With the holiday season right around the corner, Madison’s Goodman Community Center is busy this week with final preparations for its biggest event of the year: giving Thanksgiving grocery baskets to more than 4,000 families. While Thanksgiving is just a week away, donations of food and money are still needed by Friday, Nov. 22, to fill all of the baskets.
“Now is the time when we really need for everyone in the community to pitch in,” said Francesca Frisque, the nonprofit’s food pantry assistant director. “We’ve been contacted by many generous families, community groups, and businesses around town who are arranging donations and food drives, but it won’t be enough to meet our goal. We need more people to donate food directly or donate funds we can use to go buy the food.”
For 36 years, the Goodman Community Center has provided families from across Dane County with everything they need to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal at home, a feast made possible through the generosity of donors, corporate sponsors, and volunteers from across the community. This year, the center saw unprecedented need for the baskets and was forced to close registration after only 24 hours.
“People are struggling with so many things these days,” said Goodman Community Center CEO Letesha Nelson. “Just imagine being the father working two jobs and still unable to put a Thanksgiving dinner on the table for his family or being the grandmother knowing her grandbabies are going to have the same food on Thanksgiving as they had the day before because that’s all she can afford. That cuts deep. It robs people of their dignity, of family memories, of the things that make the hard times easier. I’ve talked to our recipients, and I know how much these baskets mean to each of the families who receive them.
“I’m deeply thankful for all of the people and businesses who are stepping up and giving what they can to put food on those tables — the need is great, but the generosity of our community is greater still.”
The Goodman Center updates a Canned Food Countdown with how many of each grocery item are still needed on its website, goodmancenter.org, as well as its Facebook and Instagram accounts. Community members who would like to donate food are encouraged to check those lists before donating to see what is still needed.
Food donations can be dropped off at the Goodman Community Center gym, 149 Waubesa St., from now until Friday from 10 a.m.–7 p.m.
Those who can’t drop off food are encouraged to make a financial gift online atgoodmancenter.org/donate. The center will shop for last-minute needs as well as perishable items like butter later in the week.
Volunteers will sort donations on Wednesday and Thursday in the Goodman gym, and on Friday will start to assemble bags even as donation deliveries continue. Beginning on Saturday, volunteers will begin distributing baskets to recipients’ cars on one side of the building as donations keep coming in on the other side, and distribution will continue in days following until all 4,000 baskets are handed out.
