GivingTuesday 2020 – A physically distant but socially together affair

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(January 15, 2021) Giving Tuesday 2020 was a campaign of generosity like no other. While the holiday parties, children performances, and the person to person gift giving couldn’t happen, something new did occur- the sense of perseverance and love kept us going and working together to meet and even surpass all of our campaign goals.

Toy collections, food collections, and distributions were handled with the health and safety of all involved as our greatest priority.

On the day of our food distribution, our volunteers, led by Annie Basile, were greeted by La Casa staff who provided temperature checks and completed health status questionnaires.

Donors like Julie Martinez (L) and Seton Hall University DOVE program (R) couldn’t share holiday music and activities with our children this year. Instead, they met with staff like Elgin Cintron (Center) to drop off the gifts which our staff then sorted and distributed to 10 centers throughout Newark.
Toys were collected and sorted at our 221 Broad Street Location, with extremely limited social interaction. There were no sorting and gift wrapping parties this year like we had done in the past with volunteers.
Nonetheless, more than 800 children and teens received gifts thanks to the generosity of hundreds of donors. They picked up their gifts at their respective community center or school by appointment only, and were greeted by their teachers and family workers.
In order to welcome our essential volunteers to sort and distribute food for our food distribution, while maintaining distance amongst each other, we expanded our operations outside. We had to reschedule the distribution due to the December snow storms, but our volunteers adjusted their schedules and were there for us when we needed them the most.
Knowing that the rate of food insecurity is higher than ever, our donors and volunteers committed to raising more funds and food donations than any other year. In fact, we collected enough funds and in-kind donations to provide 750 families in need with two shopping bags each – full of meats, fresh produce, canned goods, and even hand sanitizer and face masks!

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