Ninety five struggling families received Blessing Bags from Hope Full Life Center during the Christmas season. These bags were full of kitchen staples such as pasta and sauce, tuna fish, peanut butter, cereal and other foods that offer a variety of flavors and nutrition.
This is the second year the Center orchestrated the Blessing Bags project. Our volunteers gathered food, packed the boxes and got them distributed around the community.
Hope Full Life Center's food assistance program, Helping Harvest, is fortunate to have overstocks of food. The charity doesn't want the food to sit in its warehouse; it wants to get it to people who don't have enough to eat. That’s when the idea for the Blessings Bags was formed.
“The Center was excited to be able to donate nearly 100 Blessing Bags to families in need this season,” said Center Director Rebecca Flach. "Each one of those bags represents a person or family who cared enough to donate $20 to help a neighbor in need."
The $20 donations from the public were used to fill the bags with additional food and cover delivery costs. This year the Center was excited to partner with the Ravena branch of the Bank of Greene County on this project. Anyone could stop at the bank to make a donation.
Fifty bags were divided between Trinity Methodist Church in Coeymans Hollow, First Reformed Church of South Bethlehem (Selkirk) and St. Patrick's Church in Ravena. All of these churches run food pantries where the Blessing Bags were dispersed. The remaining 45 bags were distributed to families who utilize the Center's Helping Harvest food assistance program. In a world too full of vitriol, anger and hate, we were excited to share kindness with our neighbors this Christmas. Hope Full Life Center's board, staff and volunteers thank everyone who made donations. We're also grateful to TCI of NY LLC and New Scotland Paving and Excavating for their large contributions. Finally we give a big shout out to our friends at the Bank of Greene County for helping us promote the project and collect donations.