Mother’s Day gifts that make a difference

Flowers, a card and a meal are a given for Mother’s Day. But this year, why not consider a card that celebrates Mom (with a capital m) and helps fight breast cancer, or flowers that benefit Mother Earth or a care package, which will help other women support themselves?

Even those who are opposed to so-called Hallmark holidays, have to give mom a card. So why not choose a card that helps a good cause?

This Mother’s Day, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is offering two tribute cards designed specially for the occasion. Both cards help support the organization’s mission to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. A minimum donation of $10 per card is required but the contribution is tax deductible.

The 5-inch-by-7-inch “wisdom card” thanks mom for being “a source of infinite wisdom.” The “strength card” features three flowers as symbols of strength, support and love. Each card comes with a pre-printed message but will be sent directly to you so you can add a personal note.

NBC VIDEO Gifts that matter MSNBC.com's Teri Goldberg gives advice about Mother's Day gifts that can help other people as well. MSNBC

No visit to the Komen Web site is complete without a stop at the online gift shop, where you’ll find fashionable new items including the limited-edition, 100 percent silk scarf designed by Lilly Pulitzer for $35, a pink-and-white striped travel case, $28, and the rhinestone-studded pink ribbon pin, $12.50, with a clasp for different charms shaped like a heart or the numbers 1, 5, 10 or 20 to represent years of survivorship. Charms are sold separately for $3.50.

Save the snow leopard
Instead of ordering from a mass-market florist, consider a charitable bouquet from Organic Bouquet. The Mill Valley, Calif.-based cyber shop ships flowers direct from farms across America or imported from Ecuador and Columbia, which a customer representative enthusiastically says are all “pesticide free.”

Five percent of each purchase of any of the 21 charitable arrangements help support a variety of causes, including the National Wildlife Federation and Adopt-A-Minefield.

Send mom two dozen organic roses, $54.95, and Amnesty International U.S.A. benefits. Opt for snow white roses, $39.95, and a contribution is made to the Snow Leopard Trust, whose mission is to protect the endangered snow leopard and its habitat in Central Asia.

Bean soup for the soul

Women's Bean Project Send mom a six-bean sampler from the Women’s Bean Project.

“They” say chicken soup soothes the soul. And what about all those Campbell Soup commercials — mom is always there with a steaming crock of soup, no?

Apparently, nothing says I love you more than a hot bowl of soup. So why not send mom a care package avec some soup mixes.

Best known for its bean soups, The Women’s Bean Project sells individually wrapped 13-ounce packs of soup mixes for $5.25 each. Located in an old fire station in Denver, Colo., the non-profit center teaches women job skills and responsibilities through hands-on training in the “bean” business.

The primo gift pack is the six-bean sampler, $35, which includes mixes for Firehouse chili, Marian’s black bean, old-fashioned chili (mild), Toni’s ten bean, Sarah’s spicy split pea and six-bean organic. Five other gift packs are available, ranging in price from $15.75 for three bean dips to $18.75 for a three-soup sampler.

Further help “break the cycle of poverty and unemployment” among women, and pick up some cake and cookie mixes or Fair Trade coffee as well.

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