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Locate where the need is in your community. Support laws and bills help alleviate poverty. Donate.
You can do this by contacting your local social service department or religious/charity organization. Find out what you can do to help locally and what is needed.   Support local homeless shelters.Give time and/or money to your local shelters to make sure they survive. A lot of shelters have been moved out of the city areas where they are most needed because they are "unsightly."  Volunteer at local shelters and soup kitchens. This will give you a chance to meet the people who use them, thus giving poverty a face and a voice and discuss with them what they need. Pay attention to the laws and bills being enacted in your local area, or country. Weigh in against laws that seek to punish the poor, simply for being poor.   Support a living wage and basic labor protections for workers so that people can afford to live off their earnings, rather than being forced to two-three minimum wage jobs that barely feed them and their families. Contact your local Senator or Representative by phone or mail and tell them you want increased spending on anti-poverty measures (there is a wikiHow for how to contact your Senators and Representatives. You can find their public address and phone numbers by typing in your area code on www.Congress.org). A phone call will only take 15 seconds and you won't be asked any questions. Elected leaders want to give what people in their constituency want, so if enough people call wanting more spending on anti-poverty measures, then Congressmen will endorse bills that accomplish that. Donations, especially monetary donations, to certain local organizations will make a huge difference in fighting poverty in your community. Most organizations that work to alleviate poverty have tight budgets and little funding and they need all the help they can get from community members.   Give your time to your charity organizations. Help in a soup kitchen or food bank particularly during holidays. Donate toys and clothes to a food bank. Make sure that the clothes and toys are in decent condition and aren't stained or ripped. Donate food. Food banks need nutritious, non-perishable foods like meals in a can, peanut butter, canned meats, canned fruit and veggies. Also donate unopened spices. Spices are too expensive for most people who are homeless or poverty-stricken, but they can make all the difference in making a meal taste better.