casey wrote:
I have always been a believer, in helping the less fortunate when I can.

This year, I feel like being Scrooge!

Our company usually "adopts" 2 families at Christmas. After having my
company not matching my 401, it was a hit to me. Same with having wages
frozen for 2 years, and having to take 10 days per year not paid, plus
giving up 5 personnel days a year. I'm short 3 weeks pay, plus no 401
matching.

Our "boss" said the families we adopted needs cash. WTF??

Oh, I can think of one real obvious reason for this requirement. The
workers donate the cash; the company claims a charitable tax deduction.
It's easier for the company to establish the value of the deduction if
it makes its employees donate cash instead of goods. Not to mention it's
a lot less work to write a check (that hopefully equals or exceeds what
the employees contributed), than collecting and delivering an assortment
of goods.

I have some extra
food I can share, and a couple of new sweaters I'm willing to provide. My
boss says this is unacceptable. The families need to have cash, so they can
buy for their children.

Then I guess their needs and what you have to share are not compatible.
You'll have little difficulty finding someone more than happy to accept
what you can give. And the company can find some of its own cash to give
to the families it picked to help. It, after all, made the rule. (Yes,
it did, because if the charity or family made cash a requirement, the
company could've moved on to one that would accept goods as well as cash.)

I contacted the Red-X. Said I have food & some new clothes to donate. They
said they have plenty of food & clothes, they need cash. This is no joke,
they actually told me this!

Not all organizations are prepared to handle physical goods. The Red
Cross buys new supplies in bulk at substantial discounts.

Small charities don't run on such mass economies of scale and deal more
on a one-to-one basis. If you approach a local shelter or church, odds
are they'll be very thankful for your donations. For example, a nun at
the church in my neighborhood has a constant list of families needing
specific things. Ask her what people need; she'll tell you. Offer her
something, she'll know who needs it. They dole out out silverware by the
piece because so many families need very basic goods like that. If you
donate a set of flatware, she breaks it up and allots it by the number
of people in the family - a family of four gets four knives, four
spoons, four forks. She has a waiting list for blankets and pillows. Her
big dream is beds. So many people sleep on floors because used
mattresses and futons can't be donated (risk of transmitting vermin),
and face it - new mattresses and futons are fairly expensive donations.
So that need always exceeds the supply.