HEMPSTEAD: FRUITCAKE WANTED - REALLY!
There are probably as many jokes about fruitcake as there fruitcakes. Unless, of course, there is really only one tin that is re-gifted year after year.
Some of us actually like fruitcake and look forward to receiving it in December, but others, perhaps the vast majority of Americans, would rather use these gifts as doorstops or hockey pucks. "If you belong to the latter group," suggests the Rev. Thomas W. Goodhue, Executive Director of the Long Island Council of Churches, "why not give them to your local food pantry?"
Do you have fruitcake in your cupboard, either received in recent weeks or placed there by the Ghost of Christmas Past? There is actually considerable nutrition in these desserts, and food donations are slow after the holidays, leaving community pantries scrambling to feed the hungry in January and February. This winter, even more of our neighbors than usual are at risk of going hungry.
Do you have anything else that needs to be cleaned out of your cupboard? Fancy jellies and jams you received as gifts but probably will eat? Flavored coffee that is not your cup of tea? "Most of us have food in our homes we will never eat - food that our neighbors need," Goodhue adds. "This is a great time to go through the canned goods and give away anything that you are not going to use that is not dented, many years old, or otherwise inedible."
Do you have any of these that you are not going to use? Donations of baby food, infant formula. toiletries, personal care items, and shopping bags also are welcome.
Or did you receive a gift of clothing that does not suit you? The LICC and other charities also welcome donations of hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, and other warm clothing at all of its locations. And we will gladly take shopping bags to be reused by the guests to our pantries.
The LICC's chaplains also are collecting unused Christmas cards and other greeting cards to distribute to inmates at the Nassau County Correctional Center. These can be sent or dropped off at our Hempstead office, in Christ's 1st Presbyterian Church, 1644 Denton Green (opposite the Hempstead library), Monday through Friday, 9 to 4:30, our Freeport pantry (450 N. Main Street, 516-868-4989) Monday-Friday 10 to 4, our Riverhead office (407 Osborne Avenue at Lincoln, 631-727-2210) Monday-Friday 9:00 to 4:30 ,or at any LICC meeting or event.
For further information, please contact
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