Press Release posted 11/14/12 – For many families in our local communities, hunger never takes a holiday, and being surrounded by the season’s festivities just makes the struggle for survival that much harder. Jobs continue to be scarce, as the unemployment rate in Los Angeles County remains in double digits, and the number of people needing the Foothill Unity Center’s help with food has more than tripled during the last four years of the economic downturn. Moreover, with food and gas prices continuing to go up, and the reduction in USDA commodities to food banks, it has become increasingly difficult for the Center to ensure that low-income families receive the amount of food they need to help stabilize their finances.
As the Center heads into the holiday season, the number of qualified families registering for its Thanksgiving and Holiday food distributions is beginning to climb. The Center expects to give out more than 3,000 food boxes to low-income families during this year’s Thanksgiving and Holiday Food Distributions at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia. Each family will take home a food box, packed in accordance with the size of their household, and containing all the ingredients for a festive holiday dinner. At the Holiday event, every family with children will take home an opaque bag of new toys and clothing for each child, which lets the parents give the gifts during their family celebration. Consequently, Children’s gifts also are needed for the family holiday distribution day. The Center invites the community to pick up paper angels hand-decorated by volunteers from schools, businesses, churches and more. Written on each angel is one child’s gift wishes. Angel adopters may purchase one or more of the gifts listed and return them to the Center with the angel.
According to the Center’s Executive Director, Betty McWilliams, “each year, with the help of local residents, businesses, organizations and churches, we’re able to give families in crisis a generous helping of holiday cheer. That gift comes with an even more valuable one: knowing that their neighbors really do care.”
Funds and volunteers (as well as turkeys) are needed urgently to help prepare these essential food packages for our families during these two holiday events. It takes hundreds of hands to make these events happen. For information on volunteer days and shifts, visit the Center’s website at www.foothillunitycenter.org, or call Raina at (626) 358-3486. For information on adopting an Angel, please call Angela at (626) 358-3486. Donations also may be sent by check to Foothill Unity Center, 415 West Chestnut Avenue, Monrovia CA 91016, or made securely online at the Center’s website above.