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Date: 12/21/2020
SOUTHWICK – Our Lady of the Lake Church, The Hood Café, and a Southwick resident are teaming up to provide care packages to families in need during the holidays and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Diana David, the treasurer for the project, said it is a team effort between herself, the church, and the café.
“There’s three parts to it, Our Lady of the Lake Church, myself, and Maureen Duffy who is the owner of the Hood Café. The church and I bring the money in and Maureen’s café creates the care packages. She prepares the food, we bring her the money, and she brings everyone a beautifully packaged meal and the local girl scouts decorate the bags,” she said.
Each meal comes packed with homemade soup, cranberry pecan chicken salad, homemade bread, fresh baked cookies, toilet paper, and paper towels.
Initially, David said collections for the Care Package Project began back when the pandemic first started.
“We started when COVID came out last February. What we did is we collected and then when we had that slow peak we didn’t put as much into it. We just resurrected it in the last month as the holidays approached and as we can see that families are going to be impacted by everything that’s happening again,” she said.
David said that donations have come in from al over the place, including outside of Massachusetts.
“When we first started this, we had checks coming from all over. It’s amazing the generosity from all these people. Even outside of Massachusetts with checks coming in. We’ve had a very successful project,” she said.
Along with the Care Package Project, David said Our Lady of the Lake Church is participating in other fundraisers as well.
“Also, at Our Lady of the Lake Church, we’re doing a Bag of Joy project which is toys for children from families in need and also a Christmas Book Drive for families in need. People have three projects they have been donating to and they have been more than generous,” she said.
David added that as long as there is a need for the donations, they will continue to collect and distribute them.
“Right now, we’re in the midst of working with Aaron Circle and that’s probably 70 people. As time goes on, we’re going to keep running this and we’re assuming it’s going to increase, sad to say. As long the money comes in, we’ll keep creating and making meals as long as we are needed in town,” she said.
During a hard time for everyone, David said she was happy to see the community come together to support those in need.
“I can’t even describe what it means, I’ve been working at the soup kitchen for over 30 years. And I’ve always tried to help other people, it is the most rewarding and beautiful feelings. I come from a great community, and a great church, we all work together to make sure no one goes without,” she said.
Anyone interested in donating or seeking help at this time can reach out to David via email at dlmdavid555@gmail.com or by phone at 569-3718.