More than 720 needy families will have a big Christmas dinner this year thanks to the generosity of Greenwood Market Place, Greenwood Utilities and private donors.
Employees from the grocery store and utility as well as the city of Greenwood worked feverishly Thursday morning to pack the hundreds of pink bags inside Market Place’s warehouse.
They stuffed each bag with a turkey, three vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing and bread before loading the bags onto a trailer.
Families, who had been referred by area churches to Greenwood Utilities, then presented vouchers to pick up the food in the Honest Abe’s Donuts parking lot as well as in Itta Bena and Moorhead.
“It’s really spreading Christmas cheer because there are a lot of people in need with the economy the way it is,” Derrick Simpson, manager at Market Place, said.
It’s the fifth year of the annual food giveaway.
Jean Cadney, Greenwood Utility’s director of human resources, said it began with just about 50 senior citizens in Greenwood that the utility delivered meals to.
She said a donor from outside Greenwood had given money to get the utility’s Pennies for Power program off the ground and asked if there was anything else it did for the elderly. That donor has since given every year to the Christmas meals, she said.
“It’s just kind of grown and grown and grown,” she said.
Lee Abraham, a Greenwood attorney and another one of the donors, thanked Market Place for its help.
“They give us an opportunity to stretch the dollars,” he said.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
