About the Christmas Food Basket program:
Every year, Knights and their families go and box/bag the food that had been bought and collected. Each basket, in recent years, consists of a large box and big brown paper bag full of food and other items. It takes over many volunteers to accomplish this great effort of collecting, purchasing, sorting and boxing each basket. The baskets are then delivered the on a Saturday morning to needy families in Elkhart and Goshen areas by volunteer drivers consisting of Knights, their families, friends and community.
Slideshow (with music) of the 2011 Christmas Food Baskets
News coverage of the 2011 Christmas Food Baskets
The food drive for
2011 Christmas Food Baskets has begun! Delivery scheduled for the morning of Saturday December 10! Packaging of the baskets starts at 7pm on Friday December 9.
Stop by the Council to drop off food or a check!
How you can help? The Knights will gladly accept food and money donations. If sending a check, please make payable to “Knights of Columbus” and put ‘Food Baskets’ in the subject/memo line. Food and checks can be sent to the Knights of Columbus, 112 E. Lexington Ave., Elkhart, IN 46516. Food drop off hours are Tuesdays-Friday 4pm-8pm at the Knight’s back lounge.
What to bring in?
Any type of canned goods - vegetables, fruits, meat, tuna, soups, etc.
Boxed food like pasta, popcorn, bread mix, soup mixes, cake mixes, flour, sugar, pancake mix, syrup, condensed milk, kool-aid, drink boxes, iced tea mix, etc.
Household Items that are accepted include: toothpaste, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, diapers, soap, detergent, dishwashing soap.
What is not collected is bought so we can achieve the distribution goals.
Christmas Food Basket 2008 Report 12/14/2008
Brothers,
First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone who helped out this year with the food baskets. By all accounts, it appears to have been a success - though it could have appeared a little chaotic at times. The IARA was emptied by 9:45 AM on Saturday with all the food distributed!! This was only possible by the volunteers who took time out of their day to help a neighbor.
I'd also like to share a link to the online version of the Elkhart Truth newspaper story - in case you were not able to get the actual paper Sunday.
http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?ID=469870
Next, I've posted some photos from this year's food drive here: Christmas Food Baskets
Finally, I want to share with you that I stopped by Benny and Virginia's home yesterday (Saturday) at 10:15 or so - immediately after leaving the IARA. While I was there, Benny was fielding calls from Dick Dyer, Gabriel, and others (which I guess shouldn't have suprised me). I showed and left him a DVD of the video I shot on Friday of the food sorting which also contained well-wishes for Benny. He appreciated the sentiments some of you shared on the video. We watched the video with some of his family present - who all recounted their time helping out in years past. I also showed Benny and Virginia the photos I took and gave him a report on how it went. I thanked him for starting this Food Drive and expressed my amazement in how we - as Knights - were able to deliver nearly 500 food baskets to our neighbors in need. It's a legacy of charity that he started and all of us striving to continue to carry on. As most of you know, Benny did not end my visit without issuing me a few orders - which I'm happy to oblige him.
Thank you to the committee members - Knights and their spouses and families including:
Gallaghers, Kiles, Dyers, Wierciochs, Gorskis, Scheves, Herrera, Kulp, Delgado, Palmer, Zagal, Fortino, Martinez, Tinervia, Bahena, Calvillo, Mendoza and Alvarez
God Bless you and your families.
-Joe Tinervia
P.S. The newsletter will be issued a little late this month as Lee had his modem burn out and is getting a replacement. He is also heading to Indy for the week and cannot get the printouts sent until next week. So please be patient. I'll try to keep the website as up to date as possible with the latest news and announcements as a result.
Photos from 2008
Some photos taken from 2008:
Volunteers from Friday who helped sort and pack the food.
Sample of what a typical family received: Two boxes of food and 6-8lb ham!
Volunteers in action packing the food into baskets.
More...
Steve G.
Some of the Jimtown HS girls softball team along witht heir coach and brother Knight - Brent Kulp.
At the end of the sort, this is what the packed basked looks like.
Thank you to all who made distributing this food to 484 neighbors in Elkhart County!
Photos from 2007
This photo below is a combination of 4 different photos because everyone couldn't fit into one single shot! I count over 70 people just in this phot and there were more that left or did not get into the photo. The turn out for packing up the bags with food was truly amazing!
Jim going over some things with Phil.
One of many children helping to package food into the food baskets.
Shane - a veteran - talking to Scott - a rookie.
Just some of the many volunteers.
Thank you for your support!
Past food baskets!
This page was last modified on Saturday, December 17, 2011