Every November, YMCA Adventure Guide families’ team up to build Thanksgiving meal boxes to donate to low-income families in the Y’s Grant-funded Afterschool program. Y staff from both Adventure Guides and Afterschool Grant-funded care facilitate the inter-program giving by personally loading the boxes into their vans for delivery to the 6 afterschool sites.
Audrey Voss, Youth and Family Outreach Director at South Valley Family YMCA, describes the giving experience, “It’s been a great way to give back right in your own backyard and it fosters sense of connection. I know the kids decorating the boxes feel like they were part of a family’s Thanksgiving that they never even met and they love that.”
In 2016, Adventure Guides families pulled together 60 boxes to share with those less fortunate. Last year in 2017, South Valley’s Adventure Guides made 80 boxes. This year, 109 meal boxes were created, more than any year yet.
The continued generosity within the Y community allows more and more families to benefit from the rewards of giving and receiving Thanksgiving Boxes each year.
