**We also desperately need donations of juice - plastic bottles or cans - or powdered drink mix! Thank you!**
A NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE
We are in the footsteps of a new year, leaving another holiday season behind us. Most of us can look back fondly on Christmas with its memories bringing a smile to our faces and a lift to our hearts. Whether it was seeing friends and family you don't get to see often, the cookies or festive foods, shopping for special gifts, the landscape of beautifully wrapped gifts, your favorite Christmas song or perhaps Christmas movie - there are things that we look forward to each and every year that truly make it feel like Christmas for us.
The perspective of a charity is unique in terms of the holidays. As we see people day in and day out who are struggling to provide even the basic essentials, we understand the almost unimaginable burden the holidays become for so many. When you're forced to seek food from emergency food programs, formula for the baby's bottle from the emergency baby pantry, rent help to prevent eviction, assistance with your utility bills so your children can stay warm or even gas for the car so you can make it to work or job interviews - when you've had to ask for assistance for daily, life-sustaining essentials, how and where can you possibly find help for the holidays as well? How do you try to not let the hopelessness you feel color the enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder that speaks to the child in all of us that "Believes" in the magic that is Christmas?
For the families that you adopted this past Christmas the answer is simple on the surface - three little letters - Y-O-U. YOU are the answer to the prayers. YOU are the magic that brought Christmas to homes that would have had nothing otherwise. YOU are the reason that not only children but adults as well can still "Believe". YOU are the caring hearts and generous souls that prove Christmas is, indeed, the season of miracles. For the time YOU gave shopping and wrapping, filling stockings and food baskets - for the lives YOU touched with your kindness and thoughtfulness - for the difference YOU made in the lives of so many, there are no words special enough to thank YOU.
We hope Christmas had everything that made it special for you. Most of all, we hope your Christmas morning was filled with a touch of the magic you gave to so many. May the New Year bring you the gifts of glowing health, great happiness and abundant love.
With Heartfelt Thanks,
Cathy Holstrom-Bird
Executive Director
As Food Link celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, the need for help is so great in the our Community. Although the pantry is full right now - it doesn't last long. Non-perishable foods are not warehoused - items are distributed out of the Riva Road office every day. There is a constant need for items for the Emergency Baby Pantry such as diapers, formula and baby wipes as well as newborn clothing. Other items on the list include bottles, pacifiers, baby wash, sippy cups, infant clothing, towels, washcloths, layette blankets, socks and infant shoes.
Food Link, Inc. is the largest hunger relief and food rescue organization in Anne Arundel County and four counties on the Eastern Shore. Food Link's mission is to alleviate hunger in our community linking vital resources to families and individuals in need. By means of food distribution through a network of over 100 service agencies, Food Link serves emergency shelters, soup kitchens, foster care group homes, treatment and rehabilitation centers, public housing sites and low-income senior citizen facilities.
Windows format
Quicktime format
