2009 Holiday Highlights at Hope Ministries

On Thanksgiving we set a record and on Christmas ... well, you might say the weather set a record! Keep reading for highlights of our 2009 Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations at Hope Ministries:

Thanksgiving 2009: This year we served a whopping 2,125 meals on Thanksgiving Day, surpassing last year’s record of 1,906. These meals were served both on-site at our Hope Café and delivered to the elderly, homebound and low-income families throughout the Des Moines area.

In addition to serving and delivering a record number of meals, we also had a record number of volunteers helping us on Thanksgiving Day. A total of 189 volunteers came out on Thanksgiving to help us, logging a total of 689 volunteer hours. We’re so thankful to our volunteers and to the many, many people who dropped off food donations for our turkey dinner on the day before Thanksgiving. Thank you, thank you!

Click here to see photos of our Thanksgiving meal and celebration.

Christmas 2009: Well, we had anticipated serving well over 2,000 meals again this Christmas, but a holiday storm interrupted our plans ... though it didn’t bring things completely to a halt.

While we were unable to deliver meals due to dangerous weather, we were still able to serve our Christmas meal on-site to those who braved the storm to come to Hope Café. Each guest who came took home a quilt, ham and pie. A few volunteers were able to come for the day as well.

On a normal Christmas, we also give away donated toys to children of all ages as well as Quilts of Hope and Hope boxes—all donated—which include food and hygiene items. Those who were able to join us on-site were given gifts. As for the rest of our toys, quilts and Hope boxes ...

We were pleased to be able to join together with Refugee Cooperative Services, a collaboration between Lutheran Refugee Services and Catholic Charities Refugee Services, to help some of the most vulnerable members of our community—refugees from countries around the world.

On Wednesday, December 30, we delivered the following items to Refugee Cooperative Services in Des Moines:

• 1,000 toys for children age 12 and under
• Over 1,000 winter coats and other winter wear items
• 450 Hope boxes full of food, hygiene items and other basic necessities
• Over 1,000 quilts

Hope Ministries’ mission statement speaks of our goal to help those in need of hope. And one of our core values is: We value all people. Refugee Cooperative Services fits into both our mission statement and our core values and thus, we were honored to be able to supplement their services through these donations. The donations will enhance Refugee Cooperative Services’ efforts to help new refugees as well as their ongoing work with the estimated 1,000 people they have helped resettle in the past three years here in Des Moines.

The takeaway from this year’s Christmas experience at Hope Ministries? God works all things for His good. Not even a winter storm was able to stop the spreading of His love to those in need in our community! We’re thankful to the volunteers and donors who helped make our Christmas Day of Hope possible.

Click here to see photos of our Christmas meal and celebration.

A look at 2010: Planning is already underway for our special Easter meal! Easter this year falls on April 4. We will begin registering volunteers for more than 100 volunteer positions in mid-February. Registration for Thanksgiving and Christmas volunteering begins in October.