Holiday Programs | ECHO – Ecumenical Community Helping Others

Thanksgiving and Christmas Meals

The Holiday Meal Program provides groceries or gift cards suitable for making a festive meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 300 or more local families for each Holiday are invited to receive this opportunity. To achieve this, ECHO connects willing donors directly with needy families.

There are two options for donating, either shopping and delivering food in person, or buying and mailing a gift card.

The program works like this for donors who wish to deliver their food in person:

Send an e-mail to holidayfoodprograms@echo-inc.org asking for a family to assist
Receive contact information about a family: ages of children, cultural background, etc
Get a list of suggested foods to include, if desired
Contact the family to arrange delivery date/time
Shop for appropriate groceries
Deliver the food at least one week before the holiday

For donors and business sponsors who prefer not to choose groceries and deliver them, you may:

- Contact ECHO by e-mail to holidayfoodprograms@echo-inc.org to get contact information and size of the client family
- Find out the closest food store to the client’s address (transportation is sometimes a problem for needy families)
- Purchase food store gift cards in an appropriate amount for the family size (ECHO suggests at least $65 for a family of four plus $10 for each additional member, not including infants)
- Mail the gift cards to the family to arrive at least 10 days before the holiday, giving them time to shop and prepare the meal

Holiday Gift Shop

It is that time of year again to prepare for ECHO’s Holiday Gift Shop! ECHO collects new toys for children aged 0 to 15 and displays them in a cheerfully decorated, store-like setting. ECHO clients who participate in this program come in by appointment to choose appropriate gifts for their children from our “store.”
Donors can help with this happy program by donating new children’s toys or teen gifts (not gift-wrapped, please) no later than FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6th. Donations can be delivered to our donation door (door #6) weekdays between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm, or Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings between 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm. We are making available once again the Wishlist on Amazon ECHO Wishlist. You can shop from this list, or select from the below list of popular items we hope to make available for the children.

Any questions, please contact the Holiday Shop Co-Chairs at ECHOHOLIDAYSHOP@gmail.com.