With the holidays right around the corner, and with fuel prices
strapping the budgets of many families in the area, there will be hungry
families and children without much under the tree this Christmas season.
Our local food banks will be seeing high demand in the next few months
and agencies that deal with the needs of children are seeing a higher than
normal requests for help..
We at SVEC are again doing our part to help fill in the gaps this
holiday season. by sponsoring our holiday food drive and Angel Tree Programs and
by providing grants from our SVECares program.
According to volunteers from the local food banks, while they appreciate
all donations, items that they need most include: protein items such as peanut
butter, canned meat, dry or canned milk and dried beans; cereal items such as
noodles, oatmeal, rice and breakfast cereals; and canned fruit. Personal hygiene
items such as soap, shampoo, detergent and deodorant are also in high demand as
are baby items such as, diapers, wipes, baby formula and baby food.
To participate in the annual SVEC Holiday Food Drive bring in six or
more non-perishable food items to be donated to the local food banks in the
county where the food is donated. While supplies last, as a “thank you” for
your generosity, SVEC will present you with a spiral bound cookbook of family
favorite recipes from the families of the SVEC service area. If you would like
to purchase additional copies of the cookbook, proceeds will be given to the
local food banks as well. The food banks who are affiliated with the Chattanooga
Food Bank can purchase food by the pound at a very low cost allowing them to
stretch their donation dollars even farther to serve even more people so
monetary donations are always welcome. Please remember to check the expiration
dates of the canned goods. If they are past expiration they will have to be
discarded.
The SVEC Angel Trees are decorated with the names of local foster
children and other less fortunate children from our area. They are set up in the
lobbies of each of our local offices and
they contain more than the normal number of names and so far the number of names
taken is lower than in the past by this time. We encourage those who can spare a
little extra for a child who has very little, to stop by this week and pick up a
name. The Department of Human Services needs the gifts back by December 10 or
before in order to get them all delivered before their case workers are off for
Christmas vacation. We ask that members take a name and purchase an age
appropriate toy and/or clothing for the child and return it to our local office
in a gift bag by December 10 to ensure delivery before Christmas.