I'm sure I've expressed this sentiment before, but it's worth doing so again...
I've found that the most satisfying gift to give someone is a living plant - when you give someone a useful one. Likewise for receiving.
Getting some random plant that's not edible, or has no useful, exploitable properties leaves me numb. Getting me something that has some use is another matter entirely. A friend is visiting next weekend. No doubt, by the time she leaves, I will have given her lemon grass, a coffee tree seedling, catmint, perhaps some chocolate mint, cotton seeds... who knows what else.
I find that doing this has two effects. Firstly, there is the level of a personal gift - something you've taken care of.... And there's also the element of getting someone at least thinking about self-sufficiency.
Although I've been disliking the term "self-sufficiency" lately... I'm increasingly of the opinion that it can never be "self", but that you need a local community. Survival is not an individual option. It has to be done as part of a group. An accident or illness will kill a lone person (or small family group), where a member of a mid or larger group would survive. A lone person is vulnerable, a group has strength in the many.