A Local Food Bank Still Needs Help For Christmas Holiday Weekend

COACHELLA – As Christmas approaches, the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission still needs a little bit of your help, so that everyone can have a merry one.

“It’s Christmas and people are hungry and if I have the ability to I might as well help,” says Katie White who donated food.

They expect nearly 3,000 people during the Christmas holiday weekend, and will be passing out more food boxes and hot meals to families compared to the year before. Director Sue Meyers says anything will help, but they especially need utensils and food for the Christmas day breakfast meal they plan to serve that morning.

“Anything going with ham, that’d be yams, potatoes, mashed potatoes, spiral hams, things like that, drink mixes,” Meyers says.

Local business Retrotel delivered a truck full of toys, after they heard about a shortage earlier this month.

“We called a couple of people that we know, we made a contribution ourselves and then we went to Walmart. They really helped us put together five-hundred twenty-six toys to drop off in this effort,” Retrotel CEO Brian Sonderman said.

The toys will be passed out to families with children on Christmas Eve and during Christmas Day meals. The rescue mission says this help is especially needed during the tough times when more and more people are in trouble.

“We’re seeing that more and more people that are..have gotten their hours cut or maybe the spouse lost their job and they just don’t have enough right now,” Meyers says.

Coachella Valley Rescue Mission officials tell us that the donations they get now are also used in the coming months, so they need all they can get since donations are typically lower in the beginning of the new year.