I usually give cash to the older kids but this year they got vouchers - book tokens for the one starting uni this year, to help with his textbooks, clothing vouchers for the girls. My 6 year old great nephew got funny books cos his mum says he needs to read more.
I read your other story too and I feel your pain! In my story about my grandmother a few months ago I talk about how her example has made me hate waste. It's not quite as bad in NZ. Most shops put food about to expire on special. Anything with damaged packaging goes on sale too. I got a weights bench much cheaper cos it was the display model and that was all they had left. We got a water blaster cheap cos there was no packaging.
In Wellington there is an organisation called Kaibosh that collects unused foods from places like restaurants and distributes it to social service organisations. https://www.kaibosh.org.nz/