As students start gearing up to head home for the long-awaited Thanksgiving break, the season of giving thanks will set upon us.

With that, the season of giving should come with it as well.

With a week off classes, getting in to the habit of taking time for yourself over break may be a bit easier because there is no obligation to go to classes every day.

But just because the normal routines that we have grown accustomed to are not present for this week-long break, that does not mean we should forego any other routines or duties while we are away from our classes.

Each year, the week before Thanksgiving is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

That means that even for the remainder of this week, we should all be thinking about how to help those in need.

That could mean donating food cans to a drive, or donating clothes your family does not wear anymore or helping at a soup kitchen.

No matter what it is, anything will help those who really need the assistance.

But the implications of this type of assistance for others should not stop after classes are back in session.

The problem of people being hungry and homeless does not start and end this week and next week during Thanksgiving.

There are people who do not know where their next meals are coming from, or who have to try to keep themselves and their families warm with no roof over their heads.

Some of us can afford to give thanks for the things we have, whether it be our phones, cars, warm beds and houses, or the fact that we have our family still with us.

But there are some in our communities, at home and here in Charleston and Mattoon, who cannot give thanks for those things.

This makes the season for giving thanks even more important. Not trying to help those people or forgetting them is a bad thing to do.

We also should make this time of the year the only time where we think about giving to others. 

It should be a yearlong thought process in our minds.

It does not require a lot of work, and it is something we should all do and think about.

So, when you are not obliged to wake up early to go to classes, think about those who wake up with nothing to look forward to.

They are the ones we should really be thinking about this time of year.