GIVING AND THANKS
Church spearheads pre-Thanksgiving food basket giveaway with local cops >>
BORDENTOWN CITY » Cancer survivor Kia Bethea expressed gratitude this weekend for more reasons than one.
“I am very appreciative,” Bethea said Saturday after receiving a free hot food basket at Shiloh Baptist Church in Bordentown City. “This is something that is a help to us.”
Bethea, 42, of Hamilton, battled and overcame breast cancer over the past year but recently lost her job and had several deaths in the family, she said. “It’s one thing after another,” said Bethea, a mother who cares for six children, “but we are sustained, and we are doing all right.”
A team of volunteers, including Bordentown City police officers, helped Shiloh Baptist Church host its annual Thanksgiving food basket giveaway on Saturday ahead of Thursday’s big holiday.
“It’s a blessing to be able to give back,” church member and lead organizer Richelle Pierson said. “Giving thanks is our goal. As long as I can give back, that’s a blessing.”
The Elizabeth Street-based church prepared approximately 100 hot meals and distributed them to members of the community, particularly those in need.
Each meal basket contained a Cornish hen, stuffing, string beans, potato salad, yams, cranberry sauce, rolls of bread and cranberry juice. Members of the church and surrounding community donated generously to make the largescale food basket giveaway possible.
With the Bordentown City Police Department contributing to the cause, “It makes us feel great,” Lt. Shaun Lafferty said. “We appreciate the offer to come down and help.”
“I keep saying Bordentown City has the finest police in the world,” Shiloh Baptist Church treasurer and trustee Barb An Reed Sanders said. “We are doing community work. That’s what we are about. Every year it looks like it’s getting bigger and bigger.”
While Shiloh spearheaded the annual event, volunteers from the nearby Union Baptist Church provided some fellowship assistance.
“This is the first time we are participating in the event,” Union Baptist Church minister Rodney Borden said. “I think it’s great the community can come out and we can work together. Especially with the political climate going on, it’s good to see people come together and do something that is especially pleasing to the world.”
Shiloh Baptist Church of Bordentown City has organized annual Thanksgivingstyle food basket giveaways since 2015. The event benefits the needy, elderly, sick and anyone else who may be facing hard times.