Sacred Heart Community Service volunteers on Wednesday finished giving away Thanksgiving dinners to approximately 4,000 families in the organization’s 57th annual holiday distribution in downtown San Jose.
Residents who showed up with a valid photo ID and Sacred Heart Community Service membership card collected boxes full of fresh produce, canned beans and corn and their choice of turkey, ham or chicken among other groceries.
The organization also delivered food boxes to members who could not get to the community center for the holiday distribution program, which started Monday. Its goals for that effort are to give away 7,700 turkeys, hams, or chickens and 70,000 cans of beans and corn total between this event and another closer to Christmas.
While Sacred Heart Community Service’s annual program has included a toy drive in the past, the group aims to raise $330,000 by Dec. 23 to fund a pandemic-proof gift bag dispersal. The money will be used to supply each bag with handwritten holiday greetings, stocking stuffers and a gift card for parents to purchase children’s holiday presents.
The organization was started in 1964 by Willow Glen resident Louise Benson, a woman determined to feed and clothe neighbors in need who came to her door until 1983. Complaining neighbors drove the so-called Mother Teresa of San Jose to carry out her mission from a new home downtown in a building that once housed a school until she died in 1986. Read more about the organization and learn how to donate here.
Source: www.mercurynews.com