By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Thornton Gorham has helped feed a lot of people during the Christmas season over the years through his association with the Washington Community Care Coalition.
This year, the number of applications from people seeking food distributed by the coalition was higher than usual, he said.
“I have had a whole lot more. My list filled up two weeks ago,” Gorham said Saturday as he supervised the distribution of 133 boxes filled with food and 75 fruit baskets. “People out there today (Saturday) want to sign up.”
The Washington Housing Authority’s office on West Ninth Street served as the distribution center for the coalition’s food-distribution program, which required about 20 volunteers this year. Among those volunteers was Mark Recko, executive director of the housing authority, who helped fill boxes with food Friday night and carried boxes of food to recipients’ cars Saturday.
“This is a great thing,” Recko said.
Fundraising projects and donations provided the money to buy the food, Gorham said. Most of the donations came from businesses and individuals, with a few churches also making contributions, he said. After picking up boxes filled with items such as canned goods, collards, bags of potatoes, boxes of macaroni and cheese, flour and cooking oil inside the WHA office, recipients also picked up hams, chickens and bacon from a truck parked in front of the WHA office.
“I love it. It’s so nice to help those in need. You get joy from helping those who cannot help themselves,” said Coley Moore, a WHA employee who helped with the food distribution for his first time Saturday. “There’s a lot of folks out here who are in need.”
Florence Lodge, a veteran of the coalition’s food-distribution program, said the program is well-supported by the community.
“It makes me feel good when we do this. We’ve been doing it for about 27 years,” Lodge said Saturday morning as recipients lined a hallway in the WHA office to await distribution of the boxes filled with food.