2020 Lenten Food Bag Donations
Please consider participating in these two opportunities for giving this Lent.
In response to Bishop Gutierrez’s call to celebrate 5 sacred days, St. Matthew’s is joining several other deanery members at Church of the Advent in Hatboro for a “Day of Feeding” event. The event will consist of collecting certain food items and then building H.A.T. (helping around town) packs on April 19th .
H.A.T. Packs is a ministry serving food insecure school-age children and younger siblings. It was founded by 3 local women in response to reports that some children in our school district who enrolled in the subsided or free lunch program were saving some of Friday’s food for consumption on the weekend. This gave rise to the question, “What happens to these vulnerable children on weekends?”
In January 2018, H.A.T. packs began providing a bag of food with 2 days of breakfast, lunch and snack items to food-insecure children at one elementary school in the district. Over the past 2 years, the program has grown to provide weekend food packs to over 250 children in all schools within the Hatboro Horsham school district. A summer meal program has also been added.
Please consider donating any of the following items: Single service cereal Boxes, Juice boxes, oatmeal packets, single-serve shelf-stable milk, microwave meal kits, tuna or chicken salad kits, chef Boyardee pasta meals, Kraft Easy Mac packets, Chicken noodle cup of soup, Beef stew, snack cracker packs, fruit or applesauce cups, pudding snack packs, snack-size pretzels.
To download a flyer with details and a complete list of needed items, please click here.
In conjunction with our participation in the Day of Feeding noted above, this year we would like to collect food items that will be placed in the H.A.T. packs assembled on April 19. We ask that you fill bags that you have available to you (paper, plastic, etc.). The bags must be returned by Easter Sunday, April 12, or any week prior. Please note that the H.A.T. packs require specific food items.
The organization, Concerned Parents Inc., that we have worked with for many years for Lenten grocery bags is no longer able to accept food donations, BUT they DO still need gift cards to the stores where their families shop. If you would like to continue to support this ministry, gift cards from Aldi, or ShopRite are needed. Please drop them in the offering basket or church office.
The final day for both of these collections is April 12th . If you want to help build H.A.T. Packs at Church of the Advent, Hatboro on Sunday April 19th 1-3PM, please contact Tim Walsh, 215-380-1749 or tmwmstr@comcast.net
UPDATE: Due to COVID-19 concerns, the “Day of Feeding” event with H.A.T. Packs scheduled for April 19th has been canceled. Any donated food will be provided to them for immediate usage.