2007 Thanksgiving Giveaway
The Center's 2007 Thanksgiving Harvest Collection is a food giveaway program that provides an opportunity for churches to reach out and help people in the Camden community not just on holidays but also throughout the year. Boxed food that is collected is used first for our Thanksgiving Food Giveaway and then for our Christmas Food Giveaway. Any remaining boxed food is used throughout the year in our Emergency Food Program. While the general need for food still remains, the emergency need is no longer as great as that of our year-round programs. (Emergency food provides 3 meals for 3 days for each member of the family, while other Center programs provide services Monday - Friday throughout the year.)
As with previous years, our donors proved themselves generous with both their time and resources. Vans full of food began arriving at 8:30 a.m. on November 19th and the buzz of activity did not stop until all of the families who signed up were given a box of food, a turkey and a Bible. Children and teens from area churches helped carry the items to people's cars. Approximately 200 families were given the ingredients to prepare a holiday meal at home.
Items for the Center's year-round programs are still being collected.
Year-Round Programs List
Our After School Program, operating Monday through Friday, and Junior Teen Program, operating Thursday evenings, need the following healthy snacks: granola bars, trail mix, fruit cups, low sugar 100% fruit juice (individual), healthy individual cereal, whole-grain individual chips (such as Sun chips), and whole-grain individual pretzels. They also need monetary gifts to sponsor the cost of an off-site trip such as skating or bowling. ($5.00 cost per trip for one child).
Our Family Worker regularly visits Neighborhood Center Preschool families, taking along little goody bags for the children. She needs the following: nutritious snacks such as fruit cups, apple sauce and raisins; cookies; and individual boxes of 100% fruit juice.
Our Infant/Toddler & Preschool programs, providing full day service Monday through Friday, continually need Baby Wet Wipes and Kleenex tissue.
The Soup Kitchen & Emergency Boxed Food programs need both food items and also monetary donations. We estimate the cost of a box of emergency food items as $50. We pack 3 meals for 3 days for a family of two. Since we do not have a large amount of storage space, a monetary donation will allow us to purchase additional food in bulk when needed throughout the year.
