KIRSTEN LUPINSKI: A bewitching solution for Halloween candy

October is here and that means Halloween is right around the corner.

I printed a similar column to this two years ago and wanted to pass this information onto you all again. Every year at this time, kids start to plan what costume they are going to wear for Halloween and also start dreaming about all the candy that is coming their way very soon.

My kids are in full-out Halloween planning right now and have already told me that they are hitting every house in our neighborhood.

So, once they collect a huge stash of candy, what do you do with it? Don’t ask them because they will say, “Eat it all.” But I have some other ideas.

My kids are personally visited by the Halloween Candy Witch a few days after Halloween. They are allowed to pick out a few of their favorite pieces of candy and keep them, but the rest gets put into a big plastic bag and left on the back porch. They then run around the house as fast as they can and, when they get back, the witch has taken their candy (to donate to a worthy cause) and leaves them with a special present.

I have my kids give three suggestions (within a certain limit) as to what they would want from the Halloween Candy Witch and she tries to bring them one of those things. The result is a happy kid with a new present and happy parent with the candy gone from the house.

This is a great way to teach kids about donating to those that don’t have as much as they and also a way to promote only having a little bit of candy in the house as a special treat. Now that the witch has all of this candy they can simply donate it to Operation Gratitude.

Another way to get rid of the bags of candy you have accumulated is to donate to a great cause, Operation Gratitude/Candy Buyback Program. This program has been in existence since 2005 and has collected over 130 tons of candy to ship to the troops overseas.

This program is unique in that kids again pick a few pieces of their favorite candy and pack up all the rest and send it to Operation Gratitude. All the contact information and details that you need can be found here: https://opgrat.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/halloween-candy-for-the-troops/

Operation Gratitude collects all of this candy along with other much needed donations and then creates care packages and sends them to the overseas troops. This is another great opportunity to teach kids about the importance of helping others

Have a fun, safe and healthy Halloween!

Kirsten Lupinski is an assistant professor at Albany State University in the Department of Health and Human Performance. She has a bachelor’s of science in nutrition from the University of North Carolina, a master’s of science in health education from the University of Kentucky and a doctorate in education from the University of Cincinnati. She has worked in the health education field in various capacities (corporate health, community health, college health and wellness and university education) for more than 17 years. She and her husband have three young children (9-year-old twin boys and a 5-year-old girl).