Hope in Our Community: From the Desk of Our CEO
It seems that as soon as the calendar flips to October, the holiday countdown begins. Certainly the Hope Shop, House of Hope’s main thrift store on US 1 in Stuart, has been in holiday mode for weeks. While the wish is for everyone to have a season filled with joy and peace, for many of our neighbors, especially lower wage earners and those living paycheck to paycheck, that is not reality. The holidays create incredible stress as they try to figure out how to scrape together the resources to buy gifts or create a holiday meal for their loved ones. Parents and guardians face additional challenges in meeting their basic monthly expenses due to lost wages or increased child care costs since schools are closed. There are additional food costs for the household when the schools are closed as well. The increased financial pressure that so many feel, and the anxiety that comes with it, are reasons that suicide rates, domestic violence, and crime rates all increase during the holidays.
But there is always Hope in Our Community. With the support of so many individuals and families, local businesses, churches, youth groups and more, House of Hope will once again work to be a resource for our most challenged neighbors and lighten their load at this stressful time of year. Through our four Client Choice Pantries, we hope to distribute over 600 turkeys or hams along with all of the fixings so our clients may have what they need to prepare their own special holiday meal with their loved ones. We will also plan to cook over 200 holiday meals to distribute to our clients that may be experiencing homelessness.
For Christmas, we expect to be able to provide over 250 children and teens with gifts to open on Christmas morning. Since we are also a foodbank, House of Hope has a goal to once again be a resource for many of our non-profit partners for the holidays. We anticipate providing turkeys or hams and all the trimmings to several local soup kitchens and other partners so that they may provide food and fellowship to hundreds of people that would otherwise be alone and go without. We will also do our best to be a resource for food and gifts for the Miracle on Tenth Street, the holiday event that takes place in East Stuart.
In order to deliver hope this holiday season, we do need your help. Please consider supporting our efforts by donating turkeys, hams and/or non-perishable holiday food items. If you are able to, please host a food drive through your organization or business. We also welcome financial support and gift cards to make our Holiday Programs a success. To learn more and decide on the best way to help us lift up our community this season, please visit https://www.hohmartin.org/seasonal-programs. We are also always happy to give tours of our facilities. So if you have never been to House of Hope, or if it has been a while, we welcome the opportunity to connect in person. May everyone who reads this have a holiday season filled with peace, health and happiness. Thank you for helping to grow hope in our community.
