Local Nonprofit Needs Help Feeding Hungry

By Desiree Parker Thursday, December 08, 2011

This year, 700 people in Williamsburg and James City County are on the list to get a much-needed Christmas meal from the local Community Action Agency, but funding for the meal program has been slashed and the CAA is looking for help to address the need.

The WJCC CAA has been offering Christmas food baskets for over 35 years. Last year, the organization served 436 families, and this year, 700 have put their names on the list. At the same time, the program’s biggest funder, the Daily Press, offered just 40 percent of what it usually gives – a cut that trimmed $3,000 off the budget.

“We’re really struggling here,” says CAA Executive Director Reba Bolden of her organization’s efforts to get the food together for the meal basket program, called Feed the Need. “We hope to have enough to help everyone, or at least we’ll help as many as possible.”

To fill all the baskets, the CAA needs 700 turkeys and hams along with stuffing, macaroni and cheese or mashed potato mix, yams, string beans, cranberry sauce and cake mix and frosting. The CAA doesn’t yet have nearly enough money on hand to buy all these items, so they are asking the community for help, either through donations of food or cash donations in any amount.

Bolden says the organization will use what funds it has to purchase as much food as possible, but there may not be enough for the meat portion of the baskets, or possibly not enough to fill all the baskets that have been requested. The Daily Press funding was used in part in previous years to purchase $10 gift cards so families could select the meat they wanted.

The CAA is currently comparing its list to those of other charitable organizations to make sure there are no duplicate names that can be scratched off the list.

Bolden says she’s not surprised by the huge increase in demand this year, as it just reflects consistent increases in need across the area since the recession began. “The last three years, it has been amazing the number of people who come here – many of them are people who never thought they’d be here asking for help. This year, it’s a big increase.”

Aside from the Christmas meal program, the CAA also sponsors a winter coat drive for kids involved in the group's Head Start program. This year, there are 147 kids who need coats, and so far the organization has collected 47 coats thanks to efforts of the Williamsburg United Methodist Church.

If they don’t find 100 more coats before Dec. 20, “then this will be the first time we won’t meet that need [for all the kids],” Bolden says. “It breaks my heart, especially about the kids who don’t have coats for the winter.”

Each year, Santa gives the coats as gifts to the kids on Dec. 20. The food baskets are put together by CAA staff on Dec. 21.

Aside from Head Start, other youth programs offered by the local CAA include Project Discovery, HOPE Tutorial Outreach Program, Green Team, the Neighborhood Basketball League and the Excel Program. Other services include a Legal Outreach Program, Weatherization and Emergency Home Repair, the Male Involvement Program and Cars for Work.

The organization was founded in 1968 as a nonprofit public-private community organization that aims to reduce poverty and promote self-sufficiency of the poor. The CAA is locally managed and is controlled by a volunteer Board of Directors.

Food or coat donations can be dropped off at the CAA office in the Historic Triangle Community Services Center, 312 Waller Mill Rd., Suite 405, Williamsburg, VA 23185; and cash donations can be mailed to the same address by Friday, Dec. 16. For more information, call the CAA office at 229-9332.