Wednesday, December 9

When I arrived – about the time for fruit basket packing – the grocery boxes were already packed.

This is what goes inside one large grocery box:

dinner rolls, 3 cans canned corn, spaghetti sauce, 2 cans turkey gravy, 2 boxes stovetop stuffing, pancake syrup, brownie mix, icing, 3 lbs. potatoes, peanut butter, 1 lb. butter, 1 lb. American cheese, 1 lb. quick oats, flour, brown sugar, napkins, tissues, Christmas cookies, dinner ham, 3 cans green beans, spaghetti, parmesan cheese, 2 cans cranberry sauce, pancake mix, 2 boxes mac & cheese, cake mix, hot chocolate, applesauce, jelly, 1 dozen eggs, 1 lb. rice, chocolate chips, sugar, paper plates, paper towels, dish soap, fresh fruit.

The fruit basket items were set out for packing.

Prep work was done by the committee: Kim, Karen, and…

…Joanna

This is the list of fruit they bought:

345 grapefruit

465 naval oranges

465 tangerines

440 bananas

60 pears

235 red delicious apples

235 yellow delicious apples

120 lb. grapes.

There were several other things included in fruit baskets.

Bows waiting to go on top of the finished baskets.

Fruit basket containers ready to be filled.

Cookies for the packers.

Fruit basket packers

Karen wrapping a finished container.

There were also poinsettias – 24 of them.

By the time the basket packing was finished and ready for pickup, they had packed:

111 half peck fruit boxes

28 one peck fruit boxes

30 grocery boxes

The committee receives names of those who should receive these items from people in the church.

After the list is put together, it is passed around the adult Sunday school classes where we sign up to deliver one or more containers.

Cerwin and I delivered a poinsettia to a neighbor (I think it was probably a thank you gift for being a cleaning coordinator at church) and a food box to a neighbor – whose name we gave because his wife died a few weeks ago. It was rewarding to visit with him and hear a bit about his experience during her illness.

He said, “I don’t have enough words to thank the people at your church for this box of groceries.”

~~~

Another Christmas activity at church is done by the youth group. We have two large mailboxes at church where we can place Christmas cards for those in our church family. They sorted the cards last week and placed them in gift bags. We picked them up this past Sunday. They sorted 8,367 cards saving the people of our church $3,263.13 in postage.