Christmas food baskets program accepting applications until Friday

Lynzie Lowe, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·3 min read

Nov. 8—The deadline for local families in need to apply for this year's Colusa County Christmas food basket program, facilitated by the Ministerial Association of Colusa County, is Friday.

Jason McMullan, executive director of the Ministerial Association of Colusa County, said the association has the privilege of overseeing this year's Christmas food basket program for Colusa County. For the past two years and, last year alone, the program provided 721 families with food baskets during the holidays.

"This year, we are continuing our approach of providing food baskets at churches in each city and community in Colusa County, in order to expand access," said McMullan. "With critical assistance programs not fully covering needs this season, coupled with inflated prices on the cost of goods, we are expecting an even greater need this year. Therefore, we are collecting both food and monetary donations, in order to match or surpass last year's efforts."

According to McMullan, the food that will be stocked in this year's baskets will come from several sources, including local grocery stores — Sav-Mor and Grocery Outlet, partnering food banks, and donations from larger regional grocers, such as Wal-Mart.

"We will also continue to coordinate the canned food drive at our local schools, who will collect non-perishable goods, and bring them to their local distributing church for sorting," said McMullan. "The food that schools donate will go to directly support their local community."

In previous years, McMullan said each Christmas food basket typically came with a ham, flour, sugar, butter, milk, bread, peanut butter, oatmeal, fresh potatoes, onions, apples, oranges and various canned vegetables and soups.

"Overall, each basket contains about 60 pounds of food," said McMullan.

Applications are available in both English and Spanish for families interested in applying and can be found online at www.colusamacc.org. Paper applications are also available by request for those that do not have an email address at the Ministerial Association of Colusa County office.

"We are highly encouraging families to complete their application online and welcome case workers to offer families to complete the online application for them, when meeting them in-person," said McMullan.

All applications are due by Friday.

According to McMullan, the ministerial association expects to see the greatest need yet this year and, since this year's program is entirely funded by the community's generosity, the association is seeking volunteers and donations at this time.

"The amount of families we can approve for a food basket will rely on the amount of donations we can raise," said McMullan.

McMullan said those that are interested in volunteering or donating to MACC should visit the organization's website. Monetary donations and paper applications can also be sent to: Ministerial Association of Colusa County, P.O. Box 674, Colusa, CA 95932.

"Thank you for helping us expand our reach as we provide for neighbors in need of a blessing, just in time for the holidays (and) for helping us ensure that each family that needs food, receives it," said McMullan.

For more information about the Ministerial Association of Colusa County or the food baskets program, call 530-419-9584 or visit www.colusamacc.org.