Dozens of volunteers helped make the holidays better for families in need as they handed out food and toy boxes from a warehouse in the Prologis International Park of Commerce during the 48th Brighter Christmas distribution Sunday morning.
Steve Abercrombie, Brighter Christmas director, said the charity was able to help about 650 families in need this holiday season with food boxes and toys for 1,100 children, with about 120 seniors receiving food and gift bags this year.
“The community again just stepped up. We had plenty of food for everybody. It was really great for Prologis to allow us to have this warehouse because with school getting out on the 20th and having everything get out on the 22nd, it just wasn’t going to be feasible to try and do it out of Williams (Middle School),” Abercrombie said.
Brighter Christmas helps families in need with boxes of food and toys for children newborn to 13-years-old. Low-income families applied for Brighter Christmas in early November and were screened by volunteers in their homes later in the month.
New this year was moving the distribution from Williams Middle School to the former Smuckers’ warehouse in the Prologis business park. Volunteers helped sort and pack the boxes of food and toys through the week leading up to distribution.
“Having this warehouse and being able to do everything here — we had kids come Wednesday, Thursday — and they did such a great job we didn’t have to have a Friday volunteer day,” Abercrombie said. “Yesterday we boxed all the food and today we’re giving it out to everybody. Again, we’re just blessed with the number of volunteers and it’s just going as smooth as clockwork, people coming through being blessed by our community.”
On Saturday volunteers deliver Brighter Christmas donations to some seniors and people who could not drive to Sunday’s distribution.
At Sunday’s distribution volunteers carried boxes of toys and foods as a line of cars drove through the warehouse to pick up their donations.
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