What to do with the inevitable wafers, rock hard taffies and other unwanted items that show up on your doorstep? Assuming your kids don’t eat everything they can get their hands on there are a few options. Anything stale or inedible should be tossed, without any feelings of remorse. Contact your local Bikur Cholim to find out if they want your newly acquired collection of mini grape juice bottles and in some areas, Tomchei Shabbos will be happy to relieve you of any unwanted Purim candy. Still have junk food left? Wait a week and then send it to school with your kids. By then most of the other children will have eaten through their supply of goodies and will be happy to consume yours as well.
A few final suggestions:
It might be time to scale back your mishloach manos list. Do you really need to send food to every single person who lives on your block or davens in your shul? You don’t want their food and they don’t want yours. If everyone started limiting their mishloach manos list we would all be a lot happier.
While it seems to me that most people do not want to receive candy on Purim, this does not hold true for children. For the kids it is all about sugar, and lots of it. If your child is the one sending baby carrots and bottled water to his friends he will quickly become a social pariah.
It is a safe bet that there is a local organization that has a mishloach manos fundraiser. In return for your donation, they will supply you with an attractive card to give to your intended recipient. While they may not necessarily fulfill the mitzvah of mishloach manos, they eliminate at least part of the extra food problem.
Having said that we should substitute real food for candy in our mishloach manos, chocolate does not fall under the heading of candy. Just about everyone wants to get a nice bar of chocolate, preferably Swiss, in his or her mishloach manos. For those who don’t like chocolate, fear not. I will happily relieve you of any unwanted chocolate. Feel free to contact me at the email address below!
Sandy Eller is a freelance writer who has written for various websites, newspapers, magazines and private clients in addition to having written song lyrics and scripts for several full scale productions. She can be contacted at [email protected].
