Holiday Helpings 2009: Kick Off Update

Today marked the first day of Bread for the City's 2009 Holiday Helpings campaign, a time when our pantries are overflowing with laughter, tears, and lots of turkeys.

Cassandra came out this morning not to pick up a Holiday Helpings meal for herself, but instead came on behalf of an elderly neighbor who is unable to leave her home. "I’m coming to get her turkey and her food today," she says. "Because my job is to help others. If she needs me to cook it, I’ll do that, too. Someone helped me when I was down and out and looked after me. So now it’s my turn to look after someone else.”

All in all, Day 1 resulted in staff and volunteers distributing over 400 complete holiday meals. Thank you to all who made this possible...but we're not done yet!!

While 400 holiday meals in one day is impressive, it is only 5% of our goal. It is definitely not too late to get involved to help make our goal of distributing 8,000 Holiday Helpings meals a reality.

To organize a food drive, please contact our Holiday Helpings Coordinator, Nathan LaBorie at 202.386.7611 or nlaborie@breadforthecity.org. (We are already running low on essential Holiday Helpings items! Please call Nathan today!)

To volunteer, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Erin Garnaas-Holmes at 202.386.7006 or eholmes@breadforthecity.org. (Volunteer opportunities are still available, but fill up fast! Contact Erin now!)

Stay tuned...Holiday Helpings has much more excitement to come including visits by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, NPR's Cokie Roberts, ABC 7's Leon Harris, and MORE!