A common first response to help others is to either donate money or clothes. Donating clothes can actually take away from the relief effort. The unloading, sorting, cleaning, transporting and distributing of items takes time and resources that are needed to clean up destruction zones and provide relief.

Donating clothes seems most helpful, but in a shelter there isn’t much room for piles of donated shoes when there are injured people to take care of. Donating money will pay for meals and snacks that will help victims from the hurricanes.