Northend residents in need receive turkey gift cards
CALIPATRIA — A total of 240 individuals and families with limited resources in the Imperial Valley’s northend received gift cards Thursday in order to purchase turkeys for Thanksgiving.
The distribution event was put on in collaboration between the Golden State Water Company and its Operation Gobble program, the Calipatria-Niland Family Resource Center (CNFRC) and the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office, a CNFRC news release stated.
Recipients lined up outside CNFRC, located on West Main Street, on Thursday to receive their gift cards.
CNFRC provided 200 gift cards, while the ICSO provided 40. All the gift cards were provided in partnership with the GSWC.
For its 200 recipients, CNFRC identified low-income and migrant families throughout the Calipatria Unified School District, as well as senior citizens and homeless individuals in the community.
Each of these recipients received Vons turkey gift cards (A total of $2,400 worth) and a state-issued emergency food box.
To its 40 recipients, the Sheriff’s Office gave Food-4-Less turkey gift cards, as well as gift baskets.
The baskets contained a box of a dozen of cookies, and a loaf of special holiday quick bread, the news release stated.
The gift baskets were courtesy of Golden State Water; Gaylla Finnell, who is the program coordinator for Imperial Valley College and ICSO’s Inside/Out student program, and students in the Inside/Out program.
“Many of these families would not have been able to purchase a turkey to enjoy during the Thanksgiving holiday without the donations received from the Golden State Water and IVC students,” CNFRC stated in the release. “On behalf of our Calipatria Unified School District and northend community, we extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to everyone that helped make this a special way of giving back to our less fortunate families.”