Food basket program delivers holiday meals in Colusa County

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

Dec. 25—For the second year in a row, the Colusa County Ministerial Association (MACC) facilitated the annual Christmas food basket program last week to provide food to more than 4,000 Colusa County residents in need this holiday season.

Jason McMullan, president of the Ministerial Association of Colusa County, said each Christmas food basket comes 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.

McMullan said the Christmas food baskets program is usually facilitated by the Colusa Food Basket Association and with the assistance of many volunteers, but last year the Association determined that they could not collect canned foods and organize their normal centralized holiday food program due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Instead, they asked the Ministerial Association if we would oversee it, through our food distribution sites throughout the county," said McMullan. "We were up for the task, and saw to it that we reached more families in communities that usually found it more difficult to come down to the fairgrounds to receive food for the holidays."

In addition to assistance from the Colusa Food Basket Association, McMullan said there was a robust effort from each participating church and more than 130 volunteers from faith communities, local 4-H clubs, Veterans of Foriegn Wars posts and other community organizations to assist with food collection, packing and distribution.

McMullan said the Ministerial Association is firm in its belief that each church knows its community best, and so each church distributed the food baskets when it could reach families the best in its respective community. Baskets were distributed between December 14-17, according to McMullan.

"We provided 700 baskets throughout the county, with a reach of 4,211 individuals," said McMullan.

He said MACC is a nonprofit that was formed by over 20 ministers and their churches in Colusa County to address the needs of their neighbors across the communities of Colusa County.

"We provide assistance to families and individuals through food distributions, clothing closets, housing stabilization and transportation assistance," said McMullan. "We also provide telehealth and community health services throughout the county."

McMullan said local churches have been facilitating monthly food distributions for the last 10-15 years but, as an association, they were able to expand their efforts to several Colusa County communities last year in light of the pandemic.

McMullan said those that are interested in volunteering or donating to MACC should visit the organization's website. Monetary donations can also be sent to: Ministerial Association of Colusa County, C/O Treasurer John Vafis, 53 Walnut Tree Road, Colusa, CA 95932.

"While our Christmas baskets is the largest amount of food we give away at once, we are always in need of monetary donations throughout the year, to make an impact in our county," said McMullan. "Each dollar received is not only tax deductible, but is used entirely for the needs of our neighbors in our county."

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