LINK 2011 Holiday Programs Receive Miraculous Community Support

Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:4)

God's grace is great.

Lisa Lombardozzi
LINK President

lisalombo@signaturecos.com,

http://www.linkagainsthunger.org

Christ the Redeemer Catholic, Trinity Presbyterian and Herndon United Methodist hosted the eight hour long events. Working in parallel they provided 55,000 lbs. of groceries and 4,500 toys. The 869 families served comprised 4,400 people from Herndon, Sterling and Ashburn.

I am not sure that I am able to put into words all that happened over the past four days. On Tuesday, December13th the LINK Board was concerned we would not be able to meet our demands of food for our Christmas Holiday Basket Program. We voted to spend up to $10,000 to purchase food if the grocery donation levels remained low for the Saturday, December 17th events.

2011 was already a tough year with increased demands for grocery deliveries each month, but each time food appeared from churches, businesses, civic organizations, schools, and individuals. Heading into the Holiday Basket Programs, the LINK Board voted to increase the number of families registered. After the November 19th event, over 881 families (4,500+ individuals) received food for 5 – 7 days, $24,000 in grocery gift cards and over 2,300 gently used winter coats, scarves, mittens and hats. 

The amount was so high (24% above the numbers in 2010) that it eliminated our warehouse stores in many products.  LINK is an all volunteer organization and relies 100% on local community donations. It is a daunting way to plan, but LINK has always believed that God would provide for our needs. 

The majority of the groceries for the Christmas Basket program arrive in the latter part of the week leading up to the December 17^th event date. We also were faced with the requirement to collect over 4,500 new toys for the 2,200+ children who were recently registered. With many items missing or in low supply, we put out the word through the media, churches, elected officials, Facebook, neighborhood emails and our community volunteers. Like a small wave in the ocean growing as it approaches the shoreline, the groceries and toys gradually began to arrive. 

As volunteers began to sort groceries and toys, they discovered the supply was quite low. Emails arrived every hour with volunteers offering to conduct last minute drives to gather the items we needed. Neighbors went door to door, businesses volunteered to do in-office drives and local residents answered the plea for more donations. Some people stated, “I don’t have much, but I’ve collected what I could.” These donations all added up to a huge amount and helped us meet the need. Never underestimate what the power of one individual can make in the difference of another person. 

With a cold day facing us on Saturday, December 17^th, LINK experienced hundreds of families waiting over an hour to receive food and toys for their families. A volunteer from Cornerstone Chapel Church in Leesburg felt the desire to provide nourishment for the LINK guests waiting on long lines. She organized her neighbors, solicited donations from Chick-fil-A, Starbucks and other stores and came loaded with hot chocolate, coffee and crafts for the kids waiting in line with their parents. One of those volunteers chose to purchase sandwiches at McDonald’s and while they were in line explaining what they were doing purchasing 150 hamburgers, other patrons emptied their pockets to contribute to the purchase! WOW! Talk about seeing God’s face everywhere!

When the last LINK guest left on Saturday afternoon, LINK had helped 869 families (4,400+ people) and distributed over 4,500 new toys and $24,480 in grocery gift cards. Exhausted volunteers swept churches, packed up the remaining cans of non perishables and returned borrowed supermarket grocery carts. 

LINK would like to thank our public and private schools in Fairfax and Loudoun County who worked hard to solicit food and toys; our elected officials like Tom Rust, Eugene Delgaudio and Frank Wolf who encouraged people to donate; churches all over northern Virginia who helped spread the word and organized groups to collect items and sort them; businesses like Airbus, A Refined Touch, COSTCO, Federal Children’s Center, Herndon Woman’s Club, Knights of Columbus, Motorcycle Division of the Fairfax County Police Department, NACHA, NEW Corporation, NOVA Youth Flag Football, RightNow, Oberthur Technologies,  Reston Hospital, Wal-Mart – Sterling, VISTA Technology Services and so many others. 

We would also like to thank our local grocery stores – Harris Teeter, Giant, Wegman’s, Safeway, BLOOM, and Shoppers Food Warehouse for paper grocery bags, food donations and loaning us the grocery carts. The Scouting groups – Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies and Girl Scouts all came to help sort items, escort guests and restock tables.

There are so many unnamed individuals who contributed cash, groceries, toys, and clothing to make the December 17^th Holiday Basket event a success. We had almost a thousand volunteers who assisted to meet our needs. We even had guests helping volunteers! Without people responding to our plea for help, we couldn’t have supported our neighbors who are struggling to make ends meet this holiday season. Santa Claus even stopped by each church to wish the children a Merry Christmas. 

To all of you who helped – I say thank you! Thank you for your generosity and time. While it may seem that it doesn’t make a big difference, I can assure you that it does! Continue to contribute to organizations that need your help in 2012! So many of our neighbors need our help to ease the burdens they are facing. With all of us working together, we can make a difference.

God bless each and every one of you during this Christmas season!

TOTAL – for both Thanksgiving and Christmas events –

# Of Families receiving Food – 1,754 (*8,900+ individuals)

$$ grocery gift cards handed out - $49,410

Coats & other items – 2,300+

Food – 110,000 lbs.

Toys – 4,500+

*the majority of our LINK Guests came both times so are counted twice. 

About LINK: Many folks new to serving LINK have asked how to get involved in other types of LINK support efforts. Here is a brief overview of LINK: 

Established in 1972, LINK is an “all volunteer” emergency support organization that provides emergency food assistance by request Tuesdays through Saturdays all year long and hosts our Holiday Basket program twice a year (November and December). The organization is comprised of 17 member and affiliate churches (consisting of Baptist, Brethren, and Catholic, Episcopal, Fellowship, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and non-denominational churches) in Herndon, Chantilly, Sterling, Potomac Falls and Ashburn.  LINK retains no paid employees, has no office and owns no vehicles. Volunteers do all the work and most goods are received from local donations.  

LINK is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization founded and based on Matthew 23:35, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” Our neighbors might be strangers to most of us, but they need help and we feel that we can assist by providing them food, used clothes and Christmas gifts. 

The LINK Board is comprised of one volunteer representative from each member church; five elected volunteer officers and appointed mission coordinators. The five officers directly oversee the activity of the various mission coordinators and special volunteers.  

The meetings are hosted by a member church and are rotated to each applicable church accordingly. The missions rotate among the member churches on a monthly basis.  In any given month, one church collects the food for the LINK pantry, another church delivers that very food and a third church hosts the monthly LINK meeting.  In the next month, another set of churches will take up the three rotating missions. A pantry manager oversees the food pantry and food coordinators and food packers determine and prepare the deliveries. LINK meets once a month on the last Tuesday of each month at 7:30 PM.  

Volunteers are needed to:

- Pick up food from restaurants, grocery stores, businesses and schools

- Sort the food that is donated

- Pack food for our guests

- Clean up the pantry – inside and out

- Move food from LINK to other organizations that we share our food

- Act as translators & interpreters (Spanish is the primary need)

- Deliver food directly to families homes on an emergency basis

- Donate non-perishable food, toiletries, diapers, and other items to LINK.

If you don’t have time to volunteer, but want to contribute – LINK does accept monetary donations. The money LINK receives is used primarily to purchase gift cards that we give to guests, along with the non-perishable food. We also spend a small portion on financial aid for guests (rent, electric, etc.). As stated earlier, LINK is an all volunteer organization, so no funds are spent on salaries. Checks could be mailed to – LINK, PO Box 443, Sterling, VA 20167.