In case you’ve been living under a rock, or have been travelling in the tropics, you would have noticed it’s pretty cold around here in the mornings at the moment.

It’s easy to avoid the cold while working in a comfortably-heated building, jumping into unusually warm public transport or your car to drive to or from work and then into your climate-controlled home each night.

But there are many less fortunate people turning their heating off because they can’t afford to pay power bills, and that doesn’t include those living on the streets or in shelters, relying on charities for a shower and a meal.

Well may you wonder what this has to do with business. This has everything to do with business and our corporate social responsibility to give back if we can. We’re talking about social and human capital, and how we can contribute to make our communities healthier and stronger.

It may be attending the Hutt St Centre’s Walk a Mile in My Boots event in August with a group of colleagues or holding casual clothes days where staff donate a gold coin towards a different charity each month. It could be cooking with colleagues at lunch for a homeless centre or holding a morning tea to raise funds for Foodbank.

For the Hutt St Centre, a $30 donation means a person doing it touch can receive a hot breakfast and lunch for two weeks. A $50 donation entitles a rough sleeper to a hot shower, laundry service and locker for three months.

According to Foodbank, 3.6 million Australians reported undergoing food insecurity in the past year. A $10 donation can provide 100 kids with cereal and breakfast each morning. With a staff of 50 people donating $1 at a casual day in just one week, that could mean 500 kids get breakfast. Business SA proudly hosts Kickstart for Kids in our offices. That wonderful local charity makes sure thousands of breakfasts and lunches each year fill children’s bellies, allowing them to focus on school because they’re no longer hungry.

There are some fantastic examples of businesses donating to charities and raising funds. The annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout is one, giving people the chance to see what it’s really like to be living on the streets for 24 hours. But we could always do more, especially at an organisational ground level.

Your business may not have the wealth or profitability to create a charitable trust such as Andrew Forrest’s Mindaroo Group or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but it’s not that hard to consider your corporate social responsibility and give back or encourage staff to dip into their pockets occasionally.

Times are tough for many of us, but they’re not nearly as hard as the conditions faced by the people struggling through another cold winter with few creature comforts.

This article was originally published in The Advertiser's South Australian Business Journal on Tuesday 17 July 2018.