Holiday Distributions
The Salvation Army had great success this year in it's holiday distributions. As with every year, the Salvation Army held multiple holiday distributions in both November and December, which included the distribution of coats, hats, gloves, scarfs, food for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and toys for children.
Families within the community could register in early November for assistance and for times to come in and receive their items. The first distribution held was our Coat and Thanksgiving food distribution, which was held on November 10th, 11th, and was opened up for a third day November 14th due to high demand. During these three days we distributed 643 coats and other winter items, helping 203 households. We also distributed 637 food boxes to 203 households, which included vegetables, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, pies, and a voucher for them to pick up meat of their choice for Thanksgiving.
Our 28th annual toy shop was a huge success thanks to the many businesses and organizations that hosted "Angel Tree" sites, and the many volunteers that helped both set-up, tear-down, and help our clients shop. We could not do this without the help of those individuals and a huge thank you to all of those volunteers. After all was said and done, we ended up giving out 8,384 toys to 1,558 children, that may not have received toys otherwise. Children not only received multiple toys, they also received books and a family game. 492 Christmas food vouchers were distributed, allowing families to go and pick up food of their liking for the holidays. We are very blessed to be able to assist the community not only this time of year around the holidays, but throughout the year as well and we wouldn't be able to do that without the help and generosity of our wonderful community here in Kalamazoo.