Summer is a great time to get the kids involved in helping others. Not only do kids have more free time now than during the school year, but food pantries and shelters also have a greater need for donations.

Winter is when donations are at their highest for food pantries, but the demand at local food pantries is highest during summer. One reason: Families with children who normally benefit from free school lunch programs must provide meals from home. Also, the price of groceries is increasing, so these families rely on food pantry donations to get through the summer.

Years ago, I began teaching 9-year-old students at my son's school how to use coupons to buy items for local charities. My son's third-grade teacher suggested practical methods for simplifying grocery coupon use for children. Her ideas eventually became the "Coupon Mom System" that I now teach adults (though it is certainly easy enough for children to use).

This summer, I'm teaching my 11-year old son to buy food and personal care items for our local charity. Each week, he buys a few items using the coupon system, and puts them in a brown paper bag he labeled "Christopher's Charity Stuff." When the bag is full, I will take him to our local charity to let him donate the items. It is amazing to see how many items he can get at no cost each week.

Together we sit down and print a list of the best charity deals from either the local drugstore or grocery store's list from the www.couponmom.com. The Web site does the work of matching sale items with coupons available so children do not have to figure that out. It also tells users the date the coupon came out so children only have to cut out the single coupon they need from their dated circulars (that was the teacher's brilliant idea). You can download a free electronic book explaining the teacher's easy system from couponmom.com (called "Advanced Grocery Saving Strategies) or you can e-mail me for a free copy.

It's easy to use the weekly advertising circulars for your grocery store to spot great charity freebies. Look for "buy one, get one free" offers in your grocery ad and match them with coupons from the newspaper. For example, our local CVS matches promotional items with their Extra Bucks rewards. Although you will pay for the item and get an Extra Bucks reward for a future trip, in many cases your Extra Bucks reward will be equal to the cost of the item. When you use your new Extra Bucks reward on your next shopping trip, you can plan your purchases to equal the value of the reward, making your new purchases free. When my son began his charity shopping, I gave him one of my Extra Bucks rewards from a previous week, so his first order was free. Of course, he bought Extra Bucks promotional items, so he received coupons for the following week. With a little planning, he is able to continue getting free items each week using this method.

Fortunately, the items have been perfect for charity. Common promotional items included toothpaste and toothbrushes, which charities always need. Other items that are ideal for charities include canned vegetables, canned fruit, tuna, peanut butter and soups. At this time of year, the rock-bottom prices on school supplies make it easy to buy extra for the food pantry clients as well. The "Cut Out Hunger" section at couponmom.com lists the best items to donate to food pantries.

Stephanie Nelson shares her savings tips as a regular contributor on ABC News' "Good Morning America." You can find more of her savings tips in her book "The Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom" and on her website at www.couponmom.com. She can be reached at shoppingmom@unitedmedia.com.