Over 500 families receive food boxes

Southern Standard ad designer Kyle Ward delivers a food box Wednesday afternoon to Sue Elkins at her home on Viola Road. Standard employees delivered nearly 100 boxes across the county. (James Clark photo)

They came, they saw, and they left with Christmas dinner.

Hundreds of local residents packed the parking lot at McMinnville Civic Center to receive Share A Christmas Dinner food boxes Wednesday morning. The massive food distribution program, which this year provided boxes to 525 families, is supported entirely by donations.

“The people of Warren County have come through again,” said Standard advertising director Sharon Patrick, who oversees the Share program. “This year was a great success and it’s all thanks to the people who made donations and volunteered their time to give others a wonderful Christmas.”

Students with the high school Interact Club and middle school Youth Act Club played a large role in packing the boxes and then distributing them Wednesday. The boxes contained more than enough for a full-course Christmas dinner and included a chicken, bread, eggs, milk and cake mix.

“By the time the boxes are all packed, they’re pretty heavy,” said Patrick. “And it took everything they had for some of those little middle school kids to lift them. The boxes weigh as much as they do. So they’d each get on one side and carry it that way.”

After the distribution at the Civic Center, nearly 100 boxes were left to deliver to families across the county. Standard employees spent the afternoon delivering boxes from Dibrell to Viola and everywhere in between.

“Delivering Christmas dinners is always something that’s very special,” said Standard executive editor Patricia Zechman, who brought food boxes to several residents at Arms Apartments and Beersheba Towers. “We’re glad we can help people during the holidays. It’s the whole community that makes this possible.”