NUVO Staff Click here to view a PDF (5.4 MB) of the entire 2005 Gift Guide.

There are only so many fruitcakes in the city. Your favorite retailer may run out of them before you get a chance to buy one for each member of your loving family. In case that happens, NUVO sent its courageous staff onto the streets of Indianapolis to find the hottest, hippest and most unique gift ideas they could find.

For your convenience, we have divided up our annual Gift Guide by price. So if you’re a cheap bastard, check out the under $10 section.

This, by no means, is a comprehensive list of what is hot this holiday season. Get out and explore the city for your own unique gift giving options. But we have to admit, this is a really good start. Happy Holidays! NUVO STAFF

Consumerism with a conscience

An alternative Gift Guide

Laura McPhee

It doesn’t all have to be a mad dash to the mall or a season of feeding our meager earnings to the capitalist fat-cats who fall asleep on the Night Before Christmas with sounds of cash registers ringing in their heads.

So before you blow your budget on material goods, consider setting aside a small portion to support the following organizations that are working to make our city, state, country, world a better place.

And if your conscience doesn’t motivate you, consider the fact that many “alternative gifts” are also tax deductible.

Gleaners Food Bank

Here in Central Indiana, 212,000 Hoosiers need food assistance on a weekly basis. Nearly half of these suffering from hunger are seniors and children.

If you find those statistics troublesome, consider the fact that the food to keep our neighbors fed is available. Unfortunately, a huge quantity of that food is being thrown in the trash, wasted and unavailable to the hungry who need it most.

That’s why Gleaners exists — to divert food to the tables of hungry Hoosier families and stop the waste of food that’s so important to health and well-being.

Founded in 1980 by a group of concerned religious, human service and nutrition-conscious people dedicated to alleviating hunger in Indiana, Gleaners’ mission is to help charities feed people in need. Since its foundation, more than 173 million pounds of food have traveled that chain — food that could have gone to waste but instead reached the hungry.

Like any business, Gleaners has operating expenses. While the food bank is a lean operation, moneys for staff, transportation, equipment, inventory control, utilities and insurance are still required. That’s why volunteers and donors are such important partners in their work.

Donate time: Volunteers are essential to the food bank’s success and help in every food bank activity from warehouse work to food salvage and distribution, clerical assistance, drivers, speakers bureau representatives and event planning.

Donate money: With every dollar you donate, Gleaners Food Bank can distribute 9 pounds of food and critical grocery products to those in need.

Donate food: Gleaners Food Bank actively solicits and receives donations of products from all segments of the food industry. Growers, packers, processors, manufacturers, wholesalers, brokers and retailers donate for a variety of reasons, including production errors, discontinued inventory and slight damage. Gleaners’ Quality Control Unit screens all donated products for safety before distribution. Many companies, schools and churches will conduct canned food drives throughout the year. It is an easy way to donate food and a great way to help people become aware of the problems of hunger.

For more information on how you can give a gift of time, money or food to help Gleaners feed Indiana families, contact Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc., 1102 E. 16th St., Indianapolis, IN 46202, telephone 317-925-0191, outside Indianapolis 800-944-9166, or visit www.gleaners.org.

Second Helpings

Together, Kristen Cordoza, Bob Koch and Jean Paison set out to build an organization that could transform a resource that was once wasted into meals and jobs. Second Helpings began operations in 1998 and provided food service to a small handful of non-profit organizations.

Now, within a few short years, Second Helpings is serving over 45,000 meals and rescuing more than 100,000 pounds of prepared and perishable food products a month.

Volunteers are needed to help prepare and deliver more than 2,500 meals each day, and donations are always needed to help rescue wasted food, alleviate hunger and provide job training.

To donate your time or resources, call Second Helpings at 317-632-2664 or visit their Web site at www.secondhelpings.org.

Habitat For Humanity

In addition to the hundreds of thousands of Indiana residents who don’t have enough to eat, there are thousands of families who don’t even have a home to go home to for the holidays.

In fact, 5.1 million American families have “worst-case” housing needs, forced to pay more than half their income for housing, endure overcrowded conditions and/or live in houses with severe physical deficiencies. While the number of families in poverty is growing, the number of affordable rental units is shrinking, and most families who qualify for government housing assistance aren’t receiving any aid.

Shelter from rain, wind and sun is a basic human need. Habitat for Humanity is working tirelessly in order that more deserving families can have decent places to call home. Since its founding in 1976, the organization has built and rehabilitated more than 150,000 houses with families in need.

To make a donation of time, money or resources locally, contact Habitat for Humanity of Greater Indianapolis at www.indyhabitat.org or call 317-921-2121.

Alternative gifts international

The global mission of Alternative Gifts International is to send authentic, life-giving gifts to a needy world — gifts that build a partnership with oppressed people in crisis and that protect and preserve the Earth’s endangered environment — to nourish and sustain a more equitable and peaceful global community.

AGI is a non-profit, interfaith agency. In addition to providing global education for people of all ages, the organization raises funds each year in its Alternative Gift Markets and from individual donors. Designated grants then are sent to the established international projects of several reputable non-profit agencies for relief and development.

Currently, AGI is helping to provide food and baby formula for HIV families in South Africa, build hundreds of homes in Haiti, provide medicine for refugees in the Sudan, protect reefs off the coast of Jamaica, rescue orphans in China, dig water wells in Nicaragua and dozens of other necessary and valuable efforts.

A full catalogue of AGI projects and how you can donate is available at www.altgifts.org or call 800-842-2243.

global gifts in indy

Can’t give up the thrill of shopping in person?

Global Gifts is a not-for-profit volunteer-supported organization committed to supporting artisans and producers in developing countries. In its two locations in Indianapolis, Global Gifts sells a variety of crafts and products from all over the world, while practicing fair trade and ensuring that local artisans are paid fairly, in advance, and have healthy working conditions.

Global Gifts is located at 1468 W. 86th St. on Indy’s Northside. Through Christmas, a second store is located on the first floor of Border’s Books downtown on Washington Street.

For more information about store locations and products, call 317-879-9090.

The red cross

Around the world, the Red Cross continues to provide first response assistance to those affected by the worst type of disasters.

It’s been a particularly devastating year for millions of people who have lost everything in floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year by making a financial gift to the Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to those in need.

American Red Cross volunteers are still deployed to the hardest hit areas of Katrina’s destruction, supplying hundreds of thousands of victims left homeless with critical necessities. Less than a month after Katrina, Hurricane Rita lashed the Gulf Coast and left massive devastation in its wake. At the end of October, Hurricane Wilma came ashore as a Category 3 storm and battered the southern part of Florida.

Several Central American countries and southern Mexico are struggling with flooding and landslides that have killed hundreds as a result of Hurricane Stan. El Salvador and Guatemala have been particularly hard-hit by severe flooding and landslides, along with recent volcanic activity and earthquakes.

On Oct. 8, a powerful earthquake struck the region bordering Pakistan, northern India and Afghanistan, causing extensive damage and thousands of deaths. Millions of people have been left homeless.

In each of these cases, as well as others, the Red Cross needs volunteers, money and resources to help those most it in need. For more information on how you can help, visit www.redcross.org.

To help the Red Cross locally, visit www.redcross-indy.org or call 317-684-1441.