Operation Holiday has been providing food and gifts for families of the tri-county region for 33 years to ensure that all children, no matter how dire their family circumstances, have gifts and food for the holidays.
The program which began as an outreach of The Mercury in Pottstown has served thousands of families each year. Funds are raised by simply telling the stories of need and asking readers to respond.
Our employees — expanded from The Mercury to include The Times Herald, The Reporter, Daily Local News and Reading Eagle — manage the fundraising through a non-profit foundation and team up with local agencies to identify families in need and distribute food and gift cards.
Each year has shown the need that exists in our communities and the generosity that flows in response. More than $91,000 in donations last year provided food and gifts for 451 children and 199 families, plus cash donations to food pantries in Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties.
As we begin this year’s Operation Holiday campaign, food pantry managers say they are seeing longer lines of people waiting for food than they’ve witnessed in years, and the holidays exacerbate that demand.
“We like to think we’re meeting the need, but the demand exceeds our capacity,” said Helping Harvest President Jay Worrall. Helping Harvest provides food for struggling families in Berks and Schuylkill counties, and Worrall said the agency is seeing demand for food higher than ever.
That’s where Operation Holiday comes in: When a family is struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food to eat, there are no resources left to buy gifts at the holidays. The mission of Operation Holiday is to give children in those difficult circumstances some semblance of a normal Christmas with food and gifts.
There is no overhead with Operation Holiday and all funds stay local. Funds are collected and audited in a non-profit foundation account managed by staff of MediaNews Group who volunteer their time.
This year, Operation Holiday has partnered with 19 agencies in the tri-county area who have referred 165 families with 419 children for gifts and food.
Consider the need:
Helping Harvest distributed 700,000 pounds of food per month in July and August, but in October that amount rose to 900,000 pounds, and in November will likely total more than 1 million pounds.
“Holidays for many of us are a time of joy, but when you’re surrounded by those trappings and can’t afford to do the things that you see others doing, it’s very hard,” Worrall said. “People feel pressure to have Christmas for their family. It’s an expensive time.”
Patrician Society Executive director LeeAnn Rooney said the Norristown nonprofit was helping about 280 households per month pre-pandemic, but is now serving 956 households, the demand having more than tripled. “We’re bombarded,” she said.
The organization sees the poorest of the poor from the Norristown area, she said, some struggling too much to even think forward to the holidays as they try to survive day to day. “They’re thankful just to get a box of macaroni and cheese or a bag of cookies for their children,” she said. “They really appreciate what they receive.”
At Manna on Main Street in Lansdale, Sheldon Good, director of development and strategic direction, said increased demand has been caused mainly by the lingering effects of the pandemic on employment, income and housing costs, the sharp rise in food costs, and the post-pandemic reduction in SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps.
The average Pennsylvania household relying on SNAP saw a decrease of $181 monthly due to that cut, and it happened all at once, he said. Manna’s Market served 1,600 different household this year, a 40% increase from 1,200 households last year, Good said.
As Giving Tuesday approaches, “give local” with a donation to Operation Holiday in which every dollar goes to help families with children in your own community.
Online donations are being accepted in a secure portal in partnership with TriCounty Community Network. Visit https://tcnetwork.org/ and click on the link for Operation Holiday. Contributions can be mailed with checks payable to Operation Holiday to PO Box 1181, Pottstown PA 19464; The Reporter, 307 Derstine Ave. , Lansdale PA 19446; Operation Holiday, 1440 Lacrosse Ave., Reading, PA 19607.
Source: Berkshire mont
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