear all brownies are 0 calories)!

In the comments section (1-2 paragraphs), tell me what your favorite charities, any charitable moments you recall, or any charitable programs that you always work with. We’ll be giving FIVE random winners a Sweet Miss Givings Bakery gift box!

Happy Holidays!