Every year, we take the kids clothes and toys and donate them to charity, also, once a month we take a loaf of soap down to the local woman's shelter. one of these days, I do plan on taking my older children down to the local food bank, maybe a once a month thing.
I do agree that this is a great way to teach compassion, another point that it hits home is that "your life ain't so bad."My kids suffer from thinking that everything about our home and family suck, showing them that there are others worse off, shows them whating sucking REALLY is!
We're healthy, happy, have a home, or two in their case, and are together each and every day. With our joint custody deal, there are only 8 days a mnth where they don't see BOTH of their parents. A lot more than other children get/have.