With 5 kids, lost job and rent due, holiday hopes dim for this family
Imagine having five kids, a boy age 17 and four girls ages 16, 15, 13 and 12 all under the same roof.
Now imagine that COVID-19 means they don’t leave the house to go to school, but stay home all day, every day.
Now imagine trying to work as a home health aide, and those teens all doing what teens do and calling you all day long complaining about the others.
Layla, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s privacy, doesn’t have to imagine it. It’s her life.
“If something doesn’t change, we’re going to have to move out at the end of December, maybe into a shelter.”
— Layla, Operation Holiday parent
Except for the job part. COVID-19 took care of that too and she no longer has the job she held for five years.
So this single mom has been out of work since September, trying to feed five hungry teens.
“We’ve just been having the worst year,” said Layla. “Ever since the pandemic.”
“We had an agency that helped us with the landlord for a few months, but if something doesn’t change, we’re going to have to move out at the end of December, maybe into a shelter,” Layla said.
The family’s desperate financial situation meant “I didn’t really have anything planned for the kids this year, gift wise. We just can’t afford it,” Layla said.
But thanks to the generosity of our newspaper readers, Operation Holiday is here to lend a hand.
Now in its 30th year, Operation Holiday has provided a brighter holiday season to thousands of families with children throughout the region. Donations from readers last year totaled more than $35,000 and allowed the program to provide food and gifts for 107 families with 325 children in need.
This year, 15 agencies in Montgomery and Chester counties have referred families in need, many of them affected by the devastation of the global pandemic. Stories of families interviewed by our reporters will appear in the newspaper and online between now and Dec. 24.
Also this year, due to the hardship in our communities caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Operation Holiday will make cash donations to local food pantries so that families will have access to food during the winter months.
There is no overhead with Operation Holiday and all funds stay local. Funds are collected and audited in a non-profit foundation account managed by staff of MediaNews Group. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings, the food packaging program will not take place this year. Families instead will be given gift cards for food in addition to the gift cards for gifts.
“Wow, that’s great. Thank you,” said Layla. “Now maybe the kids and I can bake some Christmas cookies too.”
Gift cards for every child in the program 16 years of age or younger are purchased through Boscov’s and distributed in partnership with the referring agencies.
Operation Holiday does not accept families who have not been referred by an agency in order to protect the integrity of the program.
Operation Holiday is funded solely by readers’ contributions. All contributions are tax-deductible.
Contributions can be mailed to The Mercury, Attn: Operation Holiday, PO Box 1181, Pottstown, PA 19464, or The Reporter, 307 Derstine Ave., Lansdale PA 19446. Make checks payable to “Operation Holiday” Online donations are being accepted in a secure portal in partnership with TriCounty Community Network. Visit https://tcnetwork.org/ and click on the link for Operation Holiday.