Christmas is for Giving 2023

We have been blessed to serve over 10,000 famiies in our community throughout this year with food, clothing, household supplies, seasonal things like new school supplies/backpacks, fun Family Fun Day events and in the colder months, coats, warm clothes, Christmas decorations and new toys for children. Many of you have helped us to accomplish so much and we are grateful! We celebrated 58 years of service in November!

Many of you helped us in providing 1175 Thanksgiving food boxes for families this year year.

We will be ordering and receiving new donations of warm pajamas and coats for babies size 2T-5T to add to the items that will be given for Baby Blessings on December 19th. We would like to be able to to give each of the 150+ babies that we serve some warm clothing articles. We have some of what we need but we do need more.

December 16th is our favorite time! We will be hosting two special holiday children's Christmas celebrations where will be distributing new toys, gift cards and candy to children in need. We'll be having two Christmas parties this year at Huntington Assembly. We'll begin that registration on November 28th after Thanksgiving and anticipate serving around 1200 children 700 which will come to the party and an additional 500 referred from LI organizations who've reached out for help for kids. We'd like to help all those that come and don't want to turn children away. We will give each child 2 new toys and a bag of candy festively wrapped. We're so excited! We'll need to purchase additional toys to add to the toys donated from toy drives and private donations.

This past year in addition to all that is given out at our pantry, Community Closet and Baby Blessings, you've helped us to share over $15,000 with families like the Jones, Miller, Rivas, Lee, Leone and Lopez families. We were able to help with extended unmet needs in their time of needing a helping hand. Insurance bills, help with rent or security deposits and other needed expenses were helped with.

The needs in our community are great. We see them every day when the line forms and we begin to serve those who have come. Grace Lopez who does the intake and registration keeps a list of requests and needs and we do our best to fulfill them when we are able to. We have families coming to us from 14 different countries of origin as well as local seniors, veterans, homeless and individuals in need of help.

We recently signed the contract to rebuild our Community Kitchen & Dining Room Building and we are starting construction. We are two thirds of the way to our goal of $850,000 which is the approximate cost to rebuild this commercial structure so that we can serve nutritious, freshly prepared meals and provide a homelike place for those in need in our community to feel welcomed as they come to eat.

We're planning to pack 200 Christmas food boxes with special foods and treats to distribute the week of 12/20/23. We will be collecting meats and also gift cards too that we can share with those who come so that they can have a nice holiday meal.

We are praying for additional provision at the end of this year to help with the immediate holiday needs and also to help as we go into a cold winter ahead when many seasonal workers will be without work and will turn to us for help with food and other basic needs. We anticipate that our pantry lines will increase as the winter progresses until spring when outside work is available again. As prices of goods, services and utilities rise, the cost of our outreach has increased. We are grateful for every donation that helps us to continue our much needed work in this community where we have served families in need for the past 58 years.

Will you help us to make the holidays happier for families community this holiday season and help with our food and service needs moving forward into the winter months?

Your donation helps us to do so much for others and we are grateful to God for your support, kindness and friendship. Thank you for all that you do to help us help others at Helping Hand Rescue Mission.

We are MOST GRATEFUL to all those who help us to meet the needs of those who come for help. May God bless our community and our world with His peace in this coming year!