Charitable gifting: Florida Mall’s new Box Lunch store gives a meal for every $10 you spend

If you find yourself teetering toward giving charitable gifts in your loved ones’ names rather than contributing to the annual consumer-confidence number, there’s a new store in the Florida Mall that’s here to help settle the dilemma.

Box Lunch, a haven of geekery gifting akin to Gods & Monsters and ThinkGeek, has partnered with Feeding America to help combine consumerism with charitable giving. And it’s not just for the holidays. This is part of their business model.

For every $10 you spend at Box Lunch, a meal will be donated to Feeding America. It’s a win-win. You can still give your family and friends a physical gift while doing good for the more than 48 million Americans who don’t have dependable access to food.

At Box Lunch, beyond the R2-D2 suitcases and superhero models, some of the food-themed gifts really caught our eye, like the Chemistry Rack Spice Set (shown right, so clever!) and stemless wine glasses printed with the molecular structure of fermented grape juice.   

Here, four other philanthropic foodie goodies we’d be happy to find under our Douglas fir:

Craft-A-Brew Brown Ale Brewing Kit, $49.50
Stainless Steel BBQ Rock & Roll Guitar Tongs, $19.50
Panda Salad Bowl & Utensils, $26.50 Dinosaur Dig Site Glass Cheese Board Set, $27.50

This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2015.