Holiday meals delivered
December 24, 2007
Hello friends and Merry Christmas, Happy belated Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy 2008!
We hope that this finds you well and hopefully spending quality time with friends and loved-ones. So far for all of us involved with ROSA LOVES, it's been a season of many blessings. Many people have responded to what ROSA LOVES is doing and got involved by purchasing a ROSA LOVES T-shirt as a gift this month. We are nearly sold out of every style, and will be able to meet many of the needs almost all of our stories! The 2007 Holiday Meals Tee, which raised funds to provide ten local families with good holiday meals, sold out in just three weeks! This past Thursday, ROSA LOVES delivered those meals and wanted to share with you just how we did it.
We would like to keep the names of the families that were helped anonymous. The families that we chosen were all connected to people that us at ROSA LOVES have previous existing relationships with, whether through our church, mentor programs or through other close friends. Once we identified the ten families that were in need, we collected the money that was raised from the Holiday Meal tee and purchased all of the goods:
1.) COOKIES
What would a well-rounded holiday meal be without a hand-full of homemade cookies? ROSA LOVES' inventory manager, Mary Joy, baked up some tasty ones for the gift bags, and graced everyone with her cooking skills!
2.) CLEMENTINES
Who doesn't enjoy clementines? The holiday gift bag included a nice bunch of these tasty fruits which were hard to keep our hands off of.
3.) $150 SUPERMARKET GIFT CARD
After some debates on how we should go about providing meals or where to buy them from, we came to realization that it would be best to buy gift cards from a local grocery store for those we were helping. Rather than cooking a meal or delivery a turkey per se, we decided that it was best to provide a gift card for a few important reasons.
1.) What if the recipients prefer to have something specific for their family's holiday meal? Perhaps that family cooks a traditional meal every year. Maybe the family wishes to buy food that they normally couldn't afford.
2.) We didn't want to take the risk of spoiling the food if we purchased and delivered it too early.
3.) Most of all, we thought it was important for the recipients to have the choice to pick out what they wanted to cook for their family. What we realized was that many of these families live in poverty, and do not have the liberty to choose much at all. Many of their options are limited if not nonexistent in some cases. We thought that giving them a gift card, as opposed to making them a meal, empowered them, blessed them, and encouraged them by giving them options to choose from.
4.) PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINERS
Another essential included in the gift bag were an assortment of plastic food containers. The reason we included these was to encourage saving left-overs for the following days after the meal.
5.) $15 CASH
Like we explained earlier, many of the recipients live in poverty without many options to choose from. Since they work at low income, unskilled jobs, there are not many opportunities for them to make a truly livable wage. A high percentage of them do not own a vehicle, and with a poor public transportation system in St. Augustine— many of them rely on taxis or riding a bicycle for their transportation. We realized that in order for them to get to the grocery store, they would need to take a taxi. That's why we included the $15. We learned that a one way ticket to the grocery store from where most of the recipients live costs around $6. So for $15, we figured that it'd be more than enough to get them over to the grocery store and possibly even somewhere else if they needed to.
It was great to see and hear how much of a blessing it was for all who were helped in this initiative. Ten families in St. Augustine are now able to share a great meal with their loved ones who perhaps may have not been able to before this T-shirt was created. Thank you so much to our local sponsors, Troika Studios, Panache Salon & Spa, and JP Henley's. Thank you especially to all of you who supported this story and purchased a shirt! Blessings to you and those you love on this holiday season and Happy 2008! Check back with the website soon for new stories and shirts!
Posted by: MikeWe hope that this finds you well and hopefully spending quality time with friends and loved-ones. So far for all of us involved with ROSA LOVES, it's been a season of many blessings. Many people have responded to what ROSA LOVES is doing and got involved by purchasing a ROSA LOVES T-shirt as a gift this month. We are nearly sold out of every style, and will be able to meet many of the needs almost all of our stories! The 2007 Holiday Meals Tee, which raised funds to provide ten local families with good holiday meals, sold out in just three weeks! This past Thursday, ROSA LOVES delivered those meals and wanted to share with you just how we did it.
We would like to keep the names of the families that were helped anonymous. The families that we chosen were all connected to people that us at ROSA LOVES have previous existing relationships with, whether through our church, mentor programs or through other close friends. Once we identified the ten families that were in need, we collected the money that was raised from the Holiday Meal tee and purchased all of the goods:
1.) COOKIES
What would a well-rounded holiday meal be without a hand-full of homemade cookies? ROSA LOVES' inventory manager, Mary Joy, baked up some tasty ones for the gift bags, and graced everyone with her cooking skills!
2.) CLEMENTINES
Who doesn't enjoy clementines? The holiday gift bag included a nice bunch of these tasty fruits which were hard to keep our hands off of.
3.) $150 SUPERMARKET GIFT CARD
After some debates on how we should go about providing meals or where to buy them from, we came to realization that it would be best to buy gift cards from a local grocery store for those we were helping. Rather than cooking a meal or delivery a turkey per se, we decided that it was best to provide a gift card for a few important reasons.
1.) What if the recipients prefer to have something specific for their family's holiday meal? Perhaps that family cooks a traditional meal every year. Maybe the family wishes to buy food that they normally couldn't afford.
2.) We didn't want to take the risk of spoiling the food if we purchased and delivered it too early.
3.) Most of all, we thought it was important for the recipients to have the choice to pick out what they wanted to cook for their family. What we realized was that many of these families live in poverty, and do not have the liberty to choose much at all. Many of their options are limited if not nonexistent in some cases. We thought that giving them a gift card, as opposed to making them a meal, empowered them, blessed them, and encouraged them by giving them options to choose from.
4.) PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINERS
Another essential included in the gift bag were an assortment of plastic food containers. The reason we included these was to encourage saving left-overs for the following days after the meal.
5.) $15 CASH
Like we explained earlier, many of the recipients live in poverty without many options to choose from. Since they work at low income, unskilled jobs, there are not many opportunities for them to make a truly livable wage. A high percentage of them do not own a vehicle, and with a poor public transportation system in St. Augustine— many of them rely on taxis or riding a bicycle for their transportation. We realized that in order for them to get to the grocery store, they would need to take a taxi. That's why we included the $15. We learned that a one way ticket to the grocery store from where most of the recipients live costs around $6. So for $15, we figured that it'd be more than enough to get them over to the grocery store and possibly even somewhere else if they needed to.
It was great to see and hear how much of a blessing it was for all who were helped in this initiative. Ten families in St. Augustine are now able to share a great meal with their loved ones who perhaps may have not been able to before this T-shirt was created. Thank you so much to our local sponsors, Troika Studios, Panache Salon & Spa, and JP Henley's. Thank you especially to all of you who supported this story and purchased a shirt! Blessings to you and those you love on this holiday season and Happy 2008! Check back with the website soon for new stories and shirts!
2007 Holiday Meals
