Article in Virginia Newspaper...SO PROUD OF MY DAUGHTER! A group of King George County residents is working to provide Thanksgiving dinner for needy residents, but it’s not clear how many baskets the volunteers will be able to fill or how many people will show up to get them. All that’s clear is that people were concerned when the King George Department of Social Services recently announced it couldn’t do the popular program, which has served as many as 510 families in the past. The effort wasn’t canceled because of a lack of donations. Plenty of individuals and churches, businesses and community groups pitched in to help with the effort, which had been in place for almost 30 years. But social workers, on their own time, had to confirm eligibility for those who requested Thanksgiving assistance. Unlike private programs that don’t verify income or residence, Social Services has to be sure its resources go to those in need, Director Dave Coman said. “Donors put their faith in us to do due diligence,” said Coman, adding he didn’t have the staff this year to pull the program together. Residents who learned of Social Service’s predicament repeatedly asked online how they could help. Valerie Reid, a King George resident whose family had donated to past Thanksgiving efforts, started a Facebook page called King George Givers at Thanksgiving. She says that by no means is she the only one who had ideas or helped with the effort. “I just brought everybody together in one place,” she said. “There were just so many people out there, saying this needed to happen.” Reid talked with Supervisor Ruby Brabo, who worked on program logistics. Here’s what has been decided: Volunteers will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Tabernacle Baptist Church, off State Route 3, across from the King George YMCA. They’ll accept nonperishable food items such as canned vegetables and fruit, stuffing, pumpkin pie filling, gravy and any other canned or bagged item that might be served on Thanksgiving. They also need bags and boxes. During business hours through Wednesday, residents also can drop off nonperishable food at the community center at Hopyard Farm, off Route 3. Starting at 10 a.m. on Thursday, the group at Tabernacle Baptist will accept perishable items such as turkeys. Volunteers then will assemble the Thanksgiving packages. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., families in need are asked to pick up the food baskets at Tabernacle Baptist. The group has worked with another county program that helps about 100 needy families. That program has been contacting families, telling them about the pickup, Brabo said. Others who need help with Thanksgiving dinner can show up at Tabernacle, Brabo said. Because of limited resources, she said the distribution is limited to King George County families. “We have no idea how many baskets we can give,” she said. “We have no idea if there’s food for 10 or if there’s food for a thousand,” Brabo said. As people posted ideas on Facebook, there was some discussion about how to confirm that people who asked for baskets truly needed them. Some wanted to prevent double-dipping, when people get help from more than one charitable organization. Resident Melissa Sullivan said the point of the program is to help those in need, not “debate who can afford or not afford. There are many families in this county who cannot afford to buy a turkey dinner and all the trimmings because it is more expensive than Hamburger Helper,” she wrote. Jason Atkinson, who arranged the Hopyard drop-off point, agreed. “If one of 10 families helped truly needed the help, then I’d say it was worthwhile,” he wrote.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 02:07:23 +0000