Once again this year, the Free Market will hand out stuffed toys and knitted or crocheted winter hats to the children of Food Independence families. This happens at the December food distribution and would not be possible without many volunteers who crank out hats, from infant to adult-size, for this initiative. We save like-new stuffed animals all year at the Free Market and always come up with enough for the hundreds of recipients. If you would like to participate in hat-making, contact Kathy Cole at colekathy4@gmail.com for details.
Food Independence is also gathering Christmas cards for their clients, and we have TONS of those! Our partnership with FI also includes box transfers: We often get boxes appropriate for their food distribution and take them there, and they have lots of boxes from Feeding Southwest Virginia that are perfect for our customers to use as they shop. And we cooperate on finding homes for the pallets that they get in shipments.
Both our organizations depend on a dedicated corps of volunteers to operate on a shoestring budget and brighten the lives of our fellow citizens.