Holiday Cheer is in the Bag!

In the coming months, our beloved Holiday Helpings program will provide more than 8,000 clients with complete holiday meals -- a turkey and all the trimmings.

That’s a whole lot of turkeys!

In the past, Holiday Helpings has consumed tens of thousands of single-use bags to package them all. (Since each package is heavy, we need to provide one paper bag and two plastic bags each.) So this time around, we intend to be better to our environment, by distributing as many reusable cloth bags as possible.

We've been running a reusable bag drive for much of this year -- ever since the passage of the Bag Tax (which levied a fee of 5 cents per bag). Thanks to our food pantry and dozens of generous donors, thousands of our clients have already received reusable bags for our their grocery shopping and other needs. That helps their wallets, since those nickels can really add up against a limited income.

With our food pantry about to kick into high gear, reusable bag drives are a great way to help Bread for the City this holiday season.

Many of us have extra totes at home, work, or in the car. Please consider donating these idle bags to our clients. You can even pick up a few extras at the grocery store for us.

Even better, set up a Holiday Helpings drive in your community or workplace, and help us bring in many more bags, food, and cash for our holiday season. Bag drives are easy; and the average drive brings in nearly 100 bags! Please contact Nathan LaBorie or 202.386.7611 if you would like to set up a drive.

And in the meantime, of course, please give directly to Holiday Helpings — just $29 will provide our special holiday package to a family of four.