Each box was filled with food items to make for a Thanksgiving meal, according to Barb Standifer, Miamisburg Helping Hands’ board president.
“It was really nice for our for our clients,” Standifer told this news outlet. “There are a lot of free meals being offered in the in the community but this is going to be even more than enough (for families), I think. It’ll last them quite a while. Instead of somebody else (making) your dishes, you’ve got meals for maybe the rest of the week.”
Each of the 200 dinner boxes featured essentials like potatoes, gravy mix, cornbread mix, dressing, fruits, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables and a brownie mix, plus a $20 Kroger gift card for meat, she said.
The initiative, Crossroads Church’s first community event in the community, was well-received by Miamisburg Helping Hands clients who turned out to Saturday’s event, she said.
“They were very grateful,” she said. “We had a sign-up list just to make sure that it was staying within Miamisburg. They knew what was coming, (but) they didn’t know what was in it and we didn’t tell them ... that there was a gift card in there as well.”
Standifer said the non-profit will distributed the remaining 55 meal kits this week ahead of Thanksgiving.
Miamisburg Helping Hands Food Pantry, which got its start in February 1965, provides a variety of food items and personal care products.
Standifer said Crossroads Church approached the food pantry in September about helping out its clients for the holidays as part of a region-wide effort.
“We’re very grateful ... because normally we don’t do anything for Thanksgiving,” Standifer said. “We save it all for Christmas, so having something done both holidays is really awesome.”
Across its eight Crossroads sites, it collected over 14,000 boxes, according to Jen Skaggs, Crossroads’ Dayton reachout coordinator.
The local Crossroads site at the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp. filled 1,056 Thanksgiving meal boxes with each box feeding up to 10 people.
Locally, Crossroads partnered with 16 organizations, with a different number of boxes allocated for each.
“This was the 28th year that Crossroads has done a Thanksgiving Food Drive, and over that amount of time, more than one million people have been fed,” Skaggs said. “This effort brings hope and support to thousands of under-resourced people across our city and region. A Thanksgiving meal box gives people the opportunity to celebrate this holiday with dignity and joy when they otherwise might not be able to.”
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