This is where 100% of your money goes. Each family receives two large shopping bags. One is chock full of toys, games, stuffed animals, mittens, warm headgear and scarves. The contents of this bag are tailored for a specific family—for the number of family members and the age of each of them. The other bag contains the makings of a very good and festive holiday dinner for the whole family. Each family also receives a certificate worth $50 at any Jewel supermarket.
Santa for the Very Poor
Photo Gallery
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| 6:30 A.M. at a Jewel supermarket. Aisle after aisle of carts with bags of foodstuffs are ready for SVP directors to load onto vans and trucks for delivery to 850 families and single older people. | Loading the shopping bags onto a truck. Each chock-full bag contains the fixins’ for an ample Christmas dinner for a family—ham, sweet potatoes, condiments, sweets, the works. |
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| What we call “toy packing”—dozens of us and our friends and children loading 850 shopping bags (donated by Crate & Barrel) with toys, games, and other Christmas cheer. | Footballs and basketballs about to disappear into the gift bags. |
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| Each bag is designated for a specific family—contents chosen for the number of people in the family and for the age and gender of each child. No two bags are exactly alike. | Al Fellinger (left), our founder, with Bob Erzinger, our treasurer.
A couple of bags of food Al bought for one poor family 50 years ago
inspired the enterprise described in these pages. |
2006
Food Packing | Toy
Packing