HELPING HANDS
OPERATION HOLIDAY
Each year, Operation Holiday calls upon the generosity of newspaper readers to contribute toward our efforts to provide meals and gifts for needy families on Christmas.
But what about the other 364 days of the year?
Families have to eat every day, and that’s where many of our Operation Holiday partners step up.
And like most nonprofit agencies whose purpose is to help those who need it, they would be tremendously less effective without an army of willing volunteers.
So this year, we asked our partners to help us shine a spotlight on some of those volunteers who make a difference all year long.
Spreading opportunity
Terry Brunstetter has been volunteering at Keystone Opportunity Center in Souderton for six or seven years.
The multifaceted organization provided 486,613 pounds of food to the needy in 2022, a 10% increase over the previous year. It also helped secure housing for 86 households and provided $71,985 in direct financial assistance for rent, utilities, gas, car repairs and other needs, according to its website.
Brunsetter, a Vietnam veteran who has been retired for three years, is mostly involved in the food pantry operation. He first became familiar with the agency when he needed it himself to put food on the table.
Now, on a typical Tuesday, he will pack as many as 260 boxes of food for needy families.
“I love it,” Brunstetter said. “You get to meet people you know you’ve helped out. It’s a great feeling. I’ll keep doing it as long as they let me.”
Working together
Ranfy Martinez said it’s not only the people he helps that keeps him volunteering two to four hours once a month at Helping Harvest in Berks County, it’s the other volunteers.
“I like to meet the other volunteers,” he said. “They are the type of people I want to be around, the type of people I want to spend my time with.”
Helping Harvest supplies more than 9 million pounds of food a year to the charitable food assistance programs — food pantries, meal programs, emergency shelter, after-school programs, senior centers and Mobile Markets — that feed the hungry, according to its website.
“I like it, it’s local and I passed it every day on the way to work,” Martinez said.
Fast and efficient
Art Skaroff began volunteering with the Patrician Society in Norristown in June.
Since 1981, “the Patrician Society has provided help for elderly people on fixed incomes, homeless persons, parents who receive public assistance while caring for children, residents of boarding homes, recently unemployed and underemployed family breadwinners and others in need,” according to its website.
Skaroff said he just retired from a job at an auto repair shop in Norristown and he’s known about the Patrician Society for years.
“It’s really an amazing operation,” he said. “It’s so sophisticated, so efficient. They can take care of 120 clients in just two hours.”
His duties include packing up specific bags for specific families, which are planned out ahead of time.
“After my first day, I said, ‘I want this job,’” he said. “I like that it’s very physical. Lifting bags of groceries for two hours, it’s better than going to the gym.
“I don’t see the clients when I’m there, but I’ve watched the staff deal with them and I’m impressed by how much respect they show them. They are treated with courtesy. Nobody is made to feel like a lesser person.”
Retiring to volunteer
When she worked for the former National Penn Bank Mary Bossard performed community service at Helping Harvest while still being paid by the bank.
Now that she’s retired and living in the Phoebe Berks retirement community in Wernersville, the 76-year-old is still volunteering there on the Mobile Market distribution truck at sites like Robeson Township, Wernersville and Bernville.
She said the other volunteers are very enthusiastic.
“They’re mostly retired people like me,” she said.
In 2022, Helping Harvest’s Mobile Market program provided 1,746,431 pounds of healthy food to feed families in need in Berks and Schuylkill counties.
Bossard said it takes about three hours at each stop to distribute food to the people who come for it.
“We put the food out on the tables and the cars come past,” she said, adding that she also keeps a supply of dog biscuits for those cars that have a canine passenger.
“We have food for children, for the elderly,” Bossard said. “We give food to everybody.”
Operation Holiday’s mission
The volunteers and the staff at Operation Holiday’s 19 partner agencies exemplify the community spirit of lending a helping hand to neighbors going through tough times.
Now in its 33rd year, Operation Holiday has distributed more than $1 million worth of food and gift cards to thousands of families in Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties. The program began in 1991 at The Mercury in Pottstown to help families going through tough times provide something for their children during the holidays.
The mission of the program is to make sure there is food on the table and gifts under the tree when Christmas morning comes. The focus has always been on children, and the nonprofit foundation that operates the program limits its reach to families with children.
Fundraising and distribution remains within the local communities served by the newspapers The Mercury, The Times Herald, Daily Local News, The Reporter and Reading Eagle.
There is no overhead with Operation Holiday and all funds stay local. Funds are collected and audited in a nonprofit foundation account managed by staff of MediaNews Group who volunteer their time.
Gift cards to area grocery stores are provided to each family for food so they can purchase the fixings for a holiday dinner as well as staples for the pantry. Weis Markets is a partner with Operation Holiday and has assisted with food purchases and gift cards.
Gift cards for every child in the program 16 years old or younger are purchased through Boscov’s and distributed in partnership with the referring agencies so families can purchase gifts of their choice.
This year’s fundraising has so far given 165 families with 419 children gift cards for gifts and food, $100 per child for gifts and $200 per family for food. The gift cards were distributed in time for parents to do their own shopping and have the dignity of providing for their families.
As fundraising continues, the total stands at $73,940.
Last year’s program raised more than $91,000 and provided food and gifts for 451 children and 199 families, plus cash donations to food pantries in the tricounty area.
Operation Holiday is funded solely by reader contributions. All contributions are tax-deductible. Contributions will continue to be accepted and donations to food pantries will be made in January based on the total amount received.
How to donate
Online donations are being accepted in a secure portal in partnership with TriCounty Community Network. Visit tcnetwork.org and click on the link for Operation Holiday.
Contributions can be mailed with checks payable to Operation Holiday to P.O. Box 1181, Pottstown PA 19464; The Reporter, 307 Derstine Ave., Lansdale PA 19446; Operation Holiday, 1440 Lacrosse Ave., Reading, PA 19607.
The names of all contributors are published in the participating newspapers as donations are received. Please note whether a contribution should be designated as anonymous or given in tribute or in memory of someone.