Amazon Wish List Helps Sacramento's Homeless
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - If you want to donate to the homeless, you can now do it from your smartphone. The city of Sacramento is now accepting donations from an Amazon shopping list, making it more convenient for people to help the homeless with the click of a button.
"When people give back, it's a big deal," said Victoria Staeps.
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Living in her car hasn't been easy for Staeps, especially in the Sacramento winter. She even volunteers herself and knows how tricky it can be to get the right items at the right time.
"When people donate, sometimes it's a lot of the same stuff, that's why when you go on and you see a list or whatever, that way you know what we're lacking," she said.
Now Volunteers of America has its own list on Amazon to make donating to the homeless a little bit easier.
"We decided to go ahead and let the community help us with this problem," said Christie Holderegger, the Vice President of Communications for Volunteers of America. "Water, snacks things like that are critical to continuing to serve the homeless."
In order to donate, you pull up Amazon.com and search for 'Volunteers of America Northern California and Northern Nevada.' Select the items you'd like to purchase and they go directly to the organization's office. In the end, the items get distributed to one of their centers across the city.
"This has been a blessing," Holderegger said.
After being homeless for the last month, Tony Gladden told CBS13 he can't imagine what he would do this winter without the good people he's met running the shelters.
"I think it's pretty good because it keeps you out of the park, the rain and stuff," he said. "If you can afford it, it helps a lot of people out!"
Holderegger said the new warming center is only funded for three weeks. But Volunteers of America hopes to extend the time period and keep it open until April. In addition to the items on the list, the volunteers say cash donations go a long way.