Sharing with students
Action: Calling students to share with each other… and non students to share with students! Are you are a student in a house-share situation ? Why not decide to share certain household items, rather than buying them individually. For example: ketchup, spreads, bread, milk, cleaning products and loo rolls.
Why? This action not only allows you to be generous to your equally impoverished housemates, but it is also economical and space efficient. A fridge with four different spreads, bottles of milk, and ketchup can easily become very cluttered and a source of household contention. One person rarely manages a whole loaf of bread in a week and thus has to fight to the ever-advancing mould – share it and you can all have fresh bread every day! It makes sense. Of course this action does run the risk of free riders, but if you calculate roughly what each of you should be spending on household shared items a week and make an effort to do so, if someone doesn’t contribute one week they can do more the following –there you can prove your grace and generosity!
Link: Students might be interested to check out People and Planet the UK student campaigning organisation working to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment.
And if you’re not a student … invite a student round to your home to enjoy your amenities for an evening. Offer hospitality to students who do not have access to mundane things in your life such as sofas, baths, and not having to queue for their laundry!
Why? Many students in halls of residence dearly miss their family home and basic creature comforts. The student life is highly pressurised and strangely abnormal, in that they hardly get to interact with people of different ages or situation in life. Many crave a friendships outside of studentdom. Perhaps if you live in a university town/city you could be generous with your heart and home and maybe they will return your generosity with free baby-sitting – you never know!
Related actions: Share a Meal With Someone Outside Your Comfort Zone Make A Special Effort To Look Out For And Think Of Strangers Encourage Others To Undertake Living Generously Actions
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taunton, GB , 01 Oct 2005
This one could be tricky for us, as we are not students (although we do get mistaken for them sometimes, which is so nice, as we are 30 and 34!
And also we do not live near a ‘uni’. But, I guess we DO have students from our church who visit their parents during the holidays… so perhaps we could make an effort to ‘be generous’ to them in the holidays… find out if they have any practical or prayer needs for term-time, and offer to help.
taunton, GB , 01 Oct 2005
This one could be tricky for us, as we are not students (although we do get mistaken for them sometimes, which is so nice, as we are 30 and 34!
And also we do not live near a ‘uni’. But, I guess we DO have students from our church who visit their parents during the holidays… so perhaps we could make an effort to ‘be generous’ to them in the holidays… find out if they have any practical or prayer needs for term-time, and offer to help.
Chester, GB , 14 Oct 2005
I teach students, and have so far given away a wardrobe and some bookcases as well as giving them frequent cups of tea and coffee when they pop round to see me.
Once a year I also have a BBQ for them
07 Nov 2005
I am a mature student, studying with mature students. Instead of sharing my home, which at the moment is not really needed by my fellow students, I bake cookies and cakes and take them into class. They are made with organic and local products. It then helps people whose money is tight and saves them buying snacks during the day. I know it is only little but being disabled, it takes a lot of effort for me to do.
Nancy, FR , 15 Mar 2006
Found a new way to do this! We were going to throw out a couple of old fold-out sponge chair/beds. One had a stain on it and the other wasn’t particularly nice either. But we happened to mention them to a couple of students we had round, and they were really pleased to give them a new home! So we didn’t have to go through the guilt of throwing them away, and they have new furniture in their student rooms!
Nancy, FR , 12 Jul 2006
And since I’m pregnant we needed to get rid of the single bed we have. Just at the right time we found a student who had just found his first job (so technically an ex-student) and we were able to give him the bed and a whole load of spare plates, pots and pans.
Leicester, GB , 24 Aug 2006
We have enjoyed having overseas students staying with us for many years. We’ve also had young professionals, people between house moves, short term home stay for those learning English. It’s a really interesting thing to do and we’ve met some lovely people. Since we moved to a smaller house it has been difficult to fit anyone else in and so we’re having an extension. The children had mixed feelings about it and it isn’t always a bed of roses but the vast majority worked out in the end. We’ve just waved goodbye to a young man from the Basque area of Spain who was on a government sponsored scheme for talented but less well off children. They are often looking out for host families and the expenses are generous enough to not be out of pocket.