You may recall last November during E4K that we announced our focus for the coming year, which was addressing childhood hunger. Well, supporter Juliana Su had a holiday project all ready to go! With Random Acts funding, she helped 14 families in her community enjoy a Thanksgiving feast.
About the National Center for Children and Families
In order to make the most of this act of kindness, Juliana connected with the National Center for Children and Families. The NCCF is a nonprofit organization which focuses on child and family welfare. They provide services such as emergency shelter and food, foster care, and enrichment/educational programs to over 50,000 poor and disadvantaged children, youth, and families in the Maryland and Washington, DC area.
Annually, the NCCF invites the local community to assemble Thanksgiving dinner baskets for families in need across the Washington, DC Metro area. Juliana assembled each Thanksgiving dinner basket guided by a shopping list provided by the NCCF. Each basket consisted of:
- one $25 grocery gift card (for purchasing turkey)
- one package of napkins
- one package of paper plates
- one box of pie crust mix
- two cans of pie filling
- one box of instant mashed potatoes
- one box of cornbread mix
- one box of stuffing mix
- two boxes of mac and cheese
- two cans of peas
- two cans of carrots
- two cans of green beans
- two cans of corn
- one or two cans of yams (depending on the size of the can)
- two packets of gravy mix
- one reusable grocery bag to hold all of the items
Juliana’s plan had originally been to purchase enough food for ten baskets. However, since her local grocery stores were offering holiday discounts, she was ultimately able to assemble fourteen baskets. This made a sizable impact in the NCCF’s goal of 300 Thanksgiving baskets for hungry families. That is definitely something to be thankful for!
We Are Not Done Yet!
Our focus for this year — alleviating childhood hunger — is both a worthy task and a daunting one. We are hard at work connecting with organizations like the National Center for Children and Families in struggling communities all over the world. Although wee have a number of projects already in progress, if you know of someplace where we can do some good, please let us know! And keep an eye right here on our website, as well as our various social media channels, to read about further developments. You can also find our past projects! Just look for the #RANoHungryChild hashtag.