By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
One week away from Thanksgiving, local volunteers gathered at the Brown Bag Food Project in Bowling Green on Thursday to pack supplies for traditional family meals with all the trimmings.
The bags were brimming with boxes, bags and cans of mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole ingredients, yams, stuffing, gravy, cornbread and pie. The meals will also include a turkey for roasting, or a voucher that can be used for other meats, fruits and vegetables at grocery stores. The turkeys, supplied by Belleville Market, are being paid for by Thayer Family Dealerships.
For the first time, United Way of Greater Toledo is partnering with the Brown Bag Food Project in Bowling Green on the United for the Holidays program. This program brings together corporate sponsors, volunteers, and community partners to assemble all the fixings for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.
Employees at Marelli North America and Southeastern Container in Bowling Green volunteered for the grocery assembly line.
“It’s for a very good cause,” Patty Wells, a volunteer from Southeastern Container, said as she bagged up boxes of mashed potatoes and cornbread.
“We usually reflect on everything we have and on being thankful,” Wells said of her family’s Thanksgiving. So volunteering to pack food felt right. “It’s a good feeling.”
The program will provide all the ingredients to feed 100 families for Thanksgiving and another 100 at Christmas.
“Food insecurity is a big deal,” said Tina Ohmart Mendoza, United Way development officer serving Wood County.
In Wood County, 36% of families live at or below the ALICE threshold (asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed.) These families live paycheck to paycheck, and financial difficulties are exacerbated by rising inflation and escalating utility expenses.
“These are working families who are struggling,” Mendoza said. “Thanksgiving meals can be very hard for some families.”
Amy Holland, executive director of the Brown Bag Food Project, said the partnership with United Way will allow twice as many families as usual to get all the ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner.
“They’re pretty grateful,” Holland said of families who receive the help over the holidays.
Those who get the holiday meals are also allowed to get their monthly food and toiletry items from Brown Bag, she stressed.
Delivery of the holiday meal groceries within 10 miles of Bowling Green is also available through the United Way 211 program and Door Dash.
“A lot of people are homebound,” and appreciate this option, Holland said.
The Thanksgiving dinner fixings will be given out at the Brown Bag Food Project, 530 Sand Ridge Road, on Sunday, Nov. 24, starting at 9 a.m., on a first-come, first served basis. Those arriving after the holiday meals are gone will not go home empty-handed.
“They’ll get something,” Holland said.
Sponsors whose support makes United for the Holidays possible are Stellantis, FedEx, Eastman & Smith, The Andersons Inc., Toledo Refining Company, FocusCFO, Hylant, Huntington Bank, Pat and MaryLouise Bowe, SSOE Group, UToledo Health, and Waterford Bank, N.A.
For anyone in need of a connection to food, shelter, educational support, or other local resources, United Way’s 211 information and referral line is available as a 24/7 call center, staffed by local, trained professionals who help address emergent needs as well as root causes of needs for assistance. Residents can reach 211 locally by calling 211, visiting 211nwo.org, or texting zip code to 898-211.
