Volunteer on Thanksgiving With God's Love We Deliver

Every year God's Love cooks and delivers special holiday feasts for their clients, their families and a guest. This year, God's Love will work with over 900 volunteers to cook and deliver more than 3,000 special holiday feasts. And they are currently seeking volunteers to deliver meals on Thanksgiving morning, November 27.

"Thanksgiving is a very special day at God's Love," said Steven Marion, Director of Special Events and Volunteer Services. "It's a beautiful thing to watch our community come together in celebration, to help their neighbors in need, and to spread holiday cheer!"

God's Love We Deliver needs volunteers to help deliver Thanksgiving feasts to their clients, their families and guests. It's a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season and a great way to give back! In addition to delivering holiday meals, volunteers will deliver a special Thanksgiving basket filled with holiday treats.

About 100 volunteers got together on November 16 to build 2,400 Thanksgiving baskets filled with nuts, raisins, hot chocolate, crackers, jam and more, donated by Justin's and Pretzel Crisps.

The organization raised the funds to provide healthy Thanksgiving meals to these clients via their November 23 Race to Deliver, a fundraising foot race in Central Park. The four-mile race annually occurs one week before Thanksgiving, when food and family are foremost on everyone's mind.

"Often on Thanksgiving our clients find themselves feeling a little blue, and so it's great that all of the money we raise goes toward bringing them a traditional Thanksgiving feast and a guest meal so they can invite someone for the holiday and not be alone," said God's Love president and CEO Karen Pearl.

A nourishing meal, shared with friends and family, is a holiday tradition that makes the season special. But for many, the holidays can be a difficult, lonely time. God's Love cooks and delivers special Thanksgiving meals for all their clients, who are living with severe illnesses and too sick to shop or cook for themselves. God's Love also cooks and delivers special holiday meals for the children of clients as well as their caregivers. And so that no person has to spend the holiday alone, God's Love also offers guest meals to every client.

This Thanksgiving, God's Love We Deliver is asking everyone to "Celebrate With a Plate" by sponsoring a holiday meal for a client. Supporters can sponsor one or more holiday meals for $10 each. To sponsor a meal, click here.

"The holidays are always a wonderful time of year at God's Love," said David Ludwigson, Chief Development Officer at God's Love We Deliver. "This year we will cook and deliver more than 3,000 Thanksgiving meals to our clients, their children and caregivers, and a guest meal so they can invite a friend or family member to spend the holiday with them. 'Celebrate with a Plate' is a great way to get people involved on Thanksgiving and make it the special day it is."

Every year, God's Love receives calls from clients who express their thanks for the Thanksgiving meals they receive. Their client Terry, a dialysis patient, told them, "Today was Thanksgiving and, right on time, my doorbell rang and I was treated not only to a delicious turkey dinner (and I really mean delicious!) but a basket full of treats! What a surprise. You went the extra mile to make me feel special. Thank you so very much."

God's Love is the New York metropolitan area's leading provider of life-sustaining meals and nutritional counseling for people living with severe illnesses. Begun as an HIV/AIDS service organization, today God's Love provides for people living with more than 200 individual diagnoses. God's Love cooks and home-delivers the specific, nutritious meals a client's severe illness and treatment so urgently require. Meals are individually tailored for each client by a team of Registered Dietitians, and all clients have access to unlimited nutrition counseling.

God's Love supports families by providing meals for the children and senior caregivers of its clients. All of the agency's services are provided free of charge, and in its history of more than 29 years, God's Love We Deliver has never had a waiting list. God's Love is a non-sectarian organization.

For more information on Thanksgiving volunteering, please visit www.glwd.org/thanksgiving or email [email protected]